Life Behind the Door

Love is the word and nothing else.

When did you start writing? The actual attempt at production of poems can be traced back to High School A.D. But I believe that the act of writing starts necessarily with desire. And this desire to produce poetry started way back when I was in Grade One. As I have mentioned elsewhere, in my Grade One classroom at Ateneo (XUGS), I stumble upon a world of beauty when I recited the poem Who Am I by Felice Holman. Since then, looking in hindsight, I have dreamt, wished, desired to produce something as lovely, captivating and beautiful. I wanted to become a poet. Therefore, this desire of aesthetics is the starting point, the Point A of my writing.   

Why do you write poetry? I write (poetry or otherwise) for two reasons: aesthetics and nostalgia. I am an aesthete, and nostalgic too. I like everything that is beautiful. Poetry is the first beautiful thing to show up in my doorsteps. I fell in love with him, Poetry, at first sight. And because all things, even beautiful ones pass by and fade away, I make certain that they will be memorialized, remembered through words, through poetry.

How long does it take you to write a poem? The actual jotting down of a poem for me is a fast as finishing a cup of cappuccino. It usually takes few minutes – it has to be quick, the harvesting of the wild words must be done quickly, lest if it is delayed, I will feel that I have lost something. And if that feeling sets in, I am certain that I will lose the appetite to pursue the piece.  The taming, though, of these wild words (editing and polishing) to become a respectable work, a poem is what takes time. Sometimes, it can take up to one whole day to one week to one month to one year even. Mostly, it takes less than a week. Or at least, when the poem does not nudge me anymore – then it means that it’s finished — it’s already a poem.

How do you write your poems? I write my poems first by staring at the ceiling; if my eyes do not see the actual ceiling then, I know I am ready to write. I give it some few minutes and when the story, the central image or the working idea or theme are clear in my head, I then proceed to write the draft in my notebook.  It has to be written there first. Then, while encoding the words to Word, I edit and add some words and rarely delete words. I read, read and read the piece until it bleeds. I wipe away the blood and if it is still alive after the violence applied, then it’s done, it’s a poem. This is how I write my poems, almost invariably at least in this manner.

Where do you write your poems? In this age of e, it is quite peculiar to find someone writing on paper, in the manner you will find it funny and weird for someone to be using a hand-me-down Olympia typewriter. Here I confess, while I do not use the typewriter, I still have to write it down on my notebook first then migrate the words to Word. So first, my poems are usually born in my notebook. This practice however has been flouted at one point — when I wrote the poem where my Barbie was safe, lest, if it came out in the open. 

Where do your ideas come from? My ideas come from memory, the repository of truth and fabulism. So, I write just about anything that my memory has stored.

What part does music play in your poetry? I have not given this much thought before really. But I think that the sentimentality found in music/songs is also prevalent in my poems or at least in the images or stories they try to show.

What else do you like doing? I like to paint whenever I have free time. Mostly, I like to sleep or sit by the verandah with a hot coffee (with or without a hot guy beside me). I like to eat pasta and everything else (posh dish or not) and I blog about them, among others. With the knowledge that this skill, este, habit (indiscriminate eating) is not good for the health and well being, I sometimes allow Jogging to drag me up the well manicured roads of Beverly Hills or Ma Luisa Village or Abellana Sports Complex (all in Cebu City). And when I don’t feel like doing all these things I get some massage and sauna somewhere I should not share to you. I shall share however that I like talking, and I talk a lot when my friends are around.

Can you read me one of your poems? But, of course. I will share to you my "Adobo."

If You Are Lusting Over … a Tomato-based Pasta Dish, eat Bistro Ecila’s Hungarian Sausage Fettuccine. While your tongue dances with the pasta and bathe in the lavish creamy sauce, you will think that you are dining in Italy and sitting right across a handsome hunky Italian guy!   

Bistro Ecila is at The Terraces, Ayala Cebu, Cebu Business Park, Cebu City, 6000 Philippines.  

1.    After the Quake  -  The Asia Writes Project(http://www.asiawrites.org/2011/07/featured-poem-after-quake-by-denver.html)   

2. The Belt of Santa Claus – Red River Review (http://www.redriverreview.com/)
3.    Ang Kalindaryo Likod sa Pwertahan – Bisaya Magasin Manila Bulletin – Print
4.   where my Barbie was safe, lest, if it came out in the open – Under the Storm: An Anthology of Philippine Contemporary Poetry – Print

Denver Ejem Torres has a Bachelor’s degree in English Language and Literature Studies from Xavier University-Ateneo de Cagayan and is a Fellow for Poetry at several national workshops. As a bilingual poet, he writes in his mother tongue, Visayan and English. He has appeared or is forthcoming in The Asia Writes Project, Red River Review (USA), Bisaya Magasin (Manila Bulletin) and 18th INWW Proceedings.

