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Guest Blogger: Poetry by Elmer Omar Pizo

March 23, 2020 by admin 1 Comment

In this dif­fi­cult time of Coro­n­avirus,  I am hap­py to fea­ture poet­ry by Elmer Omar Pizo, a Fil­ipino who now resides in Hawaii. May his poet­ry con­tribute to the heal­ing that we need dur­ing this uncer­tain time. Thank you Elmer for being my guest blog­ger. ~ Cecil­ia Brainard

 

 

POETRY BY GUEST BLOGGER ELMER OMAR PIZO

 

I.

Rice birds

on the ground
in front of your house—
kicking,
sidestepping,
hopping
every now and then,
matched by their heads
moving
up and down—
look­ing for scraps
from Grazia
and her month-old pup­pies’ breakfast
of fried rice
and fish pinangat.

Mean­while,
the over­cast sky’s clear­ing up.
From time to time,
as they continue
in their search for bits
of food—
high-pitched,
but sweet, pleas­ing chirps
escape from their beaks.

In my silence,
they fill my half-deaf ears
with joy so difficult
for me
to explain,
to resist.

 

II.

“Madame Maria Christina.

in every prac­ti­cal sense,
believe me,
Birds
can­not live
by scraps alone.

They need to pick up
tiny stones
to crush and grind
the seeds
they have packed inside
their gizzards
before they can get
the nourishment

much-need­ed
by their tiny bodies.”

 

Maria Christi­na A. Calachan
Pozor­ru­bio, Pangasinan
March 12, 2020

 

elmer omar bas­cos pizo
old ewa, ewa beach, hawai’i


BIO of Elmer Omar Pizo

He came from a fam­i­ly of farm­ers, teach­ers, sol­diers, and reli­gious lead­ers in the Ilo­cos, La Union and Pan­gasi­nan, the Philip­pines. He entered the Angli­can St. Andrew’s The­o­log­i­cal Sem­i­nary after high school. On his sec­ond year in the sem­i­nary, he left of Benguet State Uni­ver­si­ty where he earned a B.S. Agri­cul­ture Sci­ence degree in 1981.

He raised egg­plants, goats, chick­ens, and ducks in Pan­gasi­nan for a time before he taught Poul­try Pro­duc­tion at a Nation­al High School in a neigh­bor­ing town. Not long after, he went to Sau­di Ara­bia to work as a Green­house Agri­cul­tur­ist. Prob­lems cropped up when their month­ly salaries and work­ing con­di­tions were not met. He led the fight for what was due him and his co-work­ers. He was hauled to the Kal­a­booz, whipped every Fri­day for more than three months, then sent back home as an unde­sir­able worker.

A res­i­dent of Ewa Beach for the last 22 years, he now works as a handy­man after work­ing as an Out­reach Work­er for the Hawaii Depart­ment of Health’s Tuber­cu­lo­sis Pro­gram and as an Inspec­tor for its Vec­tor Con­trol Pro­gram for almost 16 years.

He was a Poet­ry Fel­low at the Ver­mont Stu­dio Cen­ter in Feb­ru­ary 2006. Pri­or to this, he was  also a Poet­ry Fel­low at the 2000 Sil­li­man Nation­al Writ­ers Work­shop in the Philippines.

His poems have been pub­lished (print and online) in the US and in the Philip­pines, includ­ing Bam­boo Ridge Press, Hawaii Review, Mag­a­n­da Mag­a­zine, Tayo Lit­er­ary Mag­a­zine, Crate Lit­er­ary Mag­a­zine, Mutu­al Pub­lish­ing, PAWA, Inc., Likhaan Online Uni­ver­si­ty of the Philip­pines-Dil­i­man Cre­ative Writ­ing Cen­ter, Our Own Voice Online Lit­er­ary Jour­nal, and Philip­pine Free Press.

His debut col­lec­tion of poems, Leav­ing Our Shad­ows Behind Us, was released by the Bam­boo Ridge Press, Hawai’i’s most respect­ed lit­er­ary jour­nal, in April of 2019.

pic­tures cour­tesy of Elmer Omar Pizo and wikimedia

This is also pub­lished in Cecil­i­a’s Trav­el blog: https://cbrainard.blogspot.com/2020/03/guest-blogger-poetry-by-elmer-omar-pizo.html

Please read also:

Inter­view of Elmer Omar Pizo: Manong Poems

Guest Blog­ger: Ralph Semi­no Galan on Diona Fil­ipino Poetry

Guest Blog­ger: Eliz­a­beth Ann Quirino’s Beef Nila­ga Short Ribs & Veg­eta­bles Stew

Tags: Philip­pines, Fil­ipino, poet­ry, poet, poems, Hawaii, Fil­ipino American

Filed Under: Nonfiction, poetry, Uncategorized Tagged With: Filipino, Filipino American, Guest Blogger, Hawaii, Philippines, poems, poet, poetry

Comments

  1. elmer omar pizo says

    March 23, 2020 at 10:07 pm

    I am so filled up with joy po. Napakalak­ing karangalang bigyan nyo ng space ang aking akda sa iyong pinag­pip­ita­ganang Blog. Itong piece ay sin­u­lat ko para kay Madame Maria Christi­na A. Calachan at sa mga ibong dumalaw at umaw­it sa kanya sa kani­la habang sila rin ay naka-lock­down sa Pan­gasi­nan last week. Pag­palain kayo lagi ng Ating Mahal na Pangi­noon. Maha­lo au ia oe.

    Reply

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Welcome!

I am a daugh­ter of the Philip­pines and an adopt­ed daugh­ter of Amer­i­ca. I have also trav­eled to many places so I am also a daugh­ter of the Earth. My expe­ri­ences have found their way into my sto­ries, which try to depict char­ac­ters caught in impor­tant moments in their lives, sit­u­a­tions that force them to act, make deci­sions, change. I try to see the world from my own point of view, not the dom­i­nant West­ern one, thus my inter­est in his­to­ry, cul­ture, and set­ting. But my char­ac­ters car­ry my sto­ries; they are the most impor­tant in my sto­ry-telling. I have to dive deep into them to under­stand their human­i­ty – their good­ness as well as their bad­ness, their beau­ty as well as their ugli­ness. Just like us. Just like each of us. I need to know where they came from, where they are now, so I under­stand where they are going. Just like us.

Please read my full biog­ra­phy here

 

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