Tagalog Slang Hay(na)ku, by marlon unas esguerra

Tagalog Slang Hay(na)ku
by marlon unas esguerra

statement: For the last 20 years, I've kept in communication with about 26 of my ~83 cousins in the Philippines.
Aside from our blood connection, there is another sad, common thread between us: I have yet to meet the vast
majority of them in person. I have not been back "home home" since 1986. Granted, through Yahoo Messenger,
E-mail, Flickr, MySpace, Friendster, and even an Esguerra family website, we have "seen" and "talked" to one
another extensively.

Over the last two or three years, a dominant form of communication has led to callused thumbs, astronomical
cell phone overages, and some great poetry: text messaging. My cousins, and now their children, some of whom
send as many as 100 text messages a day (not all to me, thank God), use this form of communiqué above all others,
because of its immediacy, accessibility and inherent stealthiness. In trying to keep up with their texts, I've
encountered two factors that impede my ability to avoid horrendous miscommunication: tagalog slang
and slow thumbs. Over the last few years, I've been completely dumbfouded, not only by the complexities of
tagalog-english colloquialisms, but also my relatives' stubbornness to comprehend and forgive my inability to
decipher their "taglish/engalog."

As I began devising ways to brush up on my tagalog slang, I found a website, pinoyslang.com, among others,
that explained a great deal of common terms. At the same time, I began experimenting in the Hay(na)ku form,
created by the Filipina poet maven, Eileen Tabios. I found great entertainment in responding to my relatives'
dense texts with Hay(na)ku. Whenever they sent a text with a term or phrase I didn't understand, I would first
look it up, have my moment of aside (ala Family Guy), then respond with a Hay(na)ku using that word or phrase.
My Hay(na)ku served two primary purposes: 1) it provided a short palette, perfect for text messaging, for responding
to my cousins, and 2) returned my frustration/confusion with a bit of poetry that would no doubt confound them in turn!

I would like to make a book solely of those text message conversations, but I never thought about documenting
them until very recently. In lieu of that documentation, this project attempts to emulate the process in constructing
my Hay(na)ku. Below is a slang term pulled from pinoyslang.com, that more often than not, made its way via thumbs.
Under the definition, is a seies of videos extracted from YouTube. The selection was created using the slang term itself
or a related keyword (as it relates to my reason and imagination that is) as the search string/tag. The YouTube videos
are my virtual aside; the term as the genesis for my mental milieu. Under each video is a text box for you to create your
own Hay(na)ku. You can construct one for each box and string the Hay(na)ku together. An alternative is to jot down a
word or two under each video and then essentialize the series into one Hay(na)ku. At the bottom of this page is a brief
description of the Hay(na)ku form. Enjoy! ~marlon unas esguerra

note: I use the Filipino Alphabet that was official between 1976 and 1987 for this project. This is due largely in part not only
because it dates near my birthyear and the last time I was in the Philippines, but also because 1986 marks the endpoint
of my fluency in Tagalog, as well as Cebuano. I have never been as fluent in these languages as when I was last in the
Philippines, so close to family.


Aa ä Adidas 1 n. barbecued chicken feet http://pinoyslang.com/define/adidas/

example: briefcase brings golden step to feet	ex. called the c-walk without the sphere	ex. believe in setting up your teammates	ex. bears and porrnstars bbq the machine	ex. chicken rap rock catches the undertow	ex. last one picked last one tricks
example of final construction Adidas briefcase brings golden step to feet * called the c-walk without the sphere * believe in setting up your teammates * bears and porrnstars bbq the machine * chicken rap rock catches the undertow * last one picked last one tricks

from The Hay(na)ku Verse Form, a 21st century poetry form.
by Joan Zimmerman

History. || Form ||Your Composition

History.

Invented by poet Eileen Tabios, who is also publisher, Meritage Press.
Officially inaugurated on the Web on June 12th, 2003 (Philippine Independence Day).
The form spread through the Web to poets all over the world.
Eileen Tabios initially called the form "the Pinoy Haiku".
Vince Gotera proposed the name "hay(na)ku", and this name has stuck. This corresponds to a Tagalog phrase that means roughly "Oh!" or (in Spanish) "Madre mía".
The last syllable is pronounced "ko" so maybe the final name will be even more independent of "hayku": "hay(na)ko".

Form.

In a traditional Hay(na)ku, there are:

A tercet: 3 lines.
A total of 6 words: 1 in the first line, 2 in the second line, and 3 in the third line.
There is no restriction on syllables or stressed or rhymes.

Variations:

The longest line can be placed first and the shortest last. The total is still 6 words: 3 in the first line, 2 in the second line, and 1 in the third line.
Multiple hay(na)ku can be chained to form a longer poem.
See the anthology for more variations.

A Last Word.: Just because you start with the intention of writing a Hay(na)ku, you do not have to keep your poem in that form if it does not work for you. Your attempt to write a formal poem may help you find words that you would not have found otherwise. And you may decide that you choose to end up with a poem in a different form, perhaps even a prose poem.