Online Reading Room: The Room of Rhyme and Reason

 As I am very much fascinated with Online Reading Rooms, here is the third one I made for a Bibliotherapy session in school.

Found Poetry: Poetry is all around!

Found Poetry: Poetry is all around!

From January 29 to February 16, 2018

Online voting: February 19 - 28, 2018

Found Poetry is a literary collage made from texts found in newspapers, street signs, speeches, letters, old pages of books, magazines and spines of books. It is hunting for words and putting them in a creative literary form, like, poetry. 

BOOK SPINE POETRY - Create a poem by stacking books on top of each other and showing the spines.

BLACKOUT POETRY - Find words and phrases from old pages of magazines, newspapers and books that can be fashioned into poetry.

POETRY MAGNETS - Create a poem by piecing together word magnets.

 Take a photo of the poem/s you made and post it on IG with the following hashtags:

#foundpoetry2018

#griffinsCREATE

#bookspinepoetry (for book spine poems)

#blackoutpoetry (for blackout poems)

#magneticpoetry (for magnetic poems). 

BA Community members vote for poetry that:

• makes them say WTF (what the freak?!)
• makes them go Aaaawww…
• makes them want to hug someone dear
• makes them imagine and wonder
• they like, just because
   

The Found Poetry activity is in line with the celebration of Language and Literary Festival 2018. It aims to develop two IB Learner Profile, Risk Taker and Communicator.

 

Risk Takers - creating and making poems from words found in unlikely sources and places foster the exploration of new ideas and encourage resourcefulness. This activity challenges students to face uncertainty and be open to possibilities.

Communicators - Found Poetry is a creative way to express language in different ways.

 Here is a sample of a Blackout Poem I made a few days ago:

that strong reason for leaving

the lonely life

suggests 

that we

fear someone 

or something

we can only deduce

the strong possibility

that fulfillment is a presumption

a warning

the sign

that you see

The Found Poetry activity is open to everyone in the Beacon Academy community!

Book Spine Poetry Festival 2017 Finalists

Bsp finalists 2017 from Zarah Gagatiga

Book Spine Poetry Festival 2017

March 21 is World Poetry Day and we are bringing back the Book Spine Poetry Festival. It begins on March 13, 2017 until April 3, 2017.

It is easy to do!

* Compose a poem or poems using the spine of books from the BA Library.

* Register your book spine poem to Mr. Flynn.

* The poems will be put on display from April 4-8, 2017 and everyone is invited and enjoined to vote on the poems.

* We are looking for poems that:

     - make us say What The Freak (WTF) is that?!

     - give us the chills 

     - touch our hearts

     - inspire

     - make us wonder

* Griffins who have poems as entry to the festival will get 5 book points for the book quota.

For samples of Book Spine Poems, read the poetry made by former students. These are posted on the doors of the BA Library.

Advanced happy World Poetry Day!

Book Spine Poetry Winner 2015

This year, we had two judges for our Book Spine Poetry Contest. MJ Tumamac and Beverly Wico Siy graciously accepted the judging duties. Here are their notes and reviews on the winning poem.

Beverly Wico Siy's review:

Napakahusay bilang description ang tulang ito. Matatakot ka sa nilalang na ipinakikilala bilang mamamatay-tao hindi lang dahil sa itsura nito (Big mouth and ugly/Freaky green eyes) kundi maging sa ugali at espiritwal nitong katangian 

(Unclean/Unholy/Wicked). Ang big mouth ay maaaring mangahulugan ng pagiging madaldal, maingay, buka nang buka ang bibig dahil sa pagsasalita. Maaari din itong ipakahulugan bilang matakaw, lamon nang lamon, kinakain ang lahat ng makita. Gahaman, sa maikling salita. 

Ang Green Eyes naman ay puwedeng ituring na reference sa dayuhan, partikular na sa mga taga-Kanluran. Kaya masasabing ang tulang ito ay isang epektibong babala: may naghihintay sa dilim, mga nilalang na walang sinasanto na maaaring magmalupit sa iyo at magdulot ng kamatayan. Sa anong dahilan? Sa kawalan nito ng kakontentuhan at matinding kagutuman.

