Novel & Cerita Spoken Word Poetry Tungkol Sa Wika

SpellingI pummeled to misspell Astrosphinxas statuesque as May I sing with me? Words whiplashed on fire ice jeepneying with Saint Lazarus—the emperor of English over grasslilt parsing poison into ice creampoetry and screaming grammar noir.The narrative of tradition, beer-fellowedby cultural madness to digressand mull over a foamof savory crab fat alongsideour pickled come-what-mays. For this,‘Ikaw’ and ‘Ako’ separately are You and Me in Filipino, that by accident try to understand Taglish as nomadology

And this time, when it speaks, the word is different. Merge.

Pagbukas ko ay nagulantang ako sa pagbungad ng aking mga mata, si Tonton nakatayo sa aking harapan, nakatitig ito sa akin, habang hawak-hawak ang makislap na pangtabas ng palay, walang ano-mang ekspresyon sa mukha at katauhan niya, ilang segundo lang ay marahan siyang nagsalita, " Wala dito ang mundo natin, ipapakita ko sa iyo kung saan, kapatid." Wakas. Paano nagsimula ang lahat Nagsimula akong magka-interes sa literatura noong nabasa ko ang isang kuwento ni Genoveva Edroza-Matute sa libro na HIYAS NG WIKA sa Filipino subject noong high school pa lang ako. Ang pamagat ng kuwentong iyon ay HAKBANG SA KALAWAKAN, kuwento ito ng isang lalaking nanumbalik sa kanyang mga ala ala sa kanyang pinagl

he turned it into “Salubong sa Bagong Kabanata” Mulat ang siyang diwa ng bawat isa, Lahat ay may bakas ng ngiti sa mukha, Kapaligiran ay busog sa musika, Bata, matanda, handang-handa na sila, Sa pagsalubong sa bagong kabanata, Tuwa’t galak, bagong taon, parating na. I couldn’t help but to smile as I read the first stanza. I just know that he is good at creating Tagalog poems too. He is always using English as his medium.

Bigla kong naalala ang pakay ko kanina sa magkaibigan. “Lola, anong ibig sabihin ng gardo…wait garbo?” “Garbo. Ligaw. Bakit? Saan mo narinig ‘yan?” “Ha? Sa isa sa mga bata,” ngumiti ako pero deep inside iba ang kaba ko. “Iyong word na uyab?” “Jowa. Syota.” A little O-shaped in my mouth. “Ahm…yong dire?” “Hindi. No.”

) Saad nito sabay turo sa malaking bundok na'to. Everytime na maaalala ko ang sinabing 'yon ng ali kanina, di ko mapigilang mapailing-iling na lamang. Still unable to understand that alien language one bit. But one thing is for sure, Bisaya ang mga katagang 'yon. The dialect that Mindanaoan uses here. Good thing the bastard del Fuero had able to understand them so we were able to get this direction. This goddamn direction. Again, a loud exhausted sigh escaped from my mouth when I thought about it.

Hindi nito tinapos ang pangungusap. At hindi na siya nagtanong dahil nahulaan na niya kung ano ang susunod sanang sasabihin nito. "Uhm, mabuti naman at matatas ka pa ring mag-Tagalog," patuloy niya kahit na medyo naiilang na naman siya. "Hindi ko puwedeng kalimutan ang sariling wika ko." "Pulos paglalakbay lang ba ang ginawa mo nung wala ka dito sa bansa natin?"

I remembered how Edwin used to talk, so I stood up for my mother-in-law, "Edwin, you can't be so unkind. Your mom is only trying to help you. She's your mom; she wouldn't hurt you on purpose, right? "She worked so hard to raise you. She's always been careful with money, and she didn't mean to make a mistake. Can't you be a little more understanding?" I used to hear Edwin say those things when I was sick or when Teresa went to the hospital because of expired formula. Now, I was using his own words to see if he really was the devoted son he claimed to be. My words made everyone in the hospital ward look at Edwin, and they were all watching to see what he would do next.

The poem is titled 'SPEAK TO YOURSELF' and it reads thus. ******************************************************* How often do you converse with yourself? How often do you speak to yourself? How often do you listen to yourself when no one is speaking? How often do you minister to yourself? How often do you truly embrace yourself, your pain, your flaws, your truth, your fears... SPEAK TO YOURSELF Say to yourself.... "Though I am shattered and bereaved and I might wither with the wind but like seeds, I can sprout out of the ground, new and better. "