Try-hard Poet

Amirasolo and Other Essays

Part 1. Tondo on my Mind

 Essay 10. TRY-HARD POET

On the beach we play,
on a sunny day.
To the sea we go,
On a skiff we row.

The sky is blue,
the clouds are few.
A lobster and a crab
On the rocks above.

I wrote that poem when I was in grade seven during our English Reading class in Holy Child Catholic School. That was my first attempt at writing poetry. If I remember correctly, our Reading class teacher was Miss Caday, One day, she asked us her pupils to write poems, not as homework, but as class work. Meaning---we have to write our poems on the spot. She liked what I wrote and asked me to write another. I did and came up with a few more.

I remember myself being amazed at the time at the ease with which I composed those rhymes. I've never done it before. Laughable though that poem is to me now, it gave me at least the first inkling that I perhaps could write.

That's why I readily applied and took the competitive test when calls came for us 4th year boys of UST High School to vie for editorship positions in our school magazine, The Aquinian. I chose to compete for the Pilipino Editor position because I thought I had a better chance of winning that post. The test was impromptu. We were asked to write on the spot anything we fancy, on any topic, in prose or in poetry. I chose poetry. I can't recall now what exactly I wrote, but it is about something historical, I think.

I learned the result of the test when the Aquinian adviser, Miss Milagros Hernandez, dropped by our classroom one day and asked me if I really was the one who wrote that poem, and if I really wrote it impromptu. I answered yes. So, I became that day, officially,  the Pilipino Editor of the Aquinian. Eric Gamalinda is Editor-in-Chief and Arnel Dioso English Editor. I was also appointed Chief Artist of the magazine.

The magazine changed format during Eric's watch. The magazine switched from one that features stories and photos of events in our school to a purely literary compilation. Only short stories, poems, and essays will be published from that time on. That's commendable, because it will provide a platform for those students who were into creative writing.

But the problem was there weren't many writers of that sort among us. Despite repeated calls from us editors requesting contributions for our magazine only a few did submit their writings. We found it difficult therefore to fill up the pages of the magazine. What I did to solve that was to write Tagalog poems of four lines each, quatrains, and have them published under different names. I also submitted full-length English poems using my real name which were duly published.

I thought then my idea of writing poems myself with different pseudonyms as bylines was smart. It was an easy task for me. No sweat, some would say. After all, I used to do that as a twelve year old boy---whip out words that rhyme from the top of my head and composing them into poems.

But our eagle-eyed magazine adviser would have none of that. Miss Hernandez summoned me and asked if I was the one who wrote those Tagalog quatrains. I replied yes, I did write those. Shaking her head in disapproval, she said that it's easy to see that they were written by just one person despite being bylined with different pseudonyms. She added that what I did is just not done. She advised me not to do it again.

She's right of course. I understood. I obeyed and refrained from then on from filling up the Pilipino section of the magazine with my writings. Nevermind if the pages did look 'spacious' afterwards because of the dearth of submitted materials.

I mentioned earlier that I also contributed English poems to our magazine, love poems mostly. These poems appeared regularly in every issue of the Aquinian. Seeing my English poems published so propped up my confidence that I thought it high time to try my hand too in writing prose in English. I wrote an essay and submitted it to Eric. After some time I asked Eric what happened to my essay. He answered that he just can't published it. "Marami namang mali. (There are lots of error.)" he said.

That stung. Hahaha....

But Eric was right, I'm sure. I am his fan. I have lots of respect for him as a writer. He is one of the greatest Filipino writer of our generation ---or even perhaps of all time. Last I heard, he is a professor in a University in New York, and is active in the theater circle there as a playwright. He had written several books of poetry, and novels---one of which won the one-million peso Grand Prize in the 1998 Centennial Literary Competition. That novel is "My Sad Republic", which I hastened to seek and buy the moment I learned that it's already available in bookstores.

One memorable moment in my days as a try-hard English language poet was the time I received a letter, just a short note actually, from five girl batchmates. They weren't our classmates, because girls attend classes in the morning, while we boys in the afternoon. The note was some sort of 'fan mail' where they expressed admiration for my love poems. I was thrilled of course, that being the first time I was admired by girls. The letter was signed by them with two acronyms, using just the first syllables of their first and last names. I still remember the acronyms to this day. But I will never reveal them. The girls might not like it if I do. They might not want to be reminded.