Project

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Introduction

Every person has his or her own calling in the world, whether it is learning, art, or

music. We have our own special gifts in one another and this is the reason why I chose

Fernando Pessoa and Joe Balaz because their gifts of poetry just shined above the rest.

They each have their own unique characteristics in their poetry that makes them easy to

identify. I know for a fact that most of Joe Balaz’s poetry is in pidgin or is about the

ocean. Fernando Pessoa writes extensively about nature. He also has multiple

personalities throughout all his poems so it is easy to identify his poems.

I chose Fernando Pessoa because he descends from Portuguese ancestry like

myself; furthermore, was an amazing poet. His creativity and expression flows within

every poem. He made himself look like a different poet with each poem expressing

different feelings with every line. For example, “XXXI” by Pessoa personifies

extensively about flowers and nature. I love nature and he personifies nature in all his

poems. Every poem I have chosen from Pessoa identifies nature in its own way. I also

chose Fernando Pessoa because he had many different literary alter egos and most poets

that I researched didn’t have them. This is what made him so interesting to research and

learn about.

I chose Joe Balaz for my poet for Oceania, because as I was scanning through

books I came upon his poem “Spear Fisher.” Being interested in the title, I dove right into

the poem, reading it and beginning to like it. I liked the poem because he spoke about

places that were really familiar to me whether it was because I went to the places to fish

or surf. For example, he mentioned Hale’iwa, which is where I am from; I surf there, and

I dove there. After then researching Balaz, I didn’t find much about him except that he

was from Wahiawa and that he lives in the mainland now. Not being able to find

information on his made me think it was somewhat odd because Balaz seemed so

mysterious because there was no information on him at all. Balaz also has poetry on a CD

called Electric Laulau; he changes his voice and uses many different sound effects to

make his poems interesting and mysterious.

Tehani LouisPerkins Friday, April 20, 2012 7:46:59 AM HST 58:b0:35:a6:5a:46

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From this research project I definitely learned about different styles of poetry as I

mentioned previously from my two poets, Balaz and Pessoa. Even though they are from

different times and different areas of the world they both have one thing in common and

that is expression and verbally putting themselves inside their poems. It is as if their

poems are a reflection of their emotions flowing within them. My poets inspired me to

write my poem “Spider Web,” which like them I have written from the deepest part of

my inner emotions. I express myself throughout the poem showing my emotions and

feelings about the battle with my father.

The title of my booklet is “The Infinite Endeavor” because a lot of this booklet is

about overcoming struggle and hardships. The theme of my booklet has a lot to do with

struggle and expression whether it is from the two poets I have chosen or whether it is

from my personal poems. My poems come deep within me and express how I feel about

different situations and throughout different times in my life. I think it is good to express

oneself because that is how all emotion comes out and even though it starts off ugly and

terrible if I mold those feelings right it can turn into something beautiful.

I would like to dedicate this booklet to my mom, Tisha Louis because she has

taught me the most important lessons in life and has always been there for us through our

hardships and struggles. She was that glimpse of sunlight on that cloudy day, the hope for

us when we were down. Thank you so much mom for everything you have done for me, I

am forever thankful and most importantly I love you!


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Joseph P. Balaz Biography

Most poets think that Hawaii Creole English is an incomplete language, but in

reality Pidgin, as the people from Hawaii call it, is a real language, usually used when

two different cultures or languages try to talk to each other. Whether it is Hawaiian to

English or Chinese to Portuguese, Pidgin has been used all over the world especially in

the olden days. As Balaz said in “Da History of Pigeon,” “Even back den, da word

pigeon wen blend wit pigeon, foa get some moa pigeon” (Da History of Pigeon, Balaz).

Pidgin is a language that is just used everywhere, people around the world speak some

sort of pidgin. I learned this all from the ever so talented Joseph P. Balaz otherwise

known as Joe Balaz. He is an artist who creates concrete poems; poems in Pidgin, and

also uses music to enhance poems on YouTube such as “Eastside/Westside”

(Dominobuzz, Youtube.com). Balaz does it all!

Balaz lived in Wahiawa, O‘ahu when he was still residing in Hawai‘i. Thanks to

where he grew up he developed his own style of poetry. In some of his poems he writes

mostly about the ocean and the mountains, but he also just talks about life and Hawaiian

culture, combining his life experiences into poetry. This is why so many fans adore him

whether it is on his online publication or in poem collections such as TinFish,

Ho‘omānoa, and After the Drought. He now resides in northeast Ohio with his wife Mary

Ellen Derwis. Balaz and Derwis work together to form JOMA, which is an online

concrete poem and photography gallery (LITnIMAGE).

