Poetry and Development

The Bohol Tribune

In This Our Journey

NESTOR MANIEBO PESTELOS

 As promised in my previous column, I will now write about the poetry portion of my second book, Old Warrior’s Poems and the Bohol Quake Assistance Story, which was launched in my Alma Mater, Quezon Provincial (now National) High School, in Lucena City on 26 June and in Baclayon, Bohol on 01 July.

Both occasions featured the reading of poems from the book , both in English or in Salin Tulas the latter meaning  translated poems but may not be literal translations.  In Annex 1 of the first book, Old Warrior and Other Poems, 

Ed de la Torre, writes:

“I have heard of Nestor Maniebo Pestelos in connection with his work on a computer program for mapping poverty and development work, mainly through the updates on Facebook.

“Recently he has been posting poems from a book of poetry he plans to publish this year. I encouraged him to do Bisaya translations along the lines pioneered by Pete Lacaba called Salin Awit. Pete takes English songs and composes Tagalog verses that capture the spirit of the songs, sometimes translating literally, sometimes not. Borrowing from the DepEd vocabulary about the alternative learning system, SalinAwit verses may not be equivalent, but comparable.”

Ed  calls  the SalinTula as “carrier single” in an album of songs published as Annex 1 in the first book.  In this second book, it is one of the featured  Salin Tulas from pages 64 to 83 of the new 227-page book.  Salin Tulas. It is heartwarming to note that Boholano and Tagalog writers have responded positively to my request for Salin Tulas and brought up the idea that sometime in the future, we may have a new book on Salin Tulas in both Boholano and Tagalog.

Included in the second Old Warrior book are the following Salin Tulas:

·         Awit ng Matandang Mandirigma (Edicio dela Torre)

·         Nangaraang Manggubat (Marianito Jose Luspo, Rey Anthony Chiu, Paul Joseph Vistal

·         Mga Daang Daan (Vim Nadera)

·         Ang Ating Tribu (Vim Nadera)

·         Mga Pinto (Vim Nadera)

·         Katahimikan (Vim Nadera)

·         Mga Taludtod Para Sa Mga Tulang Isisilang (Napoleon B. Imperial)

·         Mga Taludtod Bilang Mga Gunita (Napoleon B. Imperial)

·         Ubos sa Maong Bulan (Paul Joseph Vistal)

·         Kaputlin (Paul Joseph Vistal)

·         Pamalandong sa Lunhawang Kalayo sa Imong Kalag (Paul Joseph Vistal)

In addition to the 33 poems included this new book, co-authored with my former high school classmate, friend and lifetime counsellor and adviser, Milwida Sevilla-Reyes, who has lived with her family in Sydney, Australia for decades, the following key articles are included:

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-Revisiting Old Warrior’s Poems, by Al C. Palomar.  Al lives in Norman, Oklahoma. He is a member of Mensa Club, an exclusive group of certified geniuses who interestingly finds time to read comics and dummies. He continues to write poetry and essays but has no plans to them published. He has just sold the rights to his first book, The Ripening.

-On the Poem ‘Morning” by Leandro (Nonong) Llave. Nonong belongs to QNHS Class 70 . He was literary editor of the school paper and AFS Scholar. He is editor-writer  at the public affairs office of an embassy in Manila.

                                                                                                                                                                                            

-Nestor Maniebo Pestelos:   A Born Poet. An Intellectual by Milwida Sevilla-Reyes.   Milwida Sevilla-Reyes lives in Sydney with her family. She worked with the New South Wales Department of Education and Training. She is a volunteer teacher of the ESL/Conversational English class she set up in the Parish of St. Charles Borromeo and Our Lady Queen of Peace Ryde-Gladesville.

-Poetic Techniques and Terminology by Evelyn O’Connor.  Evelyn O’Connor is a high school teacher of English and an educational blogger. She is the recipient of Ireland’s Best Educational Blog for 2014. She was Ireland’s Teacher of the Year in 2012. She is married and has a young daughter.

