This issue brings together disparate threads from and into our labyrinth. We live and write and search for our truth, however we conceive it, from different parts of the world, from different entrances, as it were, of the maze. And in the end we do not know if the Minotaur, our death, is also our exit. Or, again, an entry into another adventure or struggle in the quest for ourselves. Some of us look for it in strange lands, having been brought there by our work of days, some of us plunge into the frenzy of days.
Victor “Bimboy” Peñaranda writes from Macedonia, previously from Bhutan, where his development work has brought him. His poems here, mainly coming from his contemplative side, seem to be always trying to “soothe the constant panic of the ephemeral,” as he writes in another poem which will be featured in another issue. He also sent the compelling image from under the old church dome taken by his daughter, Saira. Argee Guevarra sent his poem here while temporarily in prison, this being part of the risks of his trade lawyering for activists like himself. Jose F. Lacaba, one of our foremost poets in Filipino (more of him in the biographical notes and in future issues), sent us two of his old poems in English, dug up from his college files, about two famous paintings, but we reserve those for future issues. We feature here a newer poem of his, in Tagalog, not only to keep in the “mood” of the times, but because its subject bespeaks the reality that constantly confronts us. Pete, as he is called by friends, was one of our best poets in English before he took a personal and political decision to write in our National Language. Maybe a great loss to Filipino writing in English, but no doubt one of the best things that has happened to Filipino poetry in the National Language.
For our online readers I had to translate Argee’s and Pete’s poems. For the inadequacies of transporting one set of realities into another “state of being” in another language, I take sole responsibility.
We have two contributors from our online American friends. We continue with a poem from the batch sent by Maurice Oliver who edits an online magazine similar to ours but richer in experience. The link for Maurice's online mag, Concelebratory Shoehorn Review, is on page 4, under Friends and Places. More from him in the next issues. And for the first time we have on these pages one poem from Aberjhani, one of the most versatile African-American authors writing today, and the founder of the popular Creative Thinkers International website, of which the poets'picturebook editor is a proud member. We will have more from him in the next issues, but visit CTI for very interesting art and discussions from its members, at http://creativethinkersintl.ning.com/.
Our apologies to two contributors whose photos and art we had announced were to appear on these pages. Their contributions have been reserved for the next issue or issues the better to do justice to them with accompanying notes or appropriate poetry.
And, too, about this labyrinth. Poets'picturebook, in its search for the best look, layout and template to be easy on the eyes of its online readership (and to satisfy the meticulous demands of its editor), has gone through two relocations, this being the third. At least the Home Page. Mainly for technical reasons as previously explained ("virgin" templates in fresh blog addresses give one the most leeway to modify or manipulate their elements and appearances, though with limits). Now we have consolidated all our Home Pages, because they continue to be part of our magazine. The two old ones may be accessed through the links on the right column of the present Home Page, under the heading Home Page Archives. Our earliest contributors and readers who may want to see the Home Pages of previous issues may thus use those links. And so all these important locations are just a click away, our own labyrinth easier to navigate, and we're less likely to lose our way.
This online publication was initially conceived, without intending to limit itself, to the contemplation of beauty that frequently manifests in works of art like painting (and other non-visual arts like music and dance), and the more modern medium of photography. What the Greeks have termed ekphrasis. But art itself can only take off, proceed or arise from reality. And the aspect of reality frozen in a painting is virtually the same reality a poet contemplates, with or without art mediating it, when he writes a poem. In the end ekphrasis (from the Greek’s ekphrazein, “to proclaim or call an inanimate object by name,” which is the same as our “expression” in modern English), is simply all the creative process that poetry or art is. Thus, whatever happens in reality—beauty, pain, liberation, the impending fall of a government—is the proper subject of ekphrasis.
& here's one more for Jun Lozada (if he were about to read poetry instead of plunging into the Snakepit)
Poetry Reading
by Anna Swir
I am curled into a ball
like a dog
that is cold.
Who will tell me
why I was born,
why this monstrosity
called life.
The telephone rings. I have to give
a poetry reading.
I enter.
A hundred people, a hundred pairs of eyes.
They look, they wait.
I know for what.
I am supposed to tell them
why they were born,
why there is
this monstrosity called life.
(from the anthology, Book of Luminous Things, edited by Czeslaw Milosz. His compatriot, one of my favorites, Anna Swir, and a whole generation of Polish poets coming out of World War II, being so familiar with danger are so skilled at giving it its own "speech.")
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Bilingual Statement of the Nation's Artists for Truth
IBALIK ANG TOTOO! BRING BACK THE TRUTH!