MJ Tumamac's review:

Sa pag-aayos ng mga linya, hindi lang mahalaga na tunog matulain ang bawat linya; mahalaga rin kung may nabubuo itong diwa. Una, diwa sa literal na nibel. Tulad ng nabanggit ko na dati, hindi palabuan ang pagtula. Una kong tinitingnan kung maayos ang pagkakalahad, lalo na ang gramatika nito. Mula sa maayos na pagkakalahad ng ideya, tiyak na lilitaw na may talinghaga ang tula. Tulad ng tula sa ibaba, malinaw ang paglilista ng mga katangian muna.

2014 Book Spine Poetry Final Winners: Judge's Review

Here is Ed Maranan's review of the winners in our 2014 Book Spine Poetry Contest. Mr. Maranan judged the final round of the contest. 

I generally agree with the choices and comments of the previous judges who chose the monthly winners in this competition. What a challenge it must have been, reading the earnest entries and having to select the final monthly winners! Choosing titles of books from hundreds or thousands of possible choices and stringing them together to create a poetic composition is not as easy as it seems. There could be several ways of putting together the titles, and while each one may be able to tell a story or reveal a theme, there is always one that stands out for its logic, clarity, and even an element of surprise. Another consideration is the length of the composition. Because the titles represent disparate works and are complete unto themselves, there must be a neat way of stringing them together to make them appear integral, without using connectives. Each title represents an idea, an image, an event, an action, etc., and it would be unwieldy to be putting so many of these together to make a coherent whole. 

I think the ideal construction of the book spine poem is one that uses less number of titles, not more, brevity being the soul of poetic writ, to paraphrase an aphorism. As one of the filter judges pointed out, the book spine poem lends itself to the haiku form; indeed, in both haiku or senryu forms which have three lines (the one dealing mainly with a meditation on nature and the seasons, and the other on the human condition), or in other variations of the short poem such as the triple or tercet (three lines, like the haiku), quatrain (four lines) or the cinquain (five lines). I would stop at five lines of the book spine poem, but there’s no rule that says you cannot use a whole shelf of books to string together your poem, using your creativity and imagination! But even a couplet or a two-line poem can be effective as a book spine poem, with the downside though that it could be too convenient and predictable. For instance, these titles from Max Brook and Francis Fukuyama form an ominous pair:

World War Z
The End of History?

Having said that, I think it is only fair that the finals judge should choose the top three winners from among the first placers in the three monthly compositions, unless there is a compelling reason to make a ‘deep selection’ and put in contention in the second and third placers – or even the fourth and fifth placers – but I see that there is no need for these, although the gap separating all the monthly winners from one another is hardly a yawning one. With a little finessing of some of the finalist entries, they stood a chance of making it to the top. For instance, second placer Michael Rosenthal’s compact four-line composition in the January competition poses a strong challenge  to first placer Nicole Memphin’s ‘epic’ eight-liner (which could even be split into two book spine poems, a tercet (unrhymed 3-line poem) and a quatrain (four-line poem). In Michael’s case – well, in fact as with many book spine poems! – one could propose alternative constructions, on reasonable grounds. 

Here is Michael’s piece:

In the Country of Men
Seeking the Heart of Wisdom
Atlas Shrugged
And a Hard Rain Fell

Now here is another way to string together the four titles:

Atlas Shrugged
And a Hard Rain Fell
In the Country of Men
Seeking the Heart of Wisdom

What is the basis for this? I think the ideal situation would be for the book spine composer to have read the book, or be familiar with the contents of the book whose title they are appropriating. Of course, this should not be a compulsory requirement, or you’re likely to miss the deadline! But it would be terrific if the composer at least knew the theme or premise of the book whose title is being used. (In fact, you can look up the plot summaries of even the longest books in Google or Wikipedia, but don’t make this a habit or libraries will be put out of business!) In this instance, Atlas Shrugged is Ayn Rand’s iconic manifesto on the primacy of individualism, and has had a huge impact on the amorality (some call it greed and viciousness) of capitalism. As a reviewer has put it, the book “depicts a world where corporate CEOs and one-percenters are the selfless heroes upon which our society depends.” (I got this from Wikipedia.) Atlas, of course, is the mythical Greek god always represented as carrying the world on his shoulders, thus symbolizing the burden of responsibility. The alternative construction proposed shows the logic of events when we shirk individual responsibility towards society: a hard rain falls upon (or hard times befall) people who are seeking wisdom, e.g., solutions to problems.

