IN “BROWN EYES”, a PSN Poetry for Children workshop in celebration of the National Arts Month, participants will be taught how to look, and where to look.
It is called poetry for children workshop because, well, it is elementary poetry writing with the goal of writing simply and clearly so that grade school children can appreciate what poetry the participants may produce.
But the lessons can very well be applied to get to the pautot and high chair kind of poetry.
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Brown Eyes pays homage to the Filipino brown.
Thus, seeing things from the Filipino eyes.
Thus, maybe, translating what the Filipino eyes see so that other Filipino minds may understand.
If poetry is really the art of seeing, then it is basic that we need to teach how to look and see.
How much do you see of the world?
***
How many fins does a bangus have?
Are the sepals of the gumamela fused or separated?
When was the last time you counted the colors of an actual rainbow?
Which has a wider band in the rainbow, the red or the blue?
How many joints do the legs of a spider have?
How many pairs of wings does a cockroach have?
What’s at the back of a P10 coin?
***
What’s the sound of crushed garlic in boiling oil?
Of chopped onions?
Of diced tomatoes?
Of them three combined?
***
What’s the sound of crushed garlic in melted butter?
What’s the sound of chopped garlic in melted butter?
What’s the sound of boiling water in an electric kettle?
What’s the sound of boiling water in a pot?
***
What’s the color of your mother’s eyes?
Of your father’s?
Whose is darker?
Whose is darkest in your family?
***
What’s the feel of your puppy on a rainy day?
What’s the feel on a hot day?
What’s the feel in the morning?
In the early afternoon?
In the early evening?
***
When was the last time you spent five minutes talking to your neighbor?
Talking to a stranger?
Talking to a balut vendor?
How many of your teeth show when you smile in the mirror?
When you smile in a picture?
How many teeth do you have left?
***
Are questions like these worth P500?
I’d say they’re worth P200.
Or P400 based on my original undiscounted rate.
What you do with your answers is worth a lifetime.
Worth your mental health.
Your world-as-it-is awareness.
***
The poetry of these questions is priceless.
And that is my gift to you.
***
And then, there is simile; there is metaphor.
There is metonymy, there is “brown eyes”.
But first, a lesson on where to look, what to look for.
To see with the eyes.
To see with your other senses.
With the mind, with your mind’s eye.
***
I like teaching because it makes me young.
For one, it affords me an opportunity to be with young people.
But also, teaching makes me learn more, and even better.
I am a child when I teach!
***
On the other hand, outside of the actual experience, I feel a little old.
A little senior enough to teach what I have learned in my lifetime.
It is for this feeling that I try to charge a fee for my workshops.
Charge to experience, charge for experience.
Charge because of my vast experience of life and the world.
Otherwise, I am just happy to teach.
Child-happy to point out that there’s a whale shark at the foot of Mayon Volcano.
At least, in the purple P100 bill.
And Rhincodon typus is its scientific name, if the P100 bill can be believed./PN
