Katipunera and Other Poems

Finally got my hands on the book.

Katipunera and Other Poems was first published when I was in college. We discussed it in our English class right away, and as a culminating activity, we invited the author herself to share her thoughts on the book and her writing prowess in general. It was when we had a talk with her that I came to include her in my list of inspiring people.

Elsa Martinez Coscolluela, "Doc Elsie" as we used to call her, was the VP for Academic Affairs of our school. We did not really know her, unlike perhaps if she taught a subject or two, for then we'd know how she was as a teacher. But as it was, we saw her only by the school corridors (very rarely) and school functions. And so, although we've heard of her literary achievements (the last I heard, she had already won 23 Palanca awards!), and we're proud of her somehow, she was to us, still a figure from a distance - a woman we looked up to but beyond our reach.

That changed the day of the talk. Wouldn't you be amused to know that one of the poems in her book talked about her ex? Would you not understand the toils that go with her success if you learned that for one literary piece she made, she had to pack her things up and go somewhere away from their home (it was to their farm, if I remember right) just to finish her work undisturbed? Would you not be amazed at this woman who seem to be strict and serious about life if you learned that when she was younger, she loved the nightlife so much, she would go to the class she teaches still drunk from the night before?

Ah, perhaps she is the woman she is today because apart from talent, she has a zest for life that enables her to give insights even on the little things that we dismiss as nothing. Her first poem in the book is proof enough: it is about "Cobwebs".

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Lifted from my old blog dated 4th July 2004.