On the other hand, as I have mentioned, Nicole might be telling two stories instead of one in her eight-liner: 

Last Night I Dreamed of Peace
Looking Back
The First Escape
Before We Were Free
A Hero of Our Time
Jumped
Fences
Shaking the Foundation

This is rather long for a spine poem, I think, although as I have mentioned, it is quite all right to string together as many titles of books you want for as long as there is thematic logic and narrative coherence (and even syntactical sense) in the composition. I would rather that these eight titles to be distributed in two spine poems, but requiring a strategic re-positioning of the line ‘The first escape’:

1.
Last night I dreamed of peace
Looking back
Before We Were Free

2.
A hero of our time
Jumped
Fences
Shaking the foundation
The first escape

The very first top placer in the competition in the December edition, Javier Agnir, rightfully copped first prize for his piece that looks as if it had been deliberately and freely composed by a poet, rather than disparate themes strung together from the spines of different books:

In the Country of Men
Things Fall Apart
Funny How Things Change
As I Lay Dying

Although we sense and we understand the flow of ideas through these titles, there is that one pesky problem of tense. ‘Fall’ and ‘Change’ are in the present tense, while ‘Lay’ was in the past tense – as it should be, because this is supposed to be a line from a dead person (Addie Bundren in Faulkner’s novel, “who, after dying, expresses her thoughts from the coffin.”) But poetic license is used here, so this is possible. The beauty of this piece is that it can have several permutations (to repeat, a characteristic of book spine poetry). One might be the following: 

Funny How Things Change
In the Country of Men
Things Fall Apart
As I Lay Dying

Or reversing the order:

Things fall apart

As I lay dying

Funny how things change

In the country of men

This is not saying, however, that the two alternative constructions are superior to the winning piece. It is simply a matter of choosing which aspect of the poetic statement to focus on. You could even split this quatrain into two couplets to make separate expressions that sound like aphoristic graffiti:

Things Fall Apart
In The Country Of Men    

(which could convey the sense of being a ‘feminist statement’), or this:

Funny How Things Change

As I Lay Dying

In the case of the first prize winner for February, the tandem of Celia Diaz and Nicole Mempin, the piece is the second longest among all the monthly finalists, with seven titles used. 

In Defense of Women
It's Not Easy Being Mean
Cycle and Hatred
Blood and Rage
Ice Cream and Sadness
Maiden of Pain
A Woman's Life

However, the picture I saw of the books piled up to form a poem is missing the title Cycle and Hatred. Might as well, because the line seems to me superfluous or unnecessary, to ‘blood and rage’ doing enough to describe the reason for women being ‘mean’. Let’s look at the poem as a six-liner then:

In Defense of Women
It's Not Easy Being Mean
Blood and Rage
Ice Cream and Sadness
Maiden of Pain
A Woman's Life

It seems to work, except that the element of ‘Ice Cream’, generally regarded as a positive thing by women (as in the case of chocolates!) appears out of place, unless we take it to mean as a mere consolation or palliative in a woman’s life of sadness and pain. Fair enough.

So therein lies the fun of composing book spine poetry! All right, so we come now to a decision as to the final ranking of the top placers in the three-month competition, with a vigorous nod of appreciation to the earlier judges who chose the monthly winners, and much applause to the composers or constructors of all the qualifying entries.