Joe Balaz composes poems in a way that anyone with native Hawaiian ancestry

can understand, Balaz someone who is really into his culture as a native Hawaiian. In

Ho‘omānoa, his preface reads of how proud he and many other contemporary Hawaiian

poets are proud of their culture. Ho‘omānoa itself is a collection of proud Hawaiians

interweaving their Hawaiian culture with English literature. “I dream of the ways of the

past - / I cannot go back;” Balaz writes a great deal about the characteristics of local

people (Ho‘omānoa, 73). In his poem Spear Fisher he talks about the fishermen on the

north shore. I can personally relate to this because I live on the north shore and growing

up next to the ocean I interact myself with the ocean everyday. In “Spear Fisher” he


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writes about how different people who don’t live on the north shore catch fish and hang it

up as if to “show of” what they had caught. In contrast Balaz writes “and I ate it”

(Ho‘omānoa, 37) after every fish he caught. He did not waste; he demonstrated one of the

biggest values for fishing and that is to only catch what is needed. The kaona of the

whole poem is that fishermen nowadays, whether local or not, are starting to overfish,

whether they’re representing any culture Hawaiian, Samoan, Tahitian, or even

Guamanians; they all know that when fishing the number one rule is to not take more

than enough for you or your family.

“So what if I cannot talk good English badah you? Just cuz you li’dat tink you

bettah den anybody else” (“In Da Same Place,” Electric Laulau). Balaz goes against all

odds when he writes poetry and speaks poetry in Hawaii Creole English or Pidgin. One of

Balaz’s CDs is Electric Laula” and he reads poetry exclusively in Pidgin. In his poem “In

Da Same Place,” he is basically telling everyone that I don’t need “proper” English to

express what I see in poetry. He is talking about nature and talking about everything he

sees everyday. I interpret this as Balaz telling me that he must have had people looking

down on him for speaking pidgin. Balaz says, “I can show the snobs at the university and

the guys in those fancy poetry clubs I see da same tings my mouth talk the same my heart

in the same place” (“In Da Same Place,” Electric Laulau). I can relate to Balaz because

where I live we speak pidgin however we please, and since tourists or other haole always

stop by, they look down on us because we never did speak “proper” English. Biased

people make everyone feel bad about themselves and about the way others are talking.

Balaz revealed that I should be proud of who I am and definitely not let any one look

down on me because I am just as intelligent as any “mainlander.” Balaz went on to talk

about his home, the surrounding ocean and how beautiful it is. Whether one is a

university scholar or just the uncle down the street watching the stars, we all live under

the same sky so we all know the same things about the sky. I know the sky is dark and

has millions of stars and a moon. Balaz says, “the sun has passion for da land and sea”

(“In Da Same Place,” Electric Laulau). While any other person would also describe the

sky to us in their own way, everyone’s opinion is right because everyone sees the sky


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differently so no one has the right to criticize anyone’s opinion on what the sky looks

like.

Another one of Balaz’s poems that I like from the CD Electric Laulau is “Da

Mainland to Me.” This poem is basically two guys arguing about what to call the U.S. the

continent or the mainland. As locals we usually call the U.S. “da mainland,” but this

other local guy was calling it the “continent.” In the end he says, “dats da continent,

Hawai‘i is the mainland to me” (“Da Mainland to Me,” Electric Laulau). I find so much

irony in this poem because we as locals call the U.S. the mainland but in this poem the

local guy is saying Hawai‘i is the mainland. I see this as irony because Hawai‘i is getting

taken over by people from the mainland so Hawai‘i is becoming like the mainland.

