Just remember, you’re already winning with the talent that God gave you”.ĭuring my teenage years, I enjoy listening to Lauryn Hill’s album “ The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill” because my heart was rhyming on every line and in every song. My Mama just told me “ If you lose, that’s okay. I felt bad but thank God, my Mama is always there for me. But there are also times that I lose in poem writing contests. I got multiple awards from these competitions. I remember, I was writing short stories and sharing it to my grade school classmates and I want them to criticize it so I can develop and re-write on what to enhance in the story.Īnd then, I joined poem writing contests, oratorical speech contests, and even poster making contests from Grade one until High School. And that’s the time I started to have an interest in writing my own stories and develop twists in the ending. What I love about these books is that you can choose your own adventure, a gamebook series where the reader chooses the story. Not because Science is my favorite subject and NatGeo is my favorite channel, but because I enjoy reading “Goosebumps” and watching “Are you Afraid of the Dark”. Something like…īut what I really love to do is to write short stories and novels about mystery, aliens, and dinosaurs. Those were just very simple two-to-three liner poems that I used to show to my Mama. Poems about animals, nature, family, and friends. I had this pre-school pad paper that I used for writing poems. I started writing poems when I was 7 years old. How exactly did you start writing poetry? Was it something that you were already interested in as a kid? Was there a definitive book, movie, or character (or any reference) that influenced your writing style? I wrote more poems about AIDS awareness every night because as an HIV Advocate, I want and I need to spread knowledge, end the stigma, and get the right information about HIV and AIDS in the Philippines. I started writing poems about HIV/AIDS after one of my best friends died to the illness caused by AIDS. Image: Dexler de Jesusīut after Kahel, which is focused on mental health awareness, I started writing poems about HIV and AIDS… though I already had some poems and spoken words about PLHIV or People living with HIV and AIDS in the Philippines. And before I go to bed, I’ll write two to three spoken word and short poems as my stress reliever. During daytime, I hustle with managing IT business projects and technical trainings at 8-5, Monday to Friday BUT at the end of the day, I read books from my favorite Filipino authors, Marcelo Santos III, Eugene Evasco, and Rolando Tinio. But I still continue what I love to do, writing poems. It was a rollercoaster ride because It was very hard to balance my passion in writing and my daily professional work life. How are you doing? What have you been up to since Kahel?Īmazing as always! I’ve been extremely busy at work as Senior Manager for IT Systems Engineering after I launched my first book “Kahel” last February 2020. We asked him some questions we didn’t get to ask him the first time. There’s still so much we need to know about Paul. He dedicates this to all those who are infected, died, and have mourned the loss of a loved one because of the disease. He is joined by writers, poets, and spoken word artists who all contributed and collaborated on the book. This year, on World AIDS Day, Paul Cardenas relaunches his second book Mabaya, a collection of poems and stories for and about people living with HIV in the Philippines. We interviewed him previously when he launched his first book Kahel-a collection of Tagalog poems inspired by his experience as a survivor. This is not the first time we’re featuring Paul Cardenas on the site.
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