Judge wins poetry award for book on birds

A PROMINENT Cebuano literature icon’s book on birds earned him another award to add to his collection over the weekend.

Judge Simeon Dumdum of the Regional Trial Court branch 7 in Cebu City was awarded the Best Book in the poetry category of the 30th National Book Awards held at the National Museum in Manila last Saturday.

“I’m honored by the award. I owe it to the birds of the Philippines,” said Dumdum of his  book “If I Write You This Poem, Will You Make It Fly?.”

The award was received by Dumdum’s brother Manuel, since he is currently in Cebu.

Dumdum recalled that he had always wanted to write about birds since the 1980’s but put it off due to lack of time.

When he underwent chemotherapy last 2009, he found time to write the book for six months.

“I hope that many people will continue to appreciate our birds,” he said.

The 170 page book contains poems on 129 kinds of birds using various verse forms. Judge Dumdum said birds are “real global ambassadors.”

The awards committee was composed of members of the National Book Development Board and the Manila Critics Circle.

Dumdum is a five-time winner of the Don Carlos Palanca Awards for Literature since the 80s.

Born in Balamban town in midwest Cebu, Dumdum studied for the priesthood in Galway, Ireland, but left the seminary to take up law.

After years in law practice, he was appointed judge of the Regional Trial Court.

His poetry, which Dumdum has published and read overseas, has earned him several awards.

Dumdum has published seven books to date: The Gift of Sleep (poems), Third World Opera (poems), Love in the Time of the Camera (essays), Selected Poems and New (poems), My Pledge of Love Cannot be Broken (essays), Ah Wilderness: A Journey Through Sacred Time and If I Write You This Poem, Will You Make It Fly? (poems). Reporter Candeze R. Mongaya