Here they are, then, the top three in the monthly competitions, and how I thought they ranked comparatively in effectively delivering their poetic message: 

First prize:   JAVIER AGNIR

Second prize: CELIA DIAZ and NICOLE MEMPIN

Third prize: NICOLE MEMPHIN

I would like to award a joint third prize to MICHAEL ROSENTHAL, second placer in the January competition, for his quatrain that uses the title In the Country of Men which we also find in the composition of Javier Agnir. And finally, I would like to award a special prize to MIKHAELA ONG who copped fourth place in the February competition, because her piece exhibits many desirable attributes of a book spine poem (those qualities already discussed by the previous judges): brevity in terms of overall length, economy of words, visual impact, and universality of the theme. In Mikhaela’s composition, there is the shock of recognition about the perceived state of the world at present (especially with global warming and climate change), and the last three words are so familiar to us, though in a different context – not the bang of the gavel in an auction, but the whimper at the end of the world, as the poet T.S. Eliot would tell us:

A world undone
Embracing defeat
Going, going
Gone

Ed Maranan is a poet, fictionist, playwright, essayist, translator, and author of four poetry books and more than 20 children's books. He has won several literary awards from the Carlos Palanca Memorial Foundation, including membership in the Palanca Hall of Fame, as well as the National Commission for Culture and the Arts, the Cultural Center of the Philippines, Komisyon sa Wikang Filipino, and the Unyon ng mga Manunulat ng Pilipinas. He taught Political Science and Philippine Studies at the University of the Philippines, and served as Information Officer of the Philippine Embassy in London. He writes an occasional column on arts and culture for The Philippine Star, and is an active member of PEN Philippines, UMPIL, and the Baguio Writers Group.

Book Spine Poetry Contest February 2014: Judge's Review

For the February run of our Book Spine Poetry Contest in school, I asked MJ Tumamac, Salanga Prize Winning Author to judge the month's entries. Here is MJ's review.

Ano ang hinahanap ko sa isang tula? Marami at madalas ay nag-iiba. Isa rito ay ang “kalinawan” ng pahayag (bagaman ang laging persepsiyon ng mga tao sa tula ay “hindi dapat ito naiintindihan”), ngunit hindi ibig sabihin nito na kung ano ang gustong sabihin ng tula ay mismong sinasabi na sa tula. 

Gusto ko lamang ipahayag na isang pahayag ang tula at hindi lamang binubuo ng mga “matatalinghagang” o “malalalim” na salita at parirala (ngunit hindi ako nanlalahat dahil may mga paraan ng pagtula na binabali ang mga “kumbensiyon”). At huwag ninyo akong isisipi na ikinakahon ko ang kakanyahan ng tula.

Kaya, nagustuhan ko ang tula sa ibaba. Maaari na sigurong alisin ang pangatlong linya dahil maaari na itong lumabas sa pang-apat na linya. May ganoon ding katangian ang huling dalawang linya. Ngunit nagustuhan ko ang matalinong paggamit ng mga pamagat at ang “kalinawan” ng pahayag.

The next 100 years

When everything changed

Split in two

A conflict of vision

The end of nature

Collapse

Ganito din ang makikita sa iba pang nagustuhan kong tula pero malaki siyempre ang impluwensiya na hindi sila ang nag-ayos ng bawat linya dahil mga pamagat ito ng mga aklat.

A world undone

Embracing defeat

Going, going

Gone

The language of passion

All we know of love

Burned

In the shadow of the rising sun

Naaliw naman ako sa tulang ito, kahit na nawiwirduhan ako sa pangalawang linya dahil kabaligtaran ang ginagawa nito sa sinasabi nito.

Dear bully

Without further adieu

Run fast

Someday this pain will be useful to you

At ang pinakanagustuhan kong tula ay ito dahil na rin sa mga pag-isa-isa ng mga bagay-bagay na nagkakaroon ng maraming kahulugan dahil sa piniling paksain.

In defense of women

It's not easy being mean

Cycle and hatred

Blood and rage

Ice cream and sadness

Maiden of pain

A woman's life

Bionote:
MJ Tumamac, aka Xi Zuq, is a poet and writer for children from General Santos City. Visit him at www.xizuqsnook.com.

Book Spine Poetry Contest February 2014

Book Spine Poetry January 2014 Judge's Review

• Last month, I posted Bebang Siy's choices of winners in our Book Spine Poetry Contest. Here is Ronald "Poy" Verzo's choice poems from the January batch of entries.
   
• The Hours
• After the Storm
• And the Mountains Echoed
• Someday this Pain Will Be Useful To You
  
  
• I like this. Why? In only four book spines it was able to dramatize a catastrophe and how we learn from it. Let’s say, the Yolanda aftermath and how the pain it caused can help people become better. It can also say something about how people cope with problems, and how pain can be put into good use.  The imagery is concrete--the aftermath of a storm echoed by an image equally large and adamant as a mountain, giving strength and truth to a didactic closing line.
  
