PAGBABAGO
Dr. Florangel Rosario Braid
Every now and then, I get invited to write a foreword for a manuscript for publication. This time it was for a poetry anthology. I willingly obliged as I have always regarded poets and poetry as mankind’s lifeline in times of war and peace. In this piece, I raised the question, “Can we ever imagine a world without poets and poetry? I answered my own query with a “No, I can’t,” and I am sure, neither can you. For without poetry, we will have no reason to exist.
I am a “closet poet.” I had written dozens of poems earlier in life but except for three or four, they are still in my files, yellowed with age. I did follow several poets in my early twenties and in fact, had joined David Cortez Medalla’s poetry sessions on A. Mabini during the early fifties. That was the time when as a high school teacher, I dabbled in theater (acting and directing), for both stage and television, took art lessons with Manuel Rodriguez Sr. for several months, published a short story, some essays, and poems.
During the next four decades, however, I had shifted to a different form of communication – research, consultancy, teaching, and advocacy. Now that I am retired, I thought that I should make an effort to revive my love affair with the arts. Which is what I did five years ago when I started working with acrylic, oil, and vermate primarily to express my perception of the realities in our midst. My maestro describes me as an “artivist” as most of my pieces reflect both the manifest and latent maladies in our socio-political scene. Before the curtain drops, I will continue to seek and use art and poetry to express my visions of both the possible and otherwise.
Word Weavers 3, now, the third anthology, is a project under the leadership of two women who had made remarkable contributions in development projects directed to alleviating our marginalized countrymen. Maria Rosa “Bing” Nieva Carrion, PhD. and Jennifer Gordon-Russel, MBE, are multi-awarded poets who have used poetry to “give voice to their advocacies and to express their dreams and aspirations as well as helplessness and frustrations. This anthology on love and life, differs from the previous anthologies in the sense that most of the poems were written in an environment of great uncertainty and instability.
It is within this climate of fear and anxiety that the poets, primarily the founders of the project and their guest writers, find themselves. They realize that in trying to be relevant by reflecting on implications of this crisis, the poet has the responsibility not only to communicate the truth, but also to give hope, to inspire, and to catalyze actions needed to address survival and other development concerns .
I think this is best expressed by the 22-year-old poet laureate of America, Amanda Gorman, when she said that “poetry is the lens we use to interrogate the history we stand on and the future we stand for…. For poetry and language are at the heartbeat of the movement for change.”
Thus, now is the time to demonstrate that even amid the disruptions and seeming helplessness and hopelessness, the poet can play a critical role by illuminating even in the “darkness of nights so that we can still find our way to the light of day.”
Guest poet James Calero expresses the attribute of “sharing pain and passion” that we are linked in unity to one another and even with clouds and rain.” Sarah McCloud sees how the lockdown had inspired “creativity” and the “time” and “brain space” to think, embrace life, and help others” in “Ode to the Sandwich.”
The poet’s role during these uncommon times is to “kindle our spirits, connect us with our fellow human beings on a spiritual level,” so that we are able to empathize and “feel their pain and anguish.”
Thus, the poet does not live in, isolation but with others, helping interpret the world we live in so that we are encouraged to work together in unity towards its preservation.
And finally, Maria Carrion expresses how “words can applaud us humans, avatars of ideals to inspire a kinder world, touch lives, and change us for the better” in “The Seagull” a symbol of strength, freedom, and choice” as it soars in this skies.
Can we ever imagine a world without poets? I don’t think we can. For poetry which is as old as civilization itself will always be with us. For as long as the human being breathes and feels, he needs poetry as he needs food and air. For as long as we need fellow human beings, we need poetry to help us relate to one another, bridge differences, heal conflicts, By creating beauty with words that are able to move and stir the imagination, poetry can be the most important instrument for change.
My e-mail, [email protected]