Saturday, June 12, 2004
the awakening
Members in my poetry group in writersvillage take turn in giving assignments by way of prompts or challenges. This week is Marylynn's turn. She asked us to take an old photograph and create a poem out of it.
If you have been to my other blog, I posted an old picture of mine there, playing the guitar and sporting long hair. I don't have too many old pictures. My family seems not to be keen on keeping them like most Filipino families do. So, i used this picture again and came up with this poem. This is partly fact and partly fiction. Some parts used exaggerations for dramatic effect. here it is:
the awakening
those were happy times
when everything was new
and all was mine to discover.
all I did was strum my guitar
figuring out chords to songs all day,
groom my long, thick hair or
watch the latest movie,
play hooky and miss chemistry.
tag along with friends,
party all night long.
shoot a ball to the hoop or
gamble my money in billiard halls.
those were such happy times!
Learned to puff a cig
intoxicated by 6
trying not to breathe as I pass
by my mom, my dad or the dog
smoke weed or pop a pill
everything was new
life is like the seasons
coming back from where it goes
until I discovered, spring has to stop
coming back, too. It will stop
when it doesn't matter anymore,
it will cease the day one stops to breathe
too late to have discovered that
now that it's almost the time in life
for spring to cease to exist.
rolly
(5) comments
If you need further assistance please see this
If you have been to my other blog, I posted an old picture of mine there, playing the guitar and sporting long hair. I don't have too many old pictures. My family seems not to be keen on keeping them like most Filipino families do. So, i used this picture again and came up with this poem. This is partly fact and partly fiction. Some parts used exaggerations for dramatic effect. here it is:
the awakening
those were happy times
when everything was new
and all was mine to discover.
all I did was strum my guitar
figuring out chords to songs all day,
groom my long, thick hair or
watch the latest movie,
play hooky and miss chemistry.
tag along with friends,
party all night long.
shoot a ball to the hoop or
gamble my money in billiard halls.
those were such happy times!
Learned to puff a cig
intoxicated by 6
trying not to breathe as I pass
by my mom, my dad or the dog
smoke weed or pop a pill
everything was new
life is like the seasons
coming back from where it goes
until I discovered, spring has to stop
coming back, too. It will stop
when it doesn't matter anymore,
it will cease the day one stops to breathe
too late to have discovered that
now that it's almost the time in life
for spring to cease to exist.
rolly
Sunday, June 06, 2004
Is conversation a lost art?
A friend of mine came to me to ask for help. She has an assignment to write a piece on the topic, "Is conversation a lost art?" I decided to help her as it might be a good exercise for my brain and besides, I have nothing to blog about for quite sometime now. Here is my take. Let me hear what you have to say:
Is conversation a lost art? I don't think so. More than anything, it has become even stronger. Before I delve deeper into the discussion, let me define what conversation is first. Conversation entails at least two people exchanging ideas about events, people and importantly enough, more ideas. Hence, it is the main component in communication where there is a giver and a receiver.
Another key component to conversation is the immediacy by which ideas are communicated. Thus, it is conversation when two people are talking to each other, exchanging what they believe in. Having said that, now comes the question of it being "art". There is no clearcut definition of what art is. When asked about what is jazz, Duke Ellington answered, "if you have to ask, then you'll never know." Yet, loosely, art is creating, and showing what is beautiful. This being the case, we refer to painters, poets, dancers, etc. as artists. Simple as it may sound, the complexity arises in the fact that people vary with their concept of beauty. As there are different variations of what is beautiful, so are there variations of what the term "art" means.
Having said that, how do we consider conversation as art? The beauty of conversation is that it is about the transfer of one idea to another. It is about reception and the giving of information. It is even a higher artform when a presented idea is challenged for what follows is a deeper conversation where each of the speakers engage in arguing and persuading one another. We call this argumentation and debate.
Is conversation a lost art? No. With the advent of computers and high technology, conversation is brought to an even higher level. Alvin Toffler, author of Future Shock and the Third Wave, dubbed our times as the age of information. How can he be wrong? The emergence of email, beepers, cell phones and other electronic devices attest to this fact. This emergence of high technology as used to relay information made conversation more accessible even if the communicants are far from one another. And because this brought about the possibility of interacting with one another wothout physical presence, the communicator of an idea is less inhibited to present his/her side and so, is freer to say what he'she wants to say. Conversely, the receptor is likewise, less inhibited to disagree.
The best example would be the political climate we are in. If it is anything at all, it is about the free exchange of ideas. True, we may be in the slumps right now, but that is a different topic altogether. Conversation-wise, we are at the top of the art form. That is the true essence of democracy, that is the right to express and be heard. That is the essence of the art of conversation.
(3) comments
If you need further assistance please see this
Is conversation a lost art? I don't think so. More than anything, it has become even stronger. Before I delve deeper into the discussion, let me define what conversation is first. Conversation entails at least two people exchanging ideas about events, people and importantly enough, more ideas. Hence, it is the main component in communication where there is a giver and a receiver.
Another key component to conversation is the immediacy by which ideas are communicated. Thus, it is conversation when two people are talking to each other, exchanging what they believe in. Having said that, now comes the question of it being "art". There is no clearcut definition of what art is. When asked about what is jazz, Duke Ellington answered, "if you have to ask, then you'll never know." Yet, loosely, art is creating, and showing what is beautiful. This being the case, we refer to painters, poets, dancers, etc. as artists. Simple as it may sound, the complexity arises in the fact that people vary with their concept of beauty. As there are different variations of what is beautiful, so are there variations of what the term "art" means.
Having said that, how do we consider conversation as art? The beauty of conversation is that it is about the transfer of one idea to another. It is about reception and the giving of information. It is even a higher artform when a presented idea is challenged for what follows is a deeper conversation where each of the speakers engage in arguing and persuading one another. We call this argumentation and debate.
Is conversation a lost art? No. With the advent of computers and high technology, conversation is brought to an even higher level. Alvin Toffler, author of Future Shock and the Third Wave, dubbed our times as the age of information. How can he be wrong? The emergence of email, beepers, cell phones and other electronic devices attest to this fact. This emergence of high technology as used to relay information made conversation more accessible even if the communicants are far from one another. And because this brought about the possibility of interacting with one another wothout physical presence, the communicator of an idea is less inhibited to present his/her side and so, is freer to say what he'she wants to say. Conversely, the receptor is likewise, less inhibited to disagree.
The best example would be the political climate we are in. If it is anything at all, it is about the free exchange of ideas. True, we may be in the slumps right now, but that is a different topic altogether. Conversation-wise, we are at the top of the art form. That is the true essence of democracy, that is the right to express and be heard. That is the essence of the art of conversation.
