#ThePSN Revolution in 21st Century Literature

I HAVE several things going for me.

I have been offered the task of writing a textbook for the senior high school course called 21stCentury Literature from the Philippines and the World.

Book development starts next year.

Textbook for use in the school year starting 2021.

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After 19 Palanca Awards, I have established myself as a reliable writer, poet, playwright, fictionist, and author in English, Filipino, and Hiligaynon.

I am currently living in the United States.

I am highly visible online.

And I spend most of my waking hours reading, and writing, contemporary literature.

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Last month, one online poetry group invited me to explicate what it means “To Be A Poet in the New Millennium”.

I delivered a lecture.

And I was swamped with Facebook friend requests from all over Africa: Ghana, Nigeria, Libya, Liberia, Kenya, South Africa.

One article, and I get that response!

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On Sept. 11, anniversary of 9/11 terrorist attacks in the US, I created a new online community called Poets and Writers International (#pawi).

It’s A Peter Solis Nery (#psn) Online Resource Hub.

Envisioned to be “The essential poetry and creative writing toolbox from the award-winning poet, playwright, fictionist and filmmaker Peter Solis Nery”.

As of today, membership is just over two hundred.

But traffic has been good and steady.

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This I have observed:

There is a worldwide hunger among so-called poets to be mentored in poetry.

There is also a great need to be a read and published poet.

But so many people are clueless.

They’re in love with the romantic idea of the famous poet’s life.

But either they’re lazy to really know what poetry is.

Or totally disadvantaged to learn what poetry is.

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I started the online group because I want to wage this revolution.

Not really for the world.

(It’s too big a war for me).

But for my dear Hiligaynon language.

I want to revolutionize Hiligaynon poetry.

And I start simply by sharing my very own Poetics.

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I like the idea of revolutionizing traditional Hiligaynon Poetry and pushing for a real Modern Hiligaynon Poetry.

I think we have done well teaching formalist poetry in Hiligaynon in the last decade of the last century.

Now, this is my time.

But more than just teaching writers to be modern, I also want to teach readers how to read Modern Hiligaynon Poetry.

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What is Modern Hiligaynon Poetry for Peter Solis Nery?

Well, I’m going to be honest and I will borrow a little bit from the Western idea of modern poetry as a celebration of freedom.

Freedom from rhyme and meter.

Freedom to write in other forms, maybe hybrid structures.

But most of all, for Peter Solis Nery, freedom from traditionalist (often moralistic) ideas and attitudes.

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I find that I am so against depressing poems.

I do not like sad poems that come out of people’s tragedy, poverty, and plain stupid martyrdom.

I want poetry that celebrates Life.

Play. Joy. Positivity.

I don’t like love poems that suffer in egotistical sorry-me.

I want poems that are bold in their loving.

Proud. Unembarrassed. Fearless.

Unapologetic like the real Peter Solis Nery.

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I think that’s why I am in a position to do this—

To revolutionize Hiligaynon Poetry.

Make it more Modern.

Because I embody everything that I advocate!

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My idea: If we ban sorry-me-victim poetry for the next ten years, we will have so much to write about when we truly rediscover that feeling of being really oppressed in 2030.

The thing is, so-called poets simply write from this miserable persona as a posturing to get attention.

Pa-awa.

Pa-like.

I think the word for that is “pandering”.

As in pandering to sentimental readers.

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Hello?

Ten years ago, there was no depression in the Philippines.

Or, if there was, it was limited to rich kids who could afford mental health treatment and therapy.

Today, everybody is depressed.

Everybody is hugotero.

Everybody is di pansin ni Crush.

In my time, there was a word for that.

It was called “normal”.

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Today, displaying your sorry state is a (Facebook) status (symbol).

Puhleez!

You post that you are depressed.

Hoping you will get sympathy.

(Did you want a ‘like’ or a heart?)

People don’t know what to do, so they click on the crying face emoticon.

That’s depressing.

Worse, people don’t know what to do, so they don’t click anything at all.

You don’t get ‘likes’ or other reactions.

That’s more depressing!

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You contemplate on suicide.

Please don’t kill yourself until you read my columns in the next few weeks.

There will be some Peter’s Prize interruptions next week.

But I’ll be back for more of this. (500tinaga@gmail.com/PN)