Everyone is acting differently, the Hawaiian values are changing, and so many locals are

getting evicted out of their homes. What the other local guy is saying is so true. Hawai‘i

is the mainland because we are becoming like the haole that we call stupid and don’t

want on our land. We are thinking like them and acting like them. For example, on the

north shore that Balaz talks about quite a bit, the Bishop Estate and the state want to

develop it. Hale‘iwa and Waialua is an old plantation village that already has to endure

getting it’s waters trashed and the fishes poached. Our own native Hawaiians are taking

away our culture and our homes. This is why Balaz refers to us as the mainland because

as a state we are becoming “un-Hawaiian.” Another interpretation of “Da Mainland to

Me” is that Hawai‘i is the main land because that is where we are from and where we

live. For some people it’s all they have ever known, they have never flew out of Hawai‘i

or possibly even off-island. So why wouldn’t we call Hawai‘i mainland if this is where

we live? But as locals we just don’t think about that at all, we are so “racist” toward

people from the mainland that we don’t even stop and think anymore. I know I do it;

every local person makes that assumption. You can hear all the local people saying, “Eh

how’s that stupid haole!”

Balaz is one of the few poets that I have ever researched that I can actually

connect with. Everything he talks about is true; he stands up for our Hawaiian culture and

for part of our history as a people that still speaks Hawaii Creole English. He morphs his


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words into a perspective that makes me think of everything differently. I think of how

much we as a people have changed from reading “Spear Fisher” to listening to “Da

Mainland in Me” and “In Da Same Place.” Balaz is a true role model for Hawaiian

people through poetry, sound effects, and his voice he virtually stands up for his people:

“It is the warrior brown/ as strong/ as the darkest hardwood of the land/ on which I stand”

(Ho‘omānoa, 42).


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Da Last Squid

Willy Boy wen score. On da mudflat wheah da reef used to be, he wen speah da buggah – da last squid, brah.

In da abandoned conservation area between da industrial park and da old desalinization plant, he wen find ’um, dough how any squid could live ovah deah, I dunno – Maybe da ting wuz wun mutant, eh?

And as to how Willy could go diving in dat spot next to da effluent outflow, I dunno eidah. You know wat “effluent” mean, eh? Dats just wun nice word foa dodo watah.

But still den, Willy wuz all excited aftah he wen cook dat squid. Wen he wuz cutting ’um up he wen tell me,

“Eh, you know wat dis is, eh? Dis is da last squid, braddah!”

Da last squid – It’s kindah funny, brah, wen I tink back, but it really wuz da last squid. Now by dat same beach nutting can even live, cause da watah stay all black and even moa polluted den before. It’s just like tings wen change ovahnight.

But you know, it started long time ago. Way back wen, I remembah my maddah told me, just before I wuz born, dey wuz building wun second city on O‘ahu and finishing wun new tunnel on da windward side.

Latah on, wen I wuz growing up tings wen accelerate, and da whole island wen just develop out of control into wun huge monstah city.

By den had so many adah tunnels too, dat da mountain wen look like wun honeycomb. Everyting came different, brah, cause da island wen grow so fast and had so many people.

Maybe good ting Willy Boy wen make early – He nevah live to see how tings got even moa worse.

But back den, wen we wuz youngah, he looked so happy wen he wuz cutting up dat contaminated he‘e. I can still heah his words –

“Dis is special, brah – Dis is da last wun.”

Wen he wen offah me some, foa a lottah reasons dats hard foa explain, I just told ’um,

“Naay – No need – ”

But deep inside, brah, I nevah like be da wun to eat da last squid.


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Huaka‘i

Make strong the cord

which binds the canoe,

we are sailing home.

The storm

which swamped

our peaceful voyage

is behind us now.

The wind lashed,

the waves pounded,

but we did not go down.

Make strong the cord

which binds the canoe,

we are sailing home.


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Moe‘uhane

I dream of

the ways of the past–

I cannot go back.

I hike the hills

and valleys of Wahiawā,

walking through crystal

streams

and scaling green cliffs.

I play in the waves

Of Waimea,

and spear fish

from the reefs of Kawailoa.

I grow bananas, ‘ulu,

and papayas,

in the way of the ‘āina.

I cannot go back–

I never left.


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Spear Fisher

In Kona

a Midwest businessman

caught a marlin,

and hung it upside down

on a wharf-

At Hale‘iwa

I caught a kūmū,

and I ate it.

Off Pōka‘i Bay

a foreign compeitor

caught a tuna


on a wharf-

At Pāpa‘iloa

I caught an ‘āweoweo,

and I ate it.

Near Makapu‘u

a thrill-seeking adventurer

caught a shark,


on a wharf-

At Pūpūkea

I caught an āholehole,

and I ate it.

In the fishing magazine

and the tournament boxscore,


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egos reap the ocean of trophies –

On the North Shore of O‘ahu,

I harvest a gift of life.


