Dr. Aurelio S. Agcaoili of the University of Hawaii and Honor Blanco Cabie, night editor of the Manila Standard and three others will have their poetry books launched this week during the virtual conference of the 16th Nakem Conference hosted by Benguet State University.
The three others are Dr. Orlino and Mrs. Estrella Baldonado, and Dr. Alvin B. Gaerlan.
The conference, with the virtual participation of Nakem Philippines, Nakem Hawaii, Nakem California, Nakem Canada and Nakem Without Borders will tackle topics on “Indigenous Communities & Languages, and Engaged Inclusion for Civics and Citizenship.”
The three-day conference via Zoom, starting December 9, has been organized with Nakem (National Alliance for Knowledge, Empowerment & Meaning) Conferences Philippines and the University of Hawaii Ilokano Program – with nearly 100 participants and discussants, organizers said.
Agcaoili, trilingual poet and lexicographer, will have his seven books in English and Ilokano: Paraoir Poems; Covidizado Dagiti Aldawtayo/Our Days are Covidized; Elsewhere/Iti Sabali a Disso; Pardanon/Consummated/ Konsumado; Bayengyeng; Ayamuom; Pagsasao (edited with introduction); Adda Sara ti Dadaulo Ken Dadduma Pay a Sariugma/The Leader Has Horns and Other Tales.
The others are: Dr. Orlino & Mrs. Estrella Baldonado, Angalo Ken Aran; and Dr. Alvin B. Gaerlan, The Almighty Moves Mountains; Dungdung-aw/Lamentations.
Published by Hoaeae Publications in Marikina City, Cabie’s Dandaniw (Poems) slim volume contains nearly 70 sonnets of Shakespearean, Petrarchan and Spenserian – from his nearly 65,000 sonnets written since the mid 1960s – and 20 others in cinquain, haiku, tanka, palindrome and villanelle.
The book is introduced by Agcaoili, on the teaching staff of the University of Hawaii who in 2020 received the US Fulbright Award whose works are in the areas of lexicography, translation, creative writing, policy studies, and cultural criticism.
Cabie’s poems, arranged by his son Heracles Lord Bernardo, revolve around his thoughts and sentiments as well as experiences as an observer of events, his creed as a family man, a newsroom wordsmith and as an academic in the university.
Cabie writes in English and Filipino and won the first prize in the Poetry Writing Competition in the 16th World Conference of Poets in 2000 with his sonnet on street children in a Third World city, five years after winning a literature grant from the Cultural Center of the
Philippines with his poems which talked of the cultural heritage of Ilokanos.