Statement of Artists and Workers in Culture and the Media
on the Sorry State of the Filipino Nation's Leadership
The role of the artistic community in any society is to mirror life through artful expression of our heritage, vision, and soul. It does so by reflecting the truth as experienced, witnessed and lived in people's everyday lives. To alter or manipulate the reflection of the truth in an artistic work renders the artistic expression void of resonance and meaning. On a larger scale, falsehood also mis-shapes our core values and misrepresents our identities as a people.
Sadly today, our people are experiencing an orchestrated obstruction and manipulation of the truth. As artists and workers in culture and the media, we are appalled by the blatant disregard of our rights of access to the truth and the contemptuous attempt to mislead us from the truth. As the issues of legitimacy, massive corruption, charges of human rights violations and social injustice plaguing the Arroyo government are being unraveled, we are witnessing the unprecedented viciousness in manipulating the truth to subvert the public good.
We view this development with increasing alarm as it threatens the very fiber of our national survival. As agents of truth, we assert that our role as artists is inextricably linked with our people's struggle for freedom, justice, and democracy. Genuine national unity and progress can never be achieved without thorough understanding of our culture and identities, a respect for the diverse ways we express them and an appreciation of what is true of ourselves, our society and the world we live in. Now, more than ever, we must acknowledge and lend unequivocal support to the arts and culture sector as it plays an even more significant role in catalyzing our sense of nationhood.
As we seek an end to the culture of corruption in all facets of our national life, we demand the full accountability of all state instrumentalities and personalities involved in recent scams that assault the basic moral fiber of our people and deprive us of our basic rights...freedom of expression; relief from mass poverty; access to education, health care and livelihood opportunities; equitable application of justice; assurance of safety and security from unlawful arrests; and many other entitlements due us but have been deprived us as citizens of a democratic society. Not only must the Arroyo administration account for its breaches of governance; it must be purged of corrupt elements primarily responsible for its own destabilization.
We urge all Filipinos to act NOW before it is too late. Let us exercise vigilance in ensuring the accountability of our officialdom for their decisions and actions; diligence in pursuing exposure of the truth; and active and willful participation in defending the truth. We stand committed with the rest of the nation in demanding a new moral governance that will provide our country with a legitimate and morally upright leadership we can all be proud of.
Ang tunay na Filipino, nagsasabi ng totoo. Naglilingkod ng totoo, ipinaglalaban ang totoo. Sigaw ng bayan, ipagtanggol ang totoo!
ARTISTA NG BAYAN PARA SA KATOTOHANAN
February 26, 2008
IBALIK ANG TOTOO!
Pahayag ng mga Alagad ng Sining at Mangagagawa sa Kultura at Midya sa Malungkot na Lagay ng Liderato ng Bansang Filipino
Ang tungkulin ng mga alagad ng sining sa alinmang lipunan ay maging salamin ng buhay sa pamamagitan ng malikhaing pagpapahayag ng pamana, bisyon, at kaluluwa ng lahi. Naisasakatuparan ito sa pamamagitan ng pagpapakita ng katotohanan tulad ng dinaranas, nasasaksihan at isinasabuhay sa araw-araw ng taumbayan. Dahil sa pagbago o pagbaluktot sa pagtatanghal ng katotohanan sa isang akdang pansining, nawawalan ng kabuluhan at kahulugan ang pahayag na makasining. Sa higit na malawak na pagtuturing, nililinlang ng kabulaanan ang ating mga batayang halagahan at nagpapanggap na kinakatawan ng ating lahi.
Nakalulungkot na sa kasalukuyan, sumasailalim ang sambayanan sa sabwatang pagbaluktot at paghadlang sa katotohanan. Bilang mga artista at manggagawa sa kultura at sa midya, nasisindak kami sa walang pakundangang pagsasaisantabi ng ating karapatang mabatid ang katotohanan at sa karumal-dumal na pagtatangkang iligaw tayo palayo sa katotohanan. Habang nailalantad ang usapin ng pagiging lehitimo, malawakang katiwalian, paglabag sa karapatang pantao at kawalan ng katarungang panlipunan na umuusig sa administrasyong Arroyo, nagiging saksi tayo sa walang habas na pagbaluktot sa katotohanan upang yurakan ang kapakanan ng bayan.