-Part  II : Bohol Quake Assistance Story  written by Milwida Sevilla-Reyes and Nestor Maniebo Pestelos which contains the following key articles:

·         The BQA Story in Brief

·         The Birth of the BQA Fund Drive

·         The Community-Based Approach to Providing Shelter

·         BQA-BLDF’s 150 Core House Recipients

·         Lessons from the BQA Story

·         From Core Houses to Livelihood Projects

·         Youth Skills Training Project

·         Bike Rental & Bike Tour Baclayon by Marit Meijer

·         Placing Poverty on the Map by Chito Fuentes, Phil Daily Inquirer correspondent

·         Finding Strength in Community Service by Estrella Torres, Business Mirror reporter

This section also includes:

Set for book  launch,  Old Warrior and Other Poems (for the launch of the first book on 15

May 2k014) first published in panitikan.com.ph by Marianito Luspo.  Marianito Luspo is a professor of history and culture at the Holy Name University in Tagbilaran City. He is the curator of the University Museum and has distinguished himself as a writer and literary critic.

Mil Sevilla-Reyes, my close friend, co-author and editor of the book, true to her role as curator and  historian of our high school class, culled pieces from her collection of my high school and college days’ write-ups,  notes and love letters to former girl  friends, as well as blogs in later years, including notes to her and husband Cesar wherever I was in my United Nations assignments in remote villages in impoverished South Pacific countries and the Maldives.

From this tedious work, she was able to produce other precious items included in this new book, Old Warrior’s Poems and the Bohol Quake Assistance Story:

·         Musings of an aging Development Worker

·         NMP’s Literary Journey

·         From Quezon to Bohol: My Development Work Journey

Let me cite from two pieces included in the new book which are relevant to the topic, Poetry and Development:

Nestor, Sir Nes: Poet and Development Worker by Milwida C. Sevilla, and

Nestor Pestelos and the Poetry of Development by Edicio de la Torre

In the first article, our friend Mil writes:

“He has a foothold in two Philippine provinces: Quezon in Luzon, his birth place and where he spent his growing up years;  and in Bohol in the Visayas where he has lived for most of the past 33 years.

“Many of his QPHS friends and his UPLB (University of the Philippines, Los Banos) mates predicted he would be a man of letters and/or a philosophy professor. After all he was the analytical bookworm, deep thinking editor of their high school paper, THE COCONUT. In college, he was editor of the Aggie Green & Gold for two years. At 18, he was researcher-writer at the office of Dean Dioscoro L. Umali. Later, he became editor of the Monthly Bulletin the alumni paper of UPLB.”

Until my friend Mil convinced me to write poems again, I had  ignored the Muse for  more than 50 years. My tasks in the underground and development work took precedence over anything in my life, including literary and family matters.

In his essay, Ed dela Torre, former priest and still revolutionary of a different persuasion, asked a most relevant question:

“Are these poems his escape from the prose of development? A way to set his spirit free from the limits of development discourse? “

Ed quotes my explanation from the Preface of the book:  “I was writing these poems as therapy. As I approached and turned 70, I became increasingly self-critical of the road I had taken. I felt that all my hard work in development, which claimed most of a lifetime, had not amounted to anything significant at all. ..

“I needed again to believe in something – to gain optimism despite moral setbacks everywhere. In writing the poems, snatching time in-between meetings or worrying about them, I gained emotional distance from events or personalities  which frustrated me.”

Then he asks the ineluctable question:

“Did Nestor give up poetry when he decided to focus on relief, reconstruction, and development?”

His answer: “Not really, if we believe Juan Galman, an Argentinian poet.”

Let me quote here that poem, which is central to both my life and the pursuit of development and Art:

Poetry is a way of living.

Look at the people at your side. Do they eat? Suffer? Sing? Cry?

Help them fight for their hands, their eyes, their mouth, for the kiss to kiss and the kiss to give away, for their table, their bread, their letter e and their letter h, for their past – were they not children? – for their present, for the piece of peace, of history and happiness that belongs to them, for the piece of love, big, small, sad, joy, that belongs to them  and is taken away in the name of what, of what?

Your life will then be an innumerable river to be called pedro, juan, ana, maria, bird, lung, the air, my shirt, violin, sunset, stone, that handkerchief, old waltz, wooden horse.

Poetry is this.

Afterward, write it.

Doing development, then, is to do poetry, but we must write it. #Oldwarriorjourney

Note: for queries about the book, contact:

Florencia Gilay-Pestelos: Landline – 038 540 9327; Mobile - 09173041484; Email:  fgpestelos@yahoo.com

Lorena Sensen Balala:  Mobile – 09353635241

Romulo Pasco: Mobile: 09173066158; Email –glennmoli@yahoo.com.ph

NMP/03 July 2015/11.32 p.m.