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WARRIOR BROWN

i have a spear

for the sake

of universality

i wrap it

in kaha pono

of red

yellow

white

black

and

brown

and place it

upon an altar

between my temples

in an idealistic temple

of peace

but be aware

i do have a spear


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and if I choose

to reveal it

it is warrior brown

as strong

as the darkest hardwood

of the land

on which i stand


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Analysis on “Spear Fisher” and “Moe‘uhane”

“Spear Fisher” by Balaz helps me to visualize things better because I know

exactly what Balaz is talking about. Since I am from Hale‘iwa it is cool to see Hale‘iwa

mentioned in a poem, especially because I fish and dive I know exactly what kind of fish

Balaz is talking about and where exactly to go to catch those fish. So personally I can

connect a lot with this poem. In “Spear Fisher” he writes about different types of

fishermen in different areas. It has repetition, because the fishermen that caught fish that

weren’t on the north shore always said, “and hung it upside down/ on a wharf” (37,

Ho‘omānoa). When the fish is caught on the north shore, Balaz concludes the stanza by

saying “and I ate it” (37, Ho‘omānoa). This reminds me of a fishing belief that we go by

on the north shore, or even everywhere in Hawaii. I catch what I’m going to eat and

nothing more than that. I related this to myself because I fish and dive so I was taught

never to take more then what I need.

I also like “Moe‘uhane” because it helps me to visualize the places he speaks of in

a different way. All the places that Joe Balaz has written about in this poem surrounds the

area that I live so I picture it as how he words it in the poem, when in reality this isn’t

what it looks like at all; however, at one time possibly that is what it could have looked

like. Balaz describes Wahiawā “walking through crystal/streams/and scaling green cliffs”

(73, Ho‘omānoa). I could honestly never imagine Wahiawā like that ever in my life. In

today’s times Wahiawā is more city like then country like, it has buildings everywhere

and no valleys or hills. There are no streams that I know of in Wahiawā, but Balaz paints

this beautiful picture in my head about how Wahiawā must have been in the past. He also

speaks about what any Hawaiian should observe in their surroundings. Balaz writes about

the ocean, the valleys, the greenery, and plants but he phrases it in past tense. By doing

this Balaz makes as if he is recalling a memory and has seen olden Hawai‘i. He is telling

us that as Hawaiians we should cherish what we have left of Hawai‘i right now because

in a flash everything that we call home could be gone. Just as he described Wahiawā in

his poem, Wahiawā will never be the same. Although he never left the same area it will

never be the same as what he had dreamed of in the past.


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Biography of Fernando Pessoa

Some know him as Alberto Caeiro while others know him as Ricardo Reis. Yet

even more people know him as Alvaro de Campos. These three names could never be as

grand as the original, the name that surpasses them all, Fernando Pessoa. Pessoa is a

renowned Portuguese poet from the early 1900’s. He was imaginative, mysterious,

strange, and solitary. He kept to himself and was not really fond of interacting with

people outside of his imagination. “I’m a fugitive./I was shut up in myself” (Pessoa, 315).

In Libson, Portugal, a great poet was born. On June 13th 1888 Fernando Antonio

Nogueira Pessoa was born from Maria Madalena Nogueira Pessoa and Joaquim de

Seabra Pessoa. Fernando’s father Joaquim died when he was five he worked as a civil

servant and wrote music reviews. After the death of Joaquim Fernando’s mother Maria

then remarried a Portuguese consul named Commander Joao Miguel Rosa. The whole

family then moved to Durban, South Africa in 1896. When Pessoa was in school at Cape

Town, he fell in love with literature. His favorite figures in literature were Shakespeare

and John Milton. Finally, after his fabulous education in Cape Town Pessoa then returned

to Libson in 1905 at the age of 17 to further his education. In Shearsman Book’s article it

explains that, Pessoa worked many jobs where it seemed like he would just write poetry

on his free time (Shearsman Book’s, Fernando Pessoa). He was a business correspondent,

commercial translator, and wrote avant garde reviews for Orpheu. Fernando Pessoa also

had a huge role in developing modernism in his country while working with Orpheu. This

was the experience that made Pessoa a better poet then the rest because he applied his

different experiences to some of his poetry.

