Last Wednesday, April
22, 2015, I came to the 48th Annual Literary Contest celebrated in the
Amphitheater #3 of General Studies building in University of Puerto Rico, Rio
Piedras Campus. The contest was presented by the English Department, since
11:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m., to honoring the life and work of Mark Wekander and recognize
the students who won the contest. Prof. Eva Edwards welcomed us and talked a
little about Mark Wekander's writing and the importance of writing to express
feelings and ideas.
Later,
Mr. Rivera states the question “What is poetry?” and read the dictionary
definition of it: “Poetry is a form of literature that
uses aesthetic and
rhythmic qualities of language to
evoke meanings in addition to, or in place of, the prosaic ostensible meaning.” He said
something very important about the writing of most of us, college students. “We
don't write because we want to, we write because we must”, he said. I was
thinking about it, and he was right. We never want to write, we write because
we MUST to, for a class or something compulsory. This is a huge problem, we
have to promote writing and stop thinking about it as a assignment, but as a
benefit.
Prof.
Cynthia Pittman talked about the life and poetry of Mark Wekander. He born in
Nebraska and died here, in Puerto Rico. As a professor of University of Puerto
Rico, Rio Piedras Campus, he was leading a “Boricua writing project” in the
university. He published two novels, including his famous one “Bugs Have Us
Surround”, and many poems. His poetry contains four important aspects:
1. Here and there,
based on physical and geographical concepts.
2. Animals in our life,
because he was an animal lover and believe in the communication with animals to
reveal the truth.
3. By ways and
highways, based in mass media and popular culture.
4. Photography.
Two of his poems, In
Search of Here” and “Driving On” are examples of Here and There concept.
The
award was given to the winners and one of them, a girl, read her essay to us.
She wrote about some of the questions teenagers always do to themselves, "Who
am I?", “Where I belong?”, “What am I supposed to do?”. Her essay was
critic; she wants to be lawyer but she criticizes justice system and the cost
of studies in law school. By seeing student's works like this one, we learn
about how writing can lead us to present our works to others, and also win
prizes and awards. Writing is powerful!
