Poetry

Works that contains lyrical and set-rhythmic structures from set stanza patterns and experimental language use such as fragmentation.

Down Below

My submission for the 2022 River of Words competition.

Contest theme? Watersheds.

Written approximately on ~January 29, 2022.

A poem with exactly 32 lines. For a short poem, it's somewhat one of my proudest works, coupled with the fact that I took about 30 minutes to write the original draft in my research class in 11th grade. I believe the poem captured somehow an efficient way to really show the peacefulness, the zen, the mesmerization one can simply get from just looking into the world of nature, that is seemingly untouched or left undisturbed by any of us.

Was you.

My submission for the 2022 YGA or Young Georgia Author's Competition.

With no theme for the contest, I used this entry as a means to try to practice extensively how to write emotional writing.

Written from: January 4, 2022 to February 2, 2022.

When writing this poem, I had to get feedback from friends mainly on how they felt when they read it. While I didn't ask or take feedback on how to improve it too much, I mainly tried to gauge their emotions when reading it and see how I could have improved it from there. That being said though, writing this poem was incredibly inspired by 2 movies I watched: Your Name and "I Want to Eat Your Pancreas". Strange name, I know.

I wanted to really capture one of the best couple tropes I had, which was childhood friendship, but not trying to even mention too much of romance (though, it's most likely implied at this point...). The reason why I didn't want to really mention romantic love was because I feel that love in itself is very variable depending on context, given my experience in seeing relationships of the most toxic kind or dream ones we see in shows. With that out there, I really wanted to focus on a sort of "continuity of identity" given sometimes, we fear people the closest to us may change to a point where we don't even know them anymore, but just seeing a speck of their old selves, at least for me, is always reassuring. To know that despite it all, they're still them and you're still you.

Again, while it is surely not perfect, I really learned a thing or two while writing this such as when writing emotional stories, not only should it impact your audience but your audience as well. Writing the original draft had me emotionally exhausted for sure but after re-reading so many times when I went through my 4 or something drafts of this poem, I didn't even know it was emotional anymore. My goal was to at least make someone cry, which was a tall order given this is practically my 1st attempt in writing something emotionally charged.

Still in Limbo

A poem about being still in limbo.

Written on September 8, 2022

And yet here you are

still in limbo.

This was a poem I wrote in about 15-25 minutes during a club meeting I had (Association of Artists) which had a weekly theme of time!

Honestly for this one, I just let my mind just go and just scribbled whatever idea I had and then put it into paper. Of course, you may see some inspiration to E.E. Cummings and some Dante's Inferno (despite me having never concretely read it) but in short, I just liked to think limbo as a sort of medium similar to purgatory where it's not really a hell but a place of just regret. Yet being me as the optimistic one, limbo is a place that the glimmer of redemption stays where demons and angels await. But as the time flies for that hope to come by, all your experience in time collides in a crash of reflection, pain, and regret (which someone once told me is arguably the most disgusting word of the English language, which I can really see), as you live upon a wish that you were never there in the first place.

All in a Summer

A poem coinciding with the theme "season of change".

Written on September 15, 2022

"It was May

Where the sun tells of the promised days"

This was a poem I wrote by improv in another of a club meeting I had: Association of Artists. By the time I have written this, this poem is already 1 month old but I didn't find the time to really describe it in detail or post it here as of yet. Though some goodness in that 1 month span is that I finally found 2 officer positions in literary clubs: vice or co-president for the Rockdale Poetic Society and the Chair of Literature for the Association of Artists.

But getting that update out of the way, let me talk about this poem. This poem can be vague and has been interpreted before as just a case of depression, anxiety, and some sort of delusionary state or fantastical escapism. But if you REALLY want to know why I made this poem, the real reason is simple: It describes somewhat of my experience in "Hansha". If you hadn't written the description I typed for Hansha, then that's fine because I'll just quickly summarize it there. Hansha marked one of my largest projects in writing that I have done so far - writing a novella. But to cut it short, the process was immensely grueling and demotivating since while I found editing smaller pieces of work to be more convenient, editing A LARGE PIECE was immensely eye-opening and put me in a hole where I just wandered and stagnated for a solid 1 or 2 months during the process.

While I ultimately got it done as it was approaching a deadline, I found myself thinking of the low point and large writer's block I came in contact with during this era as I thought of the theme "change" since before I knew it, the summer break had ended and I ended up just wallowing in thoughts of "I couldn't do it." So as a result, I created this piece of work commemorating such an experience as I reflected when "the sun told of the promised days".

Museum Stars

A poem made with the intention to empower.

Written around January 19, 2023.

"Because history

is only made today."

The thing is that despite being in the Rockdale Poetic Society, most of the poems I make there are made in a ~30 minute constraint or less so most poems I generate there are highly improv and thus, not really something that's worth showing here...

However, this one though was a poem that I felt really good about. Before our Black History program's theme was changed, it had a theme surrounding a "Night at the Museum". To me, that image in my head was really awe-inspiring and brilliant because the scenery of a dim-lighted museum with artifacts from centuries/eons-ago that are so still in life but so vibrant in its background heralded a juxtaposition which I felt was really fascinating to say the least.

As a result, I wrote a poem in the hopes that it would fit the theme of program and generated this - with a touch of inspiration from spoken word poetry and the empowerment that MLK left behind for our generation (a story of a struggle for peace that is still a source of awe and motivation for me today despite being a Filipino by race).

Also, thank you so much to the Color of Youth organization for featuring this poem on their website! Marking the first time one of my poems have been published by an org, I am immensely grateful for the opportunity and recognition given to my piece!

You can check out my poem's display here on: https://www.colorofyouth.org/writing/museum-stars

Chances

A poem about limitedness and opportunity (in respect to Black History)

Written on February 13, 2023

"Give me a chance, I say."

Being a speaker in our Black History Month's program segment "Poetry Cafe", I realized something. There's a great contrast to spoken word poetry and written poetry.

I always heard about the notion "SLAM poetry", not knowing the difference. But after hearing it myself, I realized that some poetry - like ones with all these hidden literal meanings tied down to its structure - are more appreciated when reading it yourself. But ones where the speaker can make something else out of the words on paper like the use of juxtaposition or empowering language - which can come off as otherwise bland when read in your mind - are at times, more appreciated when listened to when written.

So making that mental note down, I took a shot at it. Not much literal meanings or too much depth. But I feel given the simple yet meaningful structure and word choice, the true power of it comes from how the narrator or speaker of this poem chooses to voice their emotions out of it. In a sense, you can call this poem a compromise - where the writing and speaking meets halfway to achieve the full experience.