• In the Country of Men
• Seeking the Heart of Wisdom
• Atlas Shrugged
• …and a hard rain fell
  
  
• Atlas, a man carrying the world on his shoulders, shrugging, as a reaction to man’s search for wisdom and greed for power, leads to hard times. A really powerful imagery to a very good commentary.
  
• snow falling on cedars
• unclean
• unholy 
• undead
• in between the sheets
• Of the Dawn of Freedom
  
  
• It paints a dreary picture-- the snow falling on cedars described as unclean, unholy, and undead. And then it paints of something hidden between the sheets, which the words unclean, unholy, and undead could also refer to, something probably asleep, a freedom about to wake up from a dream.
  
• Last Night I Dreamed of Peace
• Looking Back
• The First Escape
• Before We Were Free
• A Hero of Our Time
• Jump
• Fences
• Shaking the Foundation
  
  
• What I like is how the poem could speak of memory as a place of peace, how it could speak about history and the lessons from the struggles for freedom, and how it reflects and tries to define what a hero of today should be--and that is someone who overcomes barriers (jump fences) to shake the very foundation of things that are valued now, and probably help bring to mind what was the very foundation of our freedom.
  
• Dear Bully
• You say more than you think
• Solitude
• When No One Understands
• The idea of evil
• On Truth and Untruth
• This I believe
  
  
• It is refreshing to read something address something parochial, something which is not far from the concerns of an adolescent, and still make it matter.
  
  Wicked
• Radiance
• Piercing the Darkness
• Savor the Word
• Shiver
• Before Ever After
  
  
• I love the oxymoron—why that radiance, which is piercing the darkness, is described as wicked.
  

Book Spine Poetry January 2014: Judge's Review (1 of 4)

Last February, I invited Beverly "Bebang" Siy and Ronald "Poy" Verzo to judge entries in the Book Spine Poetry Contest that we're running in the library. The poems were entries for the month of January but judging transpired in February, National Arts Month. Serendipitous? Probably.

I will be posting their reviews in several parts.  Here is the first part of Bebang's review.

Ngayong National Arts Month, kakaibang patimpalak sa tula ang aking nilahukan bilang isang hurado. Pinamagatan itong Book Spine Poetry Contest na nilahukan ng mga estudyante ng Grades 9-12 ng Beacon Academy at inorganisa ng kanilang librarian na si Bb. Zarah C. Gagatiga.

Lahat ng kalahok ay kailangang makagawa ng isang tula gamit ang iba’t ibang pamagat ng aklat, na nakalimbag sa spine ng aklat. Ang isang spine ay katumbas ng isang taludtod. 

Dito ay hindi ako nagbago ng criteria sa ginawa kong paghusga sa mga kalahok. Ang ginawa ko ay katulad din ng paghusga ko sa karaniwang patimpalak sa tula. 

Bakit? 

Sapagkat ang proseso lamang ng paglikha ng tula ang naiiba rito. Ang Book Spine Poetry ay isang halimbawa ng Found Poetry. Ito ‘yong uri ng tula na binubuo ng mga salita o pariralang basta na lamang natagpuan. Malabo ba? Ganito, halimbawa ay ang tula na gawa sa ilang headline ng ilang diyaryo. O kaya ay ang  tula na gawa sa unang pariralang matatagpuan sa unang pahina ng unang sampung libro na madadampot sa isang aklatan. Ibig sabihin, pre-selected ang (mga) salita na siyang titindig bilang isang taludtod. Walang babaguhin ang sinumang nais gumawa ng tula mula sa mga natagpuan niyang salita o parirala. Ang maaari lamang baguhin (depende na sa makata) ay ang pagkakasunod-sunod ng taludtod at/o ang mga bantas na nakapaloob sa mga ito.

Kumbaga, hindi kailangang likhain mula sa bula ang isang taludtod. Sa patimpalak na ito ng Beacon Academy, nariyan ang mga spine ng aklat, nariyan ang salita o parirala sa bawat spine na siyang bubuo sa taludtod. Kailangang piliin ang mga ito at ayusin ang pagkakasunod-sunod para makalikha ng isang tula.