Pessoa has a great humbling uniqueness about him even though he was quite a

popular poet most of his great works of poetry weren’t even published. Pessoa only had a

few published books such as Antinous, Sonnets, Mensagem, and English Poems. Pessoa

had at least 25,000 poems that were unpublished and found in his apartment on Rua

Coelho de Rocha. Pessoa writes his poems like most poets; he has innovative language,

traditional stanza, and metric patterns. However, what is unique about Pessoa is that he


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uses heteronyms and he created alternative literary personae. His alter egos are Alberto

Caeiro, Ricardo Reis, and Alvaro De Campos. Caeiro is described as an unsophisticated

unemployed man from the provinces. Each alter ego seemed to be a different emotion

within Pessoa. Caeiro was the happier side of Pessoa, but more importantly the one that

always observed nature. “I’m a man who one day opened the window and discovered this

crucial thing: Nature exists. I saw that the trees, the rivers, and the stones are things that

truly exist. No one had ever thought about this” (Alberto Caeiro, interview).

The next alter ego is Reis, a doctor and classicist who wrote Horatian odes. Reis’

character is that he believes in the old Greek gods: “I was born believing in the gods, I

was raised in that belief, and in that belief I will die, loving them” (Pessoa, 81). Pessoa

makes his alter egos also intertwine with one another. In a letter to Alberto Caeiro, Reis

writes, “Time passes/And tells us nothing./ We grow old” (84-85, Pessoa). Reis is writing

to Caeiro basically about life and nature, and how there is nothing extravagant. This

makes me to believe that Pessoa was never a happy person because a lot of his poems,

especially with Reis as his alter ego, are quite depressing. He also describes God as

atrocious and doesn’t ever support God at all. In other poems, Reis says, “Not you,

Christ, do I hate or reject/ In you as in the other older gods I believe” (101, Pessoa). He

never speaks of God so this tells me that he was never a really strong believer in God, nor

was he always very happy. Although he wasn’t necessarily always happy, he did seem to

be in love with this lady named Lydia. In multiple poems he mentions Lydia, “When,

Lydia, our autumn arrives/ With the winter it harbors, let’s reserve” (126, Pessoa). He

seems to have longing for Lydia, and maybe Lydia is the alter ego of Ophelia Queiroz

who Pessoa was exchanging love letters with.

Finally, De Campos is a naval engineer who is bisexual and lives in London. “I

don’t believe in anything but the existence of my sensations” (145, Pessoa). This proves

to me that De Campos is one that isn’t very imaginative because he just writes what he

sees. This must have been a period of time when Pessoa wasn’t in his soulful poetry state.

He must have written most of these poems when he was older and secluded. De Campos

seems to write a lot of odes instead of writing actual structured poetry. In “Salutation to


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Walt Whitman” De Campos says,“Hup-hup what, or why, or to where” (211, Pessoa). De

Campos utilizes many literary techniques such as onomatopoeia; he says “BOOM!” And

“Hup-hup.” His odes remind me of incantations and other odes within Antigone and even

the Hawaiian culture. Within each of these alter egos, Pessoa is writing in a different

style and sometimes he even features them talking to one another. Most would call this

insane while I call it ingenious! Only a pure genius would think of using different

personalities; it requires a multitude of imagination. Although it is most known that

Fernando Pessoa produces poems within alter egos, he does have some poems written

under his name.

On November 30th 1933, a tragic day, an unbelievable poet had passed away.

Pessoa passed due to cirrhosis of the liver. Like any other great artist, Pessoa was not

recognized as an amazing poet until after his death. Pessoa is now a poetic legend, one

who started a new style of poetry with his imaginative thinking. He was one of the few

who used multiple personalities in his poems. Even though he was not famous in his

time, he still lives on with his amazing poetry, so we say to Fernando Antonio Nogueira

Pessoa, adeus.


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XLIII

Better the flight of the bird that passes and leaves no trace

Than the passage of the animal, recorded in the ground.

The bird passes and is forgotten, which is how it should be.

The animal, no longer there and so of no further use,

Uselessly shows it was there.

Remembrance is a betrayal of Nature,

Because yesterday’s Nature isn’t Nature.

What was is nothing, and to remember is not to see.

Pass by, bird, pass, and teach me to pass!


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XXVI

Sometimes, on days of perfect and exact light,

When things are as real as they can possibly be,

I slowly ask myself

Why I even bother to attribute

Beauty to things.

