poetry book launch

Harold Vidal texted a few days ago, "Adto ta poetry book launch ni Adonis Durado? Ilaunch ang 'Dili tanang matagak, mahagbong (Not all that drops, falls)."

My reply, "Who's that?"

I've never been a fan of Cebuano poetry, because a. I don't understand them. b. I find it hard to read them. c. I never think about them.

But I'll keep an open mind.

The launch will be on October 18, Saturday, at 7:30 pm at the Gallery Q in A.S. Fortuna Street, Mandaue City. It will be a rare fusion of the arts as a show of paintings, sculptures, music, art performances, and poetry readings will be held to celebrate the launching of a local poet's first book of verses. The art exhibit will run until October 30.

Durado, who received the Emmanuel Lacaba Prize from the National Commission for Culture and the Arts in 2000 and "The Best New Writer" award from the Cebuano Studies Center and the Faigao Foundation in 2001, will also exhibit his artworks together with fellow artist-writers Josua Cabrera and Radel Paredes. Cabrera and Paredes will show their paintings, drawings, and ceramic sculptures inspired by the poems of their friend, Durado. Paredes also did the cover illustration for the latter's book.

Here's a sample of Durado's poem:

Love
(Pagpangga by Adonis Durado, translated by Merlie Alunan)

If you love someone
put all of yourself
in her.
Press your palm
over her palm
the way the two shells
of a clam
connect.
Keep kindly
all her smiles, her looks
that you may return them whole
with your kisses.
You could
allow yourself to be thrown
into the jungle
of her feelings and her mind
because at their edges
you know there are whirlpools
springing from her memories
which will gather mysteriously
into the ocean
of your heart.
That’s how you’ll sense
the huge sadness seeping
from the shadow
of that lone tree,
why bad dreams
waken you as dawn
wraps still the world,
an omen warning you
that she’s no longer by your side.
But when you discover her
peacefully sleeping
at your back
you’ll embrace her with
the joy of the hermit crab
who has found for itself
a new shelter.