Lubha kaming nababahala sa mga pangyayaring ito dahil nagbabanta ito sa ating pambansang kaligtasan. Bilang mga alagad ng katotohanan, iginigiit namin na ang tungkulin ng mga alagad ng sining ay mahigpit na kaugnay ng patuloy na pakikibaka ng sambayanan para sa kalayaan, katarungan, at demokrasya. Hindi matatamo ang tunay na pambansang pagkakaisa at pag-unlad nang walang ganap na pagkaunawa sa ating kultura at mga katangian, paggalang sa iba't ibang paraan ng pagpapahayag sa mga ito, at pagpapahalaga sa totoo sa ating mga sarili, sa ating lipunan, at sa mundong ating tahanan. Ngayon, higit kailanman, kailangan nating kilalanin at mataos na ipagsanggalang ang sektor ng mga sining at kultura, lalo ngayong may napakahalaga itong gampanin sa pagpanday at paghubog ng ating pagkabansa.
Sa hangaring maiwaksi ang nakamihasnang katiwalian sa lahat ng sangay ng ating pamumuhay bilang isang bansa, hinihingi naming lubos na managot ang lahat ng ahensiya ng estado at mga personalidad na may kinalaman sa mga panlilinlang kamakailan na lumalapastangan sa batayang paninindigan ng bayan at nagkakait ng ating mga batayang karapatan tulad ng: malayang pamamahayag; lunas sa kahirapan; pagkakamit ng edukasyon, pangangalagang pangkalusugan, at mga oportunidad na pangkabuhayan; patas na paggagawad ng katarungan; garantiya sa kaligtasan at seguridad laban sa lahat ng labag sa batas na pagdakip; at marami pang naipagkakait sa atin bilang mga mamamayan ng isang demokratikong lipunan. Hindi lamang dapat managot ang administrasyong Arroyo sa mga pagkukulang nito sa pamamahala; dapat ding mawala rito ang mga elemento ng katiwaliang pangunahing sanhi ng sarili nitong pagbagsak.
Hinihimok namin ang lahat ng Filipino na kumilos na ngayon bago mahuli ang lahat. Magsikhay tayo sa pagbabantay at pagtiyak na mapanagutan ng ating mga opisyal ang kanilang mga pasiya at gawain; pagsikapan nating maibunyag ang katotohanan; at masigasig at buong-loob na ipagtanggol natin ang katotohanan. Naninindigan kami kasama ang buong bansa sa paghahangad ng bago at may dangal na pamamahala na may lehitimo at makatwirang pamumuno na tunay na ikararangal ng bayan.
Ang tunay na Filipino, nagsasabi ng totoo. Naglilingkod sa totoo, ipinaglalaban ang totoo. Sigaw ng bayan, ipagtanggol ang totoo!
ARTISTA NG BAYAN PARA SA KATOTOHANAN
26 Pebrero 2008
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What do you do if you’re living in a box?
Two women artists enter the world of informal settlers, which is not too far from home.
Photographer Romina A. Diaz, who is half-Filipino and half-Italian, is able to step into the world of Loring Street in Pasay City because she lives there. Across from her family’s home and art gallery (Galleria Duemila), up to one end of the street, a large community of informal settlers have been living for decades.
Socially oriented artist Ann Wizer, a half-Norwegian/half-Lebanese American, collaborates with Romina on a creative project involving the girls from the community. Both have lived in Pasay, and both call themselves global nomads.
Their passions and social consciousness come together as they work with the young girls, aged nine to 16. For ten weeks, Romina worked with them in an intensive photography workshop.
The results are glimpses and images of their lives, mainly from their own eyes, with the help of the creative device of photography. The girls of Loring Street have also made ‘dollhouses’ out of LBC’s balikbayan boxes, which are representations of their lives, their homes, and their dreams.
Society often ignores girls like them: girls living in squalor, denied decent shelter, basic education, and proper healthcare, forced to become full-time mothers to their younger siblings, trying to survive in the huddled mass of shanties they call home.
One result of the project is “Living on Loring, Art For Social Change.” It is the collaborative exhibit by Romina, Wizer and the girls of Loring who call themselves Wild Cats Girls.
Angel Velasco Shaw, a film/video artist, writer, cultural activist, curator, and educator curates the show.
An artist with extensive experience in cultural exhange and activism, Velasco Shaw is the co-editor of the award-winning anthology, Vestiges of War: The Philippine-American War and the Aftermath of an Imperial Dream: 1899-1999 (New York University Press, 2002), among other notable works.
Velasco Shaw is currently working on a multi-year series of cultural exchange projects called ‘Trade Routes: Converging Cultures — Southeast Asia and Asia America.” “Living on Loring/ Who’s Sita?” is the flagship project of this series.
“Living on Loring, Art For Social Change,” an exhibition by Romina A. Diaz, Ann Wizer, and The Wild Cats Girls, is presented by Galleria Duemila from March 8-31, 2008.
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