Does a flower really have beauty?

Does a fruit really have beauty?

No: they have only color and form

And existence.

Beauty is the name of something that doesn’t exist

But that I give to things in exchange for the pleasure they

give me.

It means nothing.

So why do I say about things: they’re beautiful?

Yes, even I, who live only off living,

Am unwittingly visited by the lies of men

Concerning things,

Concerning things that simply exist.

How hard to be just what we are and see nothing but the

visible!


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XXXI

If sometimes I say that flowers smile

And if I should say that rivers sing,

It’s not because I think there are smiles in flowers

And songs in the rivers’ flowing…

It’s so I can help misguided men

Feel the truly real existence of flowers and rivers.

Since I write for them to read me, I sometimes stoop

To the stupidity of their senses…

It isn’t right, but I excuse myself,

Because I’ve only taken on this odious role, and interpreter of

Nature,

Because there are men who don’t grasp its language,

Which is no language at all.


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II

My gaze is clear like a sunflower.

It is my custom to walk the roads

Looking right and left

And sometimes looking behind me,

And what I see at each moment

Is what I never saw before,

And I’m very good at noticing things.

I’m capable of feeling the same wonder

A newborn child would feel

If he noticed that he’d really and truly been born.

I feel at each moment that I’ve just been born

Into a completely new world…

I believe in the world as in a daisy,

Because I see it. But I don’t think about it,

Because to think is to not understand.

The world wasn’t made for us to think about it

(To think is to have eyes that aren’t well)

But to look at it and to be in agreement.

I have no philosophy, I have senses…

If I speak of Nature it’s not because I know what it is

But because I love it, and for that very reason,

Because those who love never know what they love

Or why they love, or what love is.


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MAGNIFICAT

When will this sinner night---the universe---end

And I---my soul---have my day?

When will I wake up from being awake?

I don’t know. The sun shines on high

And cannot be looked at.

The stars coldly blink

And cannot be counted.

The heart beats aloofly

And cannot be heard.

When will this drama without theater

---Or this theater without drama---end

So that I can go home?

Where? How? When?

O cat staring at me with eyes of life, Who lurks in your

depths?

It’s Him! Its him!

Like Joshua he’ll order the sun to stop, and I’ll wake up,

And it will be day.

Smile, my soul, in your slumber!

Smile, my soul: it will be day!


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Analysis on “MAGNIFICAT,” “XXXI,” and “XLIII”

My first favorite poem from Pessoa is “XXXI” because it refers to nature and I

admire how he personifies nature, “If sometimes I say that flowers smile/And if I should

say that rivers sing” (34, Pessoa). This appears in the alter persona of Alberto Caeiro.

Since almost everything that is composed under Caeiro is about nature, naturally his

poems reflect flowers, rivers, etc. To me this poem speaks to me about how many people

don’t stop and really pay attention to nature. But even he says that his stupidity gets the

best of him and he becomes like the men that don’t stop to observe and appreciate nature,

“Because there are men who don’t grasp its language/Which is no language at all” (34,

Pessoa). Pessoa is personifying nature by saying that nature has its own language and that

people don’t understand the language of nature. He is trying to tell us that nature is

speaking to us in so many ways whether it is the rain, the flowers, the trees, or even the

river. Nature has been “talking” to people for centuries and we just don’t realize it. Or, as

Pessoa says, we can’t understand it, but he also contradicts his statement by saying there

is no language at all. I interpret this as Pessoa saying that the language is hidden from

humans because we would abuse it if we knew the language. Even in present times, we

abuse nature and nature is trying to speak to us trying to call for help, but we as a human

race are just too oblivious and obnoxious to realize it. I also like the way Pessoa’s poems

make me think and sometimes make me confused. He makes me wonder what was

actually going on in his head when he was writing the poems or what he was trying to tell

his readers.

