Eileen R. Tabios presents
Preface to 147 MILLION ORPHANS: MMXI-MML
(Gradient Books, Finland,
2014)
PRE
While
no one really knows the number of orphans worldwide, a common estimate is 147
million. These children represent one of
the greatest humanitarian tragedies of our time even as their plight fails to
receive as much attention as natural disasters or wars.
147 MILLION ORPHANS:
MMXI-MML
is the first book-length haybun poetry collection. A “haybun” is a combination of hay(na)ku and
other text. The hay(na)ku is a 21st century diasporic poetic
form; its core is a tercet-based stanza with the first line being one word, the
second line being two words, and the third line being three words.
For
these haybun, the opening hay(na)ku tercet generally served as impetus to the
subsequent prose. Each word forming the hay(na)ku tercets is taken from a
school project by Eileen R. Tabios’ adopted son.* After arriving in the United States, Eileen's son had been encouraged to learn English in 8th grade partly by learning
25 new words a week.
[* Notwithstanding the reference to the author's son, it should be noted that the book is not about her son but experiences and knowledge the author gained during international adoption processes.]
No comments:
Post a Comment