At dahil tula pa rin ito, inaasahang matatagpuan pa rin dito ang mga elemento ng nasabing anyong pampanitikan.

Narito ang ilan sa palagay ko na dapat taglayin ng isang tula (in no particular order po!):

1. Mapaglarong gamit ng wika

-ito ang dahilan kung bakit nagiging manunulat ang isang karaniwang tao. Nagbabago ang simpleng salita dahil sa mapaglarong gamit niya rito. Nagbabago ito ng anyo, ng kulay, ng hugis, ng amoy, ng lasa, ng tunog dahil sa masining na paggamit ng isang manunulat. 

Sa kaso ng mga spine bilang taludtod, maaaring nagbabago ang kahulugan ng orihinal na pamagat sa spine dahil sa mapaglaro at masining na pagkakasunod-sunod ng bawat spine. Nalalaro niya ang mga salita, at ang kahulugan at tunog nito batay sa pagkakasunod-sunod ng spine.

2. Talinghaga

Ito raw ay pinagsanib na dalawang salita: nakataling hiwaga. Walang eksaktong salin sa Ingles ang salitang talinghaga. Ayon sa UP Diksiyonaryong  Filipino, ito ay mapagbuong simulain ng isang akda, lalo na kaugnay ng malikhaing pangangasiwa sa tayutay at retorika. 

Ito ‘yong bagay sa loob ng tula na kapag naaninag  mo, ikaw ay mapapa-“aaa… iyon pala!” Maaaring maipahayag  ang talinghaga sa pamamagitan ng paggamit ng tayutay tulad ng simile, metaphor, irony, personification at marami pa. Maaari din namang ang talinghaga ay ang bagay na siyang hindi ipinapahayag sa isang tula. 

3. Mapaglarong gamit ng taludtod

Dahil sa patimpalak na ito, pre-selected ang (mga) salita sa isang spine o taludtod, ang kailangang bantayan ay kung paanong nagagamit ang pagkakaputol ng mga salita at diwa ng bawat spine. Nakakapagdagdag ba ito sa mensaheng nais iparating ng tula? Nakakapagdagdag ba ito para lalong maging interesting ang talinghaga sa tula? Dahil ba sa huling salita ng piniling spine ay nadagdagan ang pananabik para basahin ang susunod na spine? Ika nga ay, page turner ba ang huling salita ng bawat spine?

4. Persona

Ang persona ay ang mata na pinagmumulan ng isang tula. Kaninong mata ang nakakakita ng karanasan na nasa tula? Sa isang bata ba? Sa isang teenager o sa isang matanda? Sa isang mayaman ba, mahirap o middle class? Sa isang tao ba noong unang panahon o ngayong modernong panahon? Paalala: hindi kailangang tao ang may ari ng mga mata na ito. Maaaring maging mata ito ng isang yelo o kaya ng isang penguin.  Puwede ring mata ng isang buong bansa na naghihikahos. O kaya ng isang bansang gustong manakop ng ibang bansa. Kahit anong persona ay posible, walang hanggan ang posibilidad na mapagpipilian ng sinumang gustong tumula.

5. Mensahe at Tema

Bilang hurado, mahalaga rin sa akin ang tema o mensahe, hindi lang ang paraan kung paanong nilalaro ang mga salita o kung paanong ibinabaon sa mga salita ang isang talinghaga o kung paanong nayayari ang isang taludtod. Aanhin natin ang tulang napakahusay sa mga teknikalidad na nabanggit ngunit ampaw naman ang mensahe o di naman makabuluhan ang tema? 

Napakahirap gumawa ng tula ngunit sa kasawiang-palad, ang tula ay isa lamang messenger. Mas importante pa rin ang message na dala-dala ng messenger. Ang pogi nga ng messenger, wala namang kuwenta ang message niya, wala rin, di ba? Sayang lang ang panahon ng nakatanggap ng message. Kaya para sa akin, mahalagang nagbibigay ng angkop at makabuluhang mensahe ang isang tula o ang anumang pampanitikang akda.