This next poem “MAGINIFICAT” is about nature and things that people and even

I myself think about quite often. The author of this poet is Alvaro De Campos, which is

one of the many, alter personas of Pessoa. De Campos’ personality is more to himself, “I

don’t believe in anything but the existence of my sensations” (145, Pessoa). De Campos

seems very spiritual compared to the other alter personas that Pessoa has. De Campos

speaks about seeing things more with his soul then with his eyes. He is not the scientific

type but more the spiritual type. He also wrote quite a few odes along with his other

poems. I interpret him writing about the afterlife or his spiritual connections because he


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says, “When will I wake up from being awake” (246, Pessoa). This is an oxymoron

because you cannot wake up from being awake. De Campos uses many literary

techniques such as oxymoron and a multitude of personification. De Campos takes

multitudes of different subjects and combines them to make a beautiful poem. For

example, he went from the sun and the stars to talking about theater. Then he talks about

a cat, where did the cat come from? But this then relates to the title “MAGNIFICAT” as

to how the cat is looking within his soul and spirit: “O cat staring at me with eyes of

life/Who lurks in your depths” (246, Pessoa). The cat sees within himself that is why it is

so magnificent.

Lastly, my last favorite poem of Pessoa and it is called “XLIII.” This poem is also

featured in the alter persona of Alberto Caeiro, so naturally this poem would be about

nature. In poems such as these he gives nature a personality or characteristics of a person.

For example he says that “Remembrance is a betrayal of Nature” so we are not supposed

to remember nature because everyday there is something new and beautiful that happens

(40, Pessoa). I also find it peculiar how nature is always capitalized like nature is a person

because in the next line Caeiro writes, “Because yesterday’s Nature isn’t Nature” (40,

Pessoa). Everyday nature is different and beautiful no two days are the same throughout

the year. I interpret this as everyday things change and although everyone needs to

appreciate what they have and also need to adapt and appreciate with what changes take

place in life. “Pass by, bird, pass, and teach me to pass!” (40, Pessoa). Pessoa teaches me

to move on with life and not stay stuck on one problem and instead move on and deal

with it just like the birds do. The poem basically is about life and nature, how everything

passes by quickly and we forget it. But this is a part of life, so he ends with birds teaching

me how to pass, so we can learn from nature. I like when poets refer to nature for

everything, it connects what we think is ordinary and makes it not ordinary.


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Spider’s Web

Oh, why do the tears flow?

Why did you fly away and go?

The warmth of your touch

the sourness in your brow

left and gone with the one you so-called “loved,”

the puppeteer of your true love, eternity.

She scissored the line, the line holding doves together

by the hand of the devil.

No, not the devil, she’s worse.

The devil is like a flower on a sunshine day.

Why she, my friend, is like the sewage polluting the ocean bay.

Heaven is crying, and so are we

lost in a boat at sea. Come home, sail to me,

or do you hear seductive whispers

calling you into its bottomless abyss,

clawing and dragging at your soul,

that touch is the masked embrace?

Do you feel it? Warmth? Happiness?

That is all a mask, a mask for eternity,

and imprisonment is the punishment of those who do not obey,

but you took the easiest way.

Join the gang! Be captured and enslaved.

You’re spinning! The Lord knows his child is under a spell.

Do not fall for the pulling hands! Do not give up! Listen to the voice of your children,

turn around and sail home; they are life.

What you choose is death.

Why have you fallen for it? Why?

Imprisonment? Or family? Make your choice.

Either one won’t stay long;

the nest waits for your return


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so we can all connect back to the long ago time.

Your decision is your final judgment.

The angels are your jury

and the Lord himself is judge.

We tell of the loyalty that once existed,

how it blew away like the leaves off a tree,

falling…falling… falling…

Will you catch me? Save me before I crash to the dirt?

The time has come, and I have gone.

She is gone, too, have you noticed?

Her web has caught yet another fly

as she sucks the life out of it until dry.

You, in the web, remain helpless and stuck

while she continues to suck and suck.

Turn to the left and you’ll see a brand new family just for me.

You never know how time flies until it’s gone,

taken off never to return.

You made your choice, now deal with it.

“O Father,” we called you and called,

but now you’re just small and a tad bit appalling,

but life is life, and please, Dad, don’t ever try to call.


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“Spider’s Web” Commentary

My poem, titled the “Spider’s Web,” relates to my experiences that my father had

put my family and me through for the past two years. My mother and father had recently

gone through a really bad break up two years ago. I remember them fighting daily with

one another because my dad had cheated on my mom with a girl from Kona. The girl is

the “spider” for she has captured my dad in her web of evil and lies. Throughout this

poem I am mostly writing about the betrayal I feel, and how my family was crying for

him and begging for him to come back. Even though it’s been two years the pain is still

there but we just have to move on with our lives. So in the end I write, “but life is life,

and please, Dad, don’t ever try to call” (Louis-Perkins, “Spider Web” 2012). By this I

mean that we have moved on and are tired of the pain he put us through so leave us alone.

