-Bonsai by: Edith Tiempo

Game Time!

for you?

What is L VE

Our views on what love is may differ... but

for Edith Tiempo...

Love is like bonsai...

Did you know?• “Bonsai” is the art of growing miniature trees or plants in pots

and containers.

The art of dwarfing plants really originated in China yet it was Japan that developed, perfected, and shared this art to the rest of the world.

It is a “living art.”

In Japan, it represents a bridge between humankind, the soul, and the nature.

Edith L. Tiempo (1919 – 2011) • Edith L. Tiempo, poet, fictionist, teacher and

literary critic is one of the finest Filipino writers in English.

• Her works are characterized by a remarkable fusion of style and substance, of craftsmanship and insight.

• She was born on April 22, 1919 in Bayombong, Nueva Vizcaya.

• Her poems are intricate verbal transfigurations of significant experiences as revealed, in two of her much anthologized pieces, "The Little Marmoset" and "Bonsai".

• Widely acknowledged as the “Mother of Philippine Literature”.

About the author:

• She graduated from high school in Bayombong, then took pre-law at the University of the Philippines .

• There, she met and married fictionist Edilberto K. Tiempo.

• The couple moved to Silliman University in Dumaguete City, where she earned the degree of bachelor of science in education, major in English, magna cum laude, in 1947.

• She obtained her master of arts degree from the State University of Iowa, USA, in 19

About the author: • Her language has been marked as "descriptive

but unburdened by scrupulous detailing.”

• She was conferred the National Artist Award for Literature in 1999.

• Edith, together with her husband, founded the Silliman National Writers Workshop in 1962. It is an annual literary workshop held for three weeks every summer in Dumagete City, and it is the longest running literary workshop in the Philippines.

• Died on August 21, 2011 at the age of 92, because of myocardial infarction.

Bonsai All that I love

I fold over once And once again And keep in a box

Or a slit in a hollow post Or in my shoe

She finds a sense of security in keeping things that are dear to her and it already became a habit because she mentioned several places where she might have kept other things before. She also present these things as a reminder of important individuals and events in her life.

All that I love? Why, yes, but for the moment --- And for all time, both. Something that folds and keeps easy, Son’s note or Dad’s one gaudy tie, A roto picture of a young queen, A blue Indian shawl, even A money bill.

She exudes tension and confusion as seen in the first two lines, self-examines herself and realizes that love can be both temporal

and eternal, which comes to show that the love of a female persona is not only an affective act, but a cognitive one as well.

Simplifies everything she loves as something that could be folded and kept easy (turning one large concept into something small)

so that one’s memory will not be cluttered.

Makes love familiar and within reach by reducing it to material things such as a note, a tie, a picture…

Bonsai

Bonsai It’s utter sublimation

A feat, this heart’s control Moment to moment

To scale all love down To a cupped hand’s size

Realizes that keeping material things is just self-gratification and emphasizes on the importance of love undergoing sublimation into a “cupped hand’s size”.

Uses the metaphor “cupped hand’s size” to convey the image of asking and giving love to another, and to avoid the destructive effects of love.

Accomplishes the procedure of scaling love down (which is a feat) through utmost discipline and restraint.

Bonsai Till seashells are broken pieces From God’s own bright teeth. And life and love are real Things you can run and Breathless hand over To the merest child.

Uses the first two lines to explain to us that all things in this world including humans will come to an end where we will be judged

according to our deeds.

Tells us to share the material things to the needy (merest child) as all material things are but temporary but life and love are real,

considering God’s redemptive power for those who’ve done good.

Emphasizes on the importance of bequeathing the legacy of love to the next generation, to them who are the ideal recipients, since as

the cliche goes, “children are the future of the world”.

- Insights -

~References~• http://writerscollide.wordpress.com/2008/03/11/reduce-love-now-for-

safety-an-analysis-of-edith-tiempo’s-bonsai/• http://ralphseminogalan.blogspot.com/2008/05/edith-l-tiempos-

bonsai.html• http://nicethoughtsnthrills.blogspot.com/2009/08/whats-in-beatiful-

poem-bonsai.html• http://suite101.com/article/tiempos-bonsai-a30260• http://www.pinoyexchange.com/forums/showthread.php?t=75911• http://www.slideshare.net/TheaLeyva/e-105-bonsai-synecdoche• http://restyo.blogspot.com/2011/08/bonsai-by-edith-l-tiempo.html• http://www.bonsai4me.com/AdvTech/

ATPhilippineBonsaiShow2010.html• http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-a-bonsai-tree.htm• http://lifestyle.inquirer.net/45969/philippine-bonsai-artworks-are-

world-class-too