Recently, .MOV International Film, Music, & Literature Festival included his poetry in Under the Storm: An Anthology of Contemporary Philippine Poetry.

I shall return to blogging after a hiatus of over 2 years. Watch out for my new posts at Denver Ejem Torres in Cebu, you shall see as well some cleaning up and updates on previous or older posts as well.

Seventeen writing fellows out of 78 applicants from all over the country are attending the 18th Iligan National Writers Workshop (INWW) on May 23-27, 2011 to be held at the MSU-Iligan Institute of Technology (MSU-IIT). They are:

INWW2011.JPG 

Luzon: Play (Filipino): Bonifacio Alfonso M. Javier III, Bacoor, Cavite/ UP Diliman; Poetry (Filipino): Vijae O. Alquisola,Lucena City/ De La Salle University; (English): Anne Carly S. Abad, Quezon City/Ateneo de Manila University; and, Jacob Walse Dominguez, Marikina City/University of Sto. Tomas; Fiction (English): Michelle Abigail Tiu Tan, Quezon City/Ateneo de Manila University.

Visayas: Poetry (Waray): Mary Grace H. Abogado (Boy Abunda Writing Fellow), Borongan, Eastern Samar/ Leyte Normal University; (Hiligaynon) Gil Salanio Montinola, Mina, Iloilo/West Visayas State University (Main); (Sebuano) Glenn T. Munez, Cebu City/Cebu Normal University; Erik E. Tuban, Mandaue City/Center for Industrial Technology Enterprise; and, Denver Ejem Torres, Cebu City/Xavier University (Ateneo de Cagayan).

Mindanao: Play (Filipino): Rogelio F. Garcia, Cagayan de Oro City/Xavier University; Poetry (English): Allen Faw B. Samsuya, Cotabato City/UP Mindanao; and, Maimona W. Magayoong, Marawi City/UP Diliman; and, (Sebuano): Mark Anthony L. Daposala (Manuel E. Buenafe Writing Fellow), Cagayan de Oro City/Xavier University. Fiction (English): Deo Charis I. Mostrales, Iligan City/ Ateneo de Manila University; Fiction (Sebuano): Jonecito R. Saguban, TOR, Iligan City/St. Joseph Seminary College; and, Kei S. Valmoria-Bughaw (Ricardo Jorge S. Caluen Writing Fellow), Surigao City/University of San Carlos.

The Integrated Performing Arts Guild (IPAG) performs during the opening program on May 23 at the MSU-IIT Mini-theatre while the closing program and launching of the 17th INWW proceedings titled, The Poetry of Place, edited by Christine Godinez-Ortega will be held on May 27.

Panelists this year are: Leoncio P. Deriada, Merlie M. Alunan, Erlinda Kintanar Alburo, Ralph Semino Galan, Steven Patrick C. Fernandez, German V. Gervacio, Godinez-Ortega and this year’s Keynote Speaker, Pearlsha B. Abubakar (INWW, 2002). The 18th INWW is hosted by the Mindanao Creative Writers Group (MCWG) and the MSU-IIT Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research & Extension. The workshop is funded by the National Commission for Culture and Arts (NCCA) and the MSU-IIT.

(The Late Father Miguel A. Bernad, SJ)

My professor, Arlene J. Yandug, the new editor of Kinaadman, and I were chatting as we headed out to the University’s main gate. I was telling her that I miss Father Bernad’s presence in the campus after reading one of his recent books entitled The Immortal Sea. This book is published by the Xavier University Press. The copy I have is a special one in a sense that it has the author’s autograph on its first page. I do not own this copy though; I borrowed it from Rhobert Maestre, a faculty of XU’s English Department.

During our chat, she mentioned that Father Bernad decided and requested to be reassigned to Xavier University after all the years of doing lectures as visiting professor in many universities abroad and teaching at the Ateneo de Manila University for 30 years. In trying to give a reply to her interesting statement, I thought to myself what reasons could there be behind his decision to be transferred to XU, and finally I shared my opinion to her saying that it is but a commonplace gesture of people especially during their old years to go home. She seemed to agree with me marked by her affirming smile.

But our chat has to end when the motorela’s dying engine finally stopped in front of us and the drivers’ invitation became clear and audible amidst the hubbub brought by the incoming rain. She had to go to Cogon to fetch her umbrella; and so we parted ways. But I could not help but think more about the matter.

I think the Kinaadman Journal (he edited for more than 3 decades, I suppose) betrays the meaning of his request to be assigned to Xavier University. The contents of Kinaadman should tell enough that he longed or missed Mindanao.

