Here is a wonderful way to begin the celebration with Mother\u2019s Day messages from Tinian in three languages.<\/p>\n
These haiku\/senryu are from a series of poetry workshops I conducted in the 6th grade English classes of Brenda Safer at Tinian Elementary School. Students were encouraged to write in the language of their choice.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Of course I have a bias toward\u00a0them but I must say these poems are superb. I have read thousands of\u00a0these short poems written by adults, I\u2019ve\u00a0written\u00a0over a thousand myself, and had some published in anthologies in\u00a0Japan, England, Canada, and the U.S. These students got the poetic abstract core idea of senryu, which are haiku about human nature. I conducted a series of workshops in their classroom with two classes of sixth graders. Mrs. Safer provided an atmosphere conducive to learning. We had workshops before holidays: Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Valentine\u2019s Day. Aside from helping them understand the poetic form itself I also told them to feel free to\u00a0 write in the language of their own choice and they would not be graded with numbers or letter grades. <\/p>\n
Their poems would be the accomplishment of expressing love and feelings toward their mothers. All the poems achieve great depth and understanding of the Japanese form of haiku and senryu. They are therefore perfect examples for our Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage. They first\u00a0appeared in the Saipan Tribune on May 8, 2018. Thanks to Saipan Tribune editor Jayvee Vallejera for printing the student\u2019s poems from Tinian and Saipan over the years.<\/p>\n
si nana\u2019s\/ importante\/ hu guiya hao\u2014Maria King
\nhugging mother\/ with love\/ mother\u2019s day\u2014Ricky Cruz
\nmother\/ sleeping\/ very sweet\u2014John Christian Guintu
\nhu guiya\/ nanahu\/ todu\u00a0I tiempo\u2014Victoria Sablan
\nmom\/ beautiful\/ inside and out\u2014Kiran Shresta
\nnana\/ sen bonita\/ ha\u2019anin\u00a0man nana\u2014Austin John Barcianas Sablan
\nwonderful caring\/ sweet lovely\/ mother\u2014Karen Lagunay
\nmother\/ sweet as sugar\/ ants come\u2014Clarence Rodriguez
\nmother\u2019s day\/ hu guiya hao\/ nanan biha\u2014John Eric B.
\nmom\u2019s endless love\/ beautiful benevolent\/ there for us\u2014Rose Cruz
\nbeautiful like roses\/ strong like steel\/ mother\u2014Ryusei Desebel
\nmy mom\/ gives me\/ warm hugs\u2014Yna Agbayani
\nmother\/ raised me\/ thankful\u2014John Victor Ancheta
\nnanay\/ mahal kita\/ everyday\u2014Allen Morilla
\nnanay\/ mahal kita\/ never forget that\u2014Vince Levi C.
\nmom\/ loving me\/ all day\u2014Bermar Lopez
\nhappy flower\/ sad cloud\/ beautiful mom\u2014Danivid Cing
\nmama nako\/ guwapa kanunay\/ gihigugma nako siya\u2014Beverly S.F.G.
\nshines like a diamond\/ wonderful rose\/ Mother\u2019s Day\u2014Jeralde Aldan
\nmom gives\/ courage\/ to us\u2014Louis Yin
\nalways caring\/ giver of life\/ Mom\u2014Sinalu Ray Cepeda
\nsmiling star\/ happy as a rainbow\u2014Mom\u2014Isa King Aldan
\nmother\/ lectures me though\/ wise\u2014Isshori Gurung
\nmom\/ without her\/ no love\u2014Elvie Dominguiano
\nI want to skydive\/ she says no\/ overprotective mom\u2014David Mendiola
\nmy mom\/ loves me\/ always\u2014Tara Diaz Pascua
\nmakes us stick together\/ center of our family\/ Mom\u2014Tasi Long
\nmom\/ so sweet\/ sugary chocolate\u2014Axl M. Ong
\nmom\/ hardworking\/ thank you\u2014Jared King
\nmother\u2019s love\/ all I need\/ family\u2014Vincent Manibusan
\ndad\/ loses things\/ Mom finds them\u2014Jeremiah Hofschneider
\nmother\u2019s endless love\/ beautiful kind\/ always there\u2014Dilasa Karki
\nmother thank you\/ for teaching us\/ being there\u2014Yoshiko Crisostimo
\nour mom\/ very strong\/ fights for us\/ Ishalaine N. Khan
\nmother \/ cuddles me\/ from fear\u2014John Mark Palilio
\nmom and I\/ totally bonding together\/ worth it\u2014Ashley Gwyneth Jumao-as
\nmotherly love\/ world wide\/ much sweetness\u2014Marina Joyce Chant
\nangel\/ my light\/ Mom\u2014Dhan Miguel N. Robles
\nmother\/ kisses me\/ every day\u2014Victor Sablan\u00a0
\nmama\/ stay with me\/ I need you\u2014Savannah Sandbergen
\nmom\/ brought me\/ to life\u2014Eddawn Loriel\u00a0Labador
\nmom\/ loves me\/ \u2018til the end\u2014Su Hyeon
\nmother gone\/ never forgotten\/ by her five Cesareans\u2014Joey Connolly<\/p>\n
Joey \u2018Pepe Batbon\u2019 Connolly (Special to the Saipan Tribune)<\/strong> Here is a wonderful way to begin the celebration with Mother\u2019s Day messages from Tinian…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":355846,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[26,23672,23673,13843],"class_list":["post-367812","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opinion","tag-cnmi","tag-lvnv","tag-nola","tag-pepe-batbon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/367812","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=367812"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/367812\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/355846"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=367812"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=367812"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=367812"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nJoey aka Pepe Batbon is a retired educator who taught in the CNMI, NOLA, and LVNV. He is a sonnet practitioner who enjoys stargazing.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"