The spider web is a metaphor for the web of lies that my dad and the girl formed. They

lied over and over again making the web bigger and bigger. I also foreshadow that they

will not be together for long and that she is just using my father for his last name and not

for him.

This poem shows the anger and pain that I felt for the past two years, but when I

keep referring to a mask, I meant that everything that he experiences in Kona is fake.

Nothing is real or nothing is meaningful because he left the family, the people he truly

cared about. I also mentioned the Lord a lot because when we first started going

throughout the entire break up, my mom turned us to church. She made us go to church to

get everything out to find God as a foundation and to cling and rely on him in these hard

times. It worked and now God is on our side for all these troubles, and as a family we are

even closer with God then we ever were before. When I mention that we were all in a

“court setting” with God and how we were telling our stories, these metaphors really

symbolized us praying to God and telling him our problems because the Lord helps all

especially those in need of help and comfort. My poem reflects all the hurt and pain that I

experienced that I never let out, but like I write, “Turn to the left and you’ll see a brand

new family just for me” (Louis–Perkins, “Spider’s Web” 2012) my dad doesn’t know

what he left and that’s his own fault.


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31

”Transition” Commentary

My concrete poem is titled “Transition” because I am trying to portray the

transition of the English alphabet to the Hawaiian alphabet. For the main words on each

side of the poem I used a greeting. On the left side of the poem at the top the first word

reads “Aloha.” The word “Aloha” represents the Hawaiian alphabet because the word is

Hawaiian. Then beneath the word “Aloha” I list Hawaiian letters spiraling down to the

word “wassup.” While on the other side of the poem, the word “hello” appears and

underneath it is the rest of the English alphabet, not including the letters from the

Hawaiian alphabet. This represents how the foreigners invaded our language and replaced

it with their alphabet and language. There is the word “Hawaiian” torn up and crumpled

in the middle and that represents how our culture and language have been lost. The word

“wassup” at the bottom is to represent how our language and culture has changed so

much due to the invasion of the foreigners.

Many people use the term the “colors of the world,” and that is exactly what I

tried to visually show in my concrete poem. The reason for my poem being so colorful is

because it represents all the people that invaded our kingdom. The different color all

represents different races, the foreigners that came to prosper on the land that was

rightfully ours. They prospered while we suffered and slowly began to disintegrate with a

blink of the eye. Even the different shapes of the letters represented the different type of

people that immigrated into Hawai‘i. Representing the people that were rich, the people

that were poor, the people that were nice, and the people that were dirty businessman. All

these characteristics were running through my mind as I was building this concrete poem,

even important figures that transcended the downfall of the Hawaiian kingdom popped

into my head. My inspiration for this concrete poem was the transition from our thriving

Hawaiian culture to what we have today. The meddling of the foreigners with our culture

caused us to have a cultural decline within ourselves. This was the reason why I named

my poem the “Transition.”


32

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2012. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wcgC8ndERQI Balaz, Joseph P. “Da Last Squid.” Whetu Moana. Ed. Albert Wendt, Reina Whaitiri, and Robert Sullivan. Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press, 2003. Print.

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2012. http://nescritas.com/tributefpessoa/fpbiography.html Pessoa, Fernando. A Little Larger than the Entire Universe. Ed. Richard Zenith. New

York: Penguin Books, 1998. Print. Pessoa, Fernando. “II.” A Little Larger than the Entire Universe. Ed. Richard Zenith.

New York: Penguin Books, 1998. Print. Pessoa, Fernando. “MAGNIFICAT.” A Little Larger than the Entire Universe. Ed. Richard Zenith. New York: Penguin Books, 1998. Print. Pessoa, Fernando. “XLIII.” A Little Larger than the Entire Universe. Ed. Richard Zenith.

New York: Penguin Books, 1998. Print.


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Pessoa, Fernando. “XXVI.” A Little Larger than the Entire Universe. Ed. Richard Zenith. New York: Penguin Books, 1998. Print.

Pessoa, Fernando. “XXXI.” A Little Larger than the Entire Universe. Ed. Richard Zenith.

New York: Penguin Books, 1998. Print. Viklund, Andreas. "Fernando Pessoa." Shearsman Books for the Best in Comtemporary

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