THERE are many kinds of sh*t today.
I mean, poems. Many kinds of poems.
And they are important to many kinds of people.
Some emotional poems for emotional people.
Mental poems for mental, I mean, intellectual, people.
Personal poems for defensive, inadequate poets.
Puzzling poems that needed to be explained by their authors!
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And bakya poetry for the bakya crowd! Why not?
I mean, who is to say hugot poetry is not poetry?
And who would argue that pautot poetry is any lesser than pautog poetry?
Just because one stimulates the brain; and the other, the genitals; doesn’t mean one is better than the other.
Or, more enjoyable!
Wait!
Actually, one is better, and pretty much more enjoyable!
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So, let us be clear.
Some poems are better printed in books.
Some are better heard, performed, recited.
Some are better composed extemporaneously.
Some are better written, rewritten, revised, analyzed.
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But let us just not kid ourselves that just because you wrote some sh*t, you will be honored and recognized like Shakespeare.
You want to be canonized and studied in the future like TS Eliot, Ezra Pound, Walt Whitman, Francisco Baltazar, Jose Garcia Villa?
Then write something important.
Who cares about your hugot sh*t?
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Hugot is fun. It’s a fad. It’s a style.
Seriously, do you think it will survive in ten years time?
It’s freaking pedestrian. It has a limited theme.
If it doesn’t appeal to the emotion, it is nothing.
It also becomes easily dated.
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Hugot art is successful right now because it responds to the current cultural milieu.
But things change so fast in this millennium.
Movie love teams, and their perpetually intercoursed names like Brangelina, come and go.
Or aren’t fresh or novel anymore. (That’s the meaning of cliche!)
They’re a dime a dozen.
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Pak ganern got old after three months.
Does anybody still use Lodi, Petmalu, and Werpa anymore?
So clueless. So last year!
iPhone X in ten years from the first iPhone in 2007.
Imagine that.
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So what will remain?
Write like the classics. Or make new classics.
What’s the key?
Your. New. Unique. Way. Of. Seeing. And. Saying. Things.
Develop your own style. Don’t be so caught up in fads and trends.
Don’t be a copycat.
Be true.
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Death. Love. Longing. These are reliable themes.
Common, yes.
But your statement position, your thematic statement, is yours.
Whether you believe that the glass is half-full or half-empty is your unique perspective.
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If you try to convince half the world that the glass is half-full, you will always have some people believing you.
Of course, understand that there will always be non-believers who will think that the glass is always half-empty.
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But if you are up to change the world, you have to convince them with your ideas.
Lead them to a new way of thinking. A new way of seeing.
Like how I’m convincing you right now what poetry is.
Or how it should be. Or its history.
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My version may not be reliable.
It may not be true.
But I’ve fooled so many already.
I have created a new world.
A new world order.
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Didn’t Donald Trump become president?
Didn’t Duterte?
In the world of fake news, I am good.
I mean, I’m a saint even.
And you are still reading me this far because you know it’s true.
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I don’t need the whole world to believe me.
I’m happy with the few who believe in me.
Happy with the people I have changed. And influenced.
I have people who enjoy my poetry. My way of thinking.
They are my family.
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And that makes my existence more meaningful than most.
That I am responsible for a certain number of people.
That I have loved, and I am loved, by a certain number of people.
And by the grace of God, they may yet turn out as good and true and beautiful people as I am.
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And that’s all that’s important to me:
To populate this world with people who have eyes to see beauty, courage to speak the truth, and compassion and faith to make what is already good even better.
I am Peter Solis Nery, and this is my position.
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Oh, and I can do other positions, too.
I can do 69, if you must know!
So, there are really seventy ways to make me happy.
One is to love me, and the rest is 69.
But I already said that before. (500tinaga@gmail.com/PN)
