I’VE seen it all.
Same-sex sex, orgies, midget sex, double penetration, two-poles-in-one-hole-plus-some-golf-balls, and all the porno flicks and f*cks you missed.
I’ve been rich. I’ve been poor.
I’ve been married. I’ve been widowed.
I’ve been on Grindr!
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I bet you haven’t even been on Grindr.
And even if you have, I bet my sexy ass you haven’t been as successful on that gay geo-social app as I have.
So, you see, you cannot take me for a fool.
You cannot sell me a mirror and tell me it’s magic.
You cannot write a poem, and tell me it’s your new invention.
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So, what is left for you?
Four words: New. Way. Of. Saying.
Just as artists see the same world differently, so you should help your readers see the world from your unique artist/poet’s eyes.
Your perspective is important.
Let it not be ordinary.
Let it not be a mere copy of what’s been done before you.
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Your choice of metaphors is your unique contribution to the vastly expanding human consciousness.
To the ever-growing body of literature from antiquity.
If you are not contributing something new, stop.
Just stop.
Please have the decency to stop polluting the world with your recycled garbage.
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I have a childlike sense of wonder.
I take photos of flowers.
I smell everything.
Yeah, even that sh*t that clings under my shoes.
So yeah, I can still be impressed by something new and different.
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In 2017, I photographed all the 365 sunsets all over the world. See my Instagram account—@petersolisnery.
It’s still the same sunset. But different each day of the year.
There are sunsets with glorious clouds.
And there are “no sun” sunsets when it’s snowing or raining.
So yeah, not all your poems, if you write everyday, will be glorious.
Some of them will be “no sun, no poem” poems.
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Not a lot of poetry impress me.
But when they do, I feel envious.
That’s the kind of poetry that I adore.
The ones that I wish I wrote myself.
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But to be honest, I don’t understand much of the high chair poetry of Filipino poets.
Pautot poetry, I call them.
Even the award winners.
So, I don’t really blame publishers for not publishing a lot of new Filipino poetry.
I mean, if I don’t buy their poetry books (and I am a certified book buyer, just ask amazon.com), who will?
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Which brings me to the question of writing poetry for whom?
Who is your audience/readership?
For whom are you writing?
If you are thinking of publishing (and it is a business), do you have a clear market in mind (because this is a f*cking business!)?
Because if your readership is not clear to you, you are a lost boat in the middle of the ocean. A lost ship in the vast eternity of space.
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My readership is always clear to me when I write.
Either it’s the children, and the high school kids.
Or, the boys and men I want to seduce.
Here’s the thing: when I write to seduce men, I also try to seduce the women in the same poems, and all the genders in between.
Because isn’t seduction a universal thrill?
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I don’t ever write for myself alone.
I don’t masturbate that way.
Never have, never had, and never will.
I think writing for oneself is selfish. Hypocritical. Pretentious.
The thought of it makes me think masturbation is such a terrible sin.
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I always write for an audience.
I’m an exhibitionist that way.
Even if I don’t show all my work to the public, I have hopes that my unpublished work will be discovered after my death.
My secret journals, my spiritual exercises (Mother Teresa, is that you?), the letters that aren’t meant to be sent…
I want them to be discovered later.
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By Philippine standard, I’m a much published author, but you have only seen the tip of the Peter Solis Nery iceberg.
I have written a lot of crappy poems and stories in my lifetime.
What you have seen so far are only the more or less polished ones.
Small wonder that I’m known as a multi-award-winning writer.
You only know my award-winning works!
The tip of the iceberg.
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Here’s a secret: I don’t really rush to publication.
Except maybe for the newspapers where I write to beat deadlines.
I don’t want to be taken lightly as a poet and creative writer.
I also don’t want to be judged unfairly.
Especially by academics whose language and poetry I don’t speak.
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I know my strengths as a poet.
(I have also been winning awards in poetry, remember!)
But I also know that I am not valued and recognized by the self-appointed popes of Philippine literature.
Well, I’m not in business for them.
So I continue to write my own brand of poetry. (To be continued) (facebook.com/peter.s.nery)(500tinaga@gmail.com/PN)
