 |
| Mr. Noel P. Tuazon |
Today, I will
share to you my fair share of experience as a student of the teacher who
greatly influenced my life as a student, a human being and as a lover of art
and literature. I will not focus the lens of my story to my each prolific
encounter with Sir Tuazon but rather I will share to you the things this
teacher taught that were mostly beyond the understanding of the normal people.
I am not saying that my teacher is abnormal, I just want to highlight that this
person is EXCEPTIONAL in his craft.
I consider Sir
Tuazon as one of the few teachers who really inspired me to do my craft with
the best that I have and I considered myself as one of the lucky ones who was privileged
enough to be seated in one of his classes because it’s not every day you get
the chance to be mentored by a Sir Tuazon. It was when I was his student that I
became more passionate about reading classic literature books and my fanaticism
of Greek mythology was intensified. I felt like Alice in the Wonderland every
time I was in his class because it was always a journey of enthralling
discovery and after his class; I am back to my humdrum student life. I never
had an opportunity to express my gratitude to Sir Tuazon because I don’t want
to have those prying eyes focused on me so, Sir if you are reading this thank
you for the criticisms, thank you for the inspiration and thank you for sharing
to us your world.
If you want to know more about
Sir Noel Tuazon, here’s our output of the interview with the one and only Noel
P. Tuazon.
An Interview with the Poet from
Bingag
By:
Mary Cielo Padillo Joanne Tajan
Noel P. Tuazon,
a name not known to many but the name widely praised by the literary society.
Every day we see him in the corridors, in hallways and in the classrooms with
his heavy-looking black backpack walking like an ordinary teacher teaching
ordinary subjects but behind that ordinary image lies the extraordinary man who
conquered and shook the world of poets with his Cebuano poems and short
stories. Recently, Mr. Noel P. Tuazon won the first prize in the Palanca Awards
for his piece “Gutom”. This was not the first time he won in a literary
competition, he won several awards but despite the fame he remains humble and a
true product of the notion “Let my works speak of who I am”.
Everything
started by reading. The good professor started his writing prowess the
moment he started reading. He said that in every good book he read, he always aspire to write something about it or write something that is better than that book.
He studied the style and the way of how was it written. He said that when you
read you start to create a story in your mind and that was how he started
writing. At the age of 19, he officially started writing. His first poem was
entitled “Rain in June”. The poem was about the rain during his birthday and
how he had celebrated such momentous event in an ordinary way. Professionally,
he started writing at the age of 27 when he went to Manila to hone his craft by
taking his master’s degree in literature.
Master
fishers. Walt Whitman is his first love specially Whitman’s “The Leaves
of Grass”. The professor said that he had read it three times already but he
still had the same fascination as the very first time he had read it. Later on,
he fell in love with the short stories and poems of the famous American writer
Edgar Allan Poe. Among his master fishers are Carlos Bulosan, Cirilo F. Bautista, T.S. Elliott and E.E.
Cummings. One of his teacher even commented one time that his work is like that
of E.E Cummings. When asked how he felt about the comment, he said, it is a
privilege because it is E.E Cummings but it would be better if you are known
because of your imprint.
Palanca
Awards. He won two first prizes and three third prizes in Palanca
Awards. When he first joined the Palanca in 2001 he submitted three entries but
none of it won. So he mellowed a bit and made a comeback in 2003 in his “Kundat
sa Unang Gugma” which won third prize in the Palanca. In 2007, he won again
third in the Palanca. He brought home for the first time the first prize in
2012 in his “Duhiraw” and the following year he won again placing third in his
“Padre Botox”. This year he won the first prize again and when asked how it
feels to win another first prize he said, He was happy but it is just an
extension of the happiness because the moment you have finished your craft it
feels like falling in love for the first time. The momentum of happiness is not
when you win it’s when you made something, it’s when you write something. He
added that everytime he finished his work he would wake his wife asking her to
join his festive mood.
“Gutom”.
It is a social poem. In this poem, he used Palanca as a metaphor. It is a story
about a writer who won the Palanca Awards yet to everyone he is a nobody. The privilege
of being famous, rich and well-acclaimed is enjoyed by the wealthy people, the
T.V personalities and the comedians but not for the writers. The writer is just
a nobody and to Sir Tuazon it is gutom (Hunger).
The hunger of having the privilege to be acknowledged in the society and to
give justice to what they have contributed to humanity. Those people are just
entertaining the society but here comes a writer promoting awareness of what is
happening and making difference rest in the shadows of anonymity. “Gutom” is
about the argument of yes the writer won but during the Palanca Awards it is
not the artist who were being recognized but the rich people, the elite and the
famous. The Palanca was not held in honor for the artists but organized for the
rich.
The
best so far. Sir Tuazon treats all his works as the best because he
threats them as his children but he said that he can’t deny the fact that the
latest for the meantime becomes the best and when he writes another one it
becomes the best. Right now, he still considers “Gutom” as the best but when
the time comes that he will finished his “Bruno” probably, the approximation of
his appreciation will be changed.
The
Metaphor. When asked what is his life’s metaphor Sir Tuazon answered
“Kung metaphor ko, I am a rain, I like being sad than being happy. In fact, in
that I can write everything because in sadness I can write happy stories, in my
smile you can feel my sadness…”
The
Imprint. Before we parted, Sir Tuazon left these words “ Read, read,
read. By reading you are imagining, by simply imagining you are creating your
own world and by creating your own world you can change what is going on in
your own society or what is going on in your world…Reading is the very
birthplace of writing.”
Here are some articles and works
of Noel P. Tuazon,
Would like to thank Sir Tuazon
for the interview, Zorah Marie Barrera for the trailer and Joan Tajan.
i miss you sir and our everything under the sun talks...
ReplyDeletewow....miss you both!
ReplyDeletehi sir! Makamingaw ka sa HNU!
Delete