StarBulletin.com

Bus rides inspire concept behind poetry collection


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POSTED: Sunday, April 25, 2010

Another publication with a somewhat novel approach to poetry is this recent chapbook written by 24-year-old Gizelle Gajelonia and put out by the experimentally minded local Tinfish Press.

The book is Gajelonia's first published work. The poet, who came to Hawaii with her family from the Philippines back in 1996, plans to return to the University of Hawaii-Manoa in the fall to work on her master's in creative writing.

“;Thirteen Ways of Looking at TheBus”; is the result of two semesters' worth of research and writing for her honors thesis.

“;I wanted to explore the idea of intertextuality, or writing inspired by other literary texts,”; she said. “;I translated and parodied canonical poems, and I thought the use of TheBus was a good vehicle to base my poems on, as it transfers people from one place to another.”; (And yes, she does use the transit line. A lot.)

Her professor and press editor Susan Schultz picked the best poems from her thesis. Gajelonia said that the one parody she is particularly proud of is “;He Do Da Kine in Different Voices,”; inspired by T.S. Eliot's “;The Wasteland.”;

“;Besides myself, I like to put a lot of different local voices in my writing,”; she said.

               

     

 

 

'THIRTEEN WAYS OF LOOKING AT THEBUS'

        By Gizelle Gajelonia Tinfish Press, 44 pgs., $12