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[av_heading heading=’MY LIFE AS ART | Peter’s Prize for Story-Inspired Poetry’ tag=’h3′ style=’blockquote modern-quote’ size=” subheading_active=’subheading_below’ subheading_size=’15’ padding=’10’ color=” custom_font=”]
BY PETER SOLIS NERY
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Friday, June 23, 2017
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(Continued from June 21, 2017 issue)
SO, TEN composos? Ten sonnets? Ten monologues? Ten song lyrics?
Ten soliloquies? Ten haiku or short poems? Ten nursery rhymes?
A mix? A little of everything? Shoot for the starts.
We wouldn’t know the good, or the best, until we have seen everything.
I’m sure you would get plenty of ideas once you finish reading, or rereading, “Lirio”. But here are some starters, if you need examples:
Ten “silent” or internal monologues of Lirio the Mute as she tells her story in her own words.
What about “songs” that the various characters could have sung, or thought, while the story unfolds?
What was Padre Rafael’s canticle as he baptized Lirio? Or, Lola Pansay the midwife’s song?
What about poems that the various characters recite to us, or to each other, to tell the story from their own perspectives?
How does Noli tell it? How does Itik Lugay? How does Nanay Rosa? Or even bestie Yasmin Buenaflor?
If the swarm of butterflies can write the life of Lirio in poems, what would they say? What would they tell? About Lirio? About their butterfly lives intersecting Lirio’s?
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Or, if you are like me, you can write poems about the things that you strongly feel about as you read the story. React to the story with a poem.
You hate Itik Lugay? You think marital rape is not okay? Write a poem. But don’t make it a pedestrian slogan. Write protest poetry but keep it poetry, not a moral lesson.
Of protest poetry, write more poem, less protest/issue. I am with you already on the social issue. Now, give us a new perspective, a new image, a new metaphor, about the issue you are protesting about.
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You pity Lirio? Write a poem prayer for her. Pray with her. Pray for her.
Or, let yourself be God, and console Lirio with a poem. Promise her salvation. Lead her out of the valley of tears. To green pastures using poetry of comfort and deliverance.
You hope something more for Lirio and Noli? Write their love letters, their love songs. Retell their love story. Retell it small. Retell it big. Tell what could have been.
Or, simply amaze us. What about a sequel? Or, a prequel to the whole Lirio story? Write a series of ten poems that tell the story before, or after, or before-during-after, the classic “Lirio” story that Peter Solis Nery has written for you in 1998.
Yes, next year will be the 20th anniversary of the Lirio story. That explains the Lirio focus of the Peter’s Prize this year for both literature (poetry) and visual arts (painting) categories.
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How long should the poems be? As long as the poems themselves demand.
But I’d go for brevity, and compression of the story into strong images and powerful metaphors.
Shouldn’t a good line of poetry be equivalent to a paragraph of prose? A successful poem equivalent to a short story?
Personally, I like poems that are 12-14 lines long. Maybe 21 lines occasionally, if they don’t bore me at line 15. But I’m not judging the contest, so…
However, I will be the official tie breaker.
Although, I have only seen a tie once in the four years now of the Peter’s Prize contest. That’s eight literary categories!
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Usually, we have a panel of five or seven judges. So, it’s pretty democratic. Whatever most people like, wins.
And the judges of the Peter’s Prize are not all academics. This year, I’m seriously thinking of asking a domestic helper working in Canada to judge. Let’s call her the 7th jury. Haha!
Back to length, we will accept lengthy composos, and long poems, for that matter. After all, they will be judged according to beauty, not length.
And after all, and I’ll say it again, I will not be judging this, except to break the tie, which is most unlikely to happen.
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You retain the copyright of your work. But I’m also asking the right to publish all accepted entries. After all, your work is occasioned by this contest.
And I want to publish. Because what’s your poetry if it is not read, shared, and preserved for future generations?
Come on. Accept the challenge. Let’s do this!/PN
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