To help us understand Father Bernad’s longing or missing Mindanao, the fiction of Jaime An Lim, The Homing Mandarin might help. In this story, the main character (an old man) as related by the narrator (the old man’s son), desires fervently to go home to China, his natal and home town. I share the opinion of An Lim about people getting old and missing home.

This view is also shared by Leonard Casper expressed in his article, Back Azimuth Filipino Writers Abroad. Casper said that in the works of Filipino writers abroad, there is this sense of trying to be connected or reconnected to the Philippines, to their homeland. Thereby saying that as a person who had gone and lived in other places, intends to go home at least through their works, if not physically. In other words, in the case of Bernad, it can be assumed that (ADMU) Manila and other places such as Taiwan, Yale University among others were giving him a transient feeling, a feeling that he knows in his heart temporary and thus thinking that someday he would leave them and go back home.

It would be safe to assume therefore that Father Bernad considered XU and Cagayan de Oro as home. CDO is near Ozamiz, where he was from. Both cities are in Mindanao, the land of his heart. Mindanao, his home, the reason, I suppose, why he requested to be transferred.

During the opening week of Bistro Mercedes, Joanna my friend-fictionist and I went out to try the place. We didn’t like the food much. Did I tell you that the oil used in my pasta dish would not taste like an Olive oil but something like a corn oil?

What is on my Desk today? I am reading Rosario Cruz-Lucero’s Feast and Famine.

I will try to talk about this later when I am done reading it.

How about you? What is on your Desk now?

What are on my table top now?

Ms. Arlene J. Yandug, the resident Writer of Xavier University lent me three books so that there is something to read this summer. The books are Three Chinese Poets by Vikram Seth, Lanterns in the Sun & Other Poems by Christine Godinez-Ortega and Leoncio Deriada’s Little Workshops, Little Critiques.

I am excited to read all of them. Have a fruitful summer! : )

LOCAL NEWS ▪ ARTS & CULTURE

The Lourdes College School of Music will hold its annual Students’ Recital this March 30, 2009 at the LC Main Auditorium. It will be an early evening affair beginning at 6. The Programme promises 3 (three) Violin performances, one of which is a Violin Ensemble and 24 (twenty-four) piano recitals. The pieces to be presented are Rondo Grazioso of H. Lichner, Moonlight Sonata of Beethoven, Novelette of Kabalevsky and Ili Ili Tulog Anay of A. Espino among many others.

According to the staging sequence the following are this year’s performers:

John Nangkil
Siegfred Uy
Stephanie Sambaan
Dee Ann Roa
Kristen Ysula
Seger Morales
Coleen Van Bobadilla
Shemie Cadaro
Ara Mae Alfornon
Jamie Kristina Villar
Mariejul Lagumbay
Misty Karen Antatico
Melinisa Macadato
Sheila Alianza
Julius Alcoser
Lani Mae Sabejon
Marco Pacturan
Jeric Jayin
Carell Ethilca Belandres
Anne Michelle Mondragon
Jordan Emata
Luisito Bernil
Dina Butong
Via Ayla Felias
Jan Karol Abao

This yearly event by the Lourdes College School of Music is one of the much-anticipated, important artistic events happening in this side of the Philippines. 

I made a Hungarian Sausage and Shrimp Linguine at Mommy Nice’s place. She is our team superior at Concentrix.  She is a very fine host. She allowed us to hold parties at her place.

Izza is as sweet-looking as a pink-tinted Icing. Well, that is also her nickname. We, her friends, call her Icing. She turned 24 last year. The pictures below were taken at her Part Two Bday Party at Bigby Café, Rosario Arcade last November 22, 2008, two days after her birthday.

She is actually a bit exhausted and little sad having lost her bunny. She believes it committed suicide. I find it interesting but I am not sure if Rabbits are capable of self-killing. Or are they?

She works in Cebu and is fresh from Georgia, USA for training. All these trips, domestic and local…you know what’s next.

Icing is happily married to another friend, a cute-almost-hunky friend by the name of Korhnoi (Mark actually), but I call him Korchy for fun. I will show you some picture of him next time. I love them both. They are just, (this is cliché but true) a match made in heaven.

Izza, Kim and Me had so much fun at the party. I wish you Icing another year of happiness, good health and prosperity in life. I am truly happy to be a part of your colorful life.

Izza and Me before the waiter served our good-for-the-cowboy meal.

Me Herculetic-ing    : )

Fun, right?

I am saving up to give myself a graduation gift. Bohol here I come. I am dreaming of lounging in these paradisiacal places: Amorita Resort & Eskaya Beach Resort and Spa. Wish me luck!

(Photos are from Amorita Resort & Eskaya Beach Resort and Spa websites)

Loving dogs
I believe
is a higher form of love.

Like
Man’s love towards
his Creator or vice versa,
it is special.

And one of the best peoples
ever to live in this world
are the dog lovers…