The other day, a younger colleague at work asked if I’m familiar with the poem “Henny Penny” from the elementary textbook. I was surprised at the question. It’s been years since someone asked me about that red hen. She was even more surprised when I recited it from memory, especially that we have a 10-year gap:

“Henny Penny is a hen, Henny Penny is a red hen, Henny Penny has eggs, Henny Penny has 10 eggs; The 10 eggs are in the nest” and so on…

We then went on to discuss other poems such as “All Things Bright and Beautiful.” I shared with her that I really liked a poem about the moon then, which goes like this “Oh! Look at the moon! She’s shining up there! Oh Mother, she looks like a lamp in the air…”

Good afternoon my fellow toastmasters.

I would like to share with you some poetry pieces that I learned and loved through the years. It was only when I was deliberating what speech topic to deliver when poetry came to my mind. Perhaps, it was the captivating beauty of the full moon last night, which I’m sure you saw if you were out last night even for a minute, that made me think about it.

When I was in Grade IV, I memorized the Bicol version of “Mi Ultimo Adios” entitled in my native tongue as “Ang Huring Paaram.” It’s quite lengthy but I memorized it incidentally. That year, there was a competition — a declamation of “Ang Huring Paaram” a translation by Mr. Antonio R. Berango, a poet from our hometown in Albay (Philippines). What happened was my Ate was in Grade VI then. She was an official contestant. Listening to her practice day by day made me memorize the piece too. My Grade IV teacher, Ms. Gaite, learned that I knew the poem, made me recite in front of the class, and a few days before the contest, entered my name as a contestant. I was too worried that the night before, I didn’t feel too well and had to decline. That’s a moment in my young life that I somehow regret until now – I meant giving up because I wasn’t sure of myself.

Fast forward to high school and college and until my post graduate classes, I learned more and more poems. Some of them, I loved reading but others, I learned by heart through different circumstances. The degree program that I took in college and my graduate studies, English Studies: major in Language and Speech Communications reinforced my love for poetry. I memorized some Shakespeare sonnets such as Sonnets #18 and #29, poems by Pablo Neruda such as “Tonight, I can write the saddest lines” and “Don’t Go Far Off”, which I performed in my graduate degree class with some props and sensual movements.

When I started working, poetry still became part of my life. “Invictus” by William Ernest Henley and “The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost and even Ecclesiastes 3: 1-8 and Psalm 8: 4-9 from the Bible. Several years back, I also memorized the poem “One Day in My Life as a Teacher” written by the late Jose M. Mordeno, the Founder and President of Speechpower. I recall that it was just a whim when I memorized it. I woke up one weekend and felt that I wanted to learn something new so I challenged myself and memorized it by allotting a few minutes in the course of a few days. That proved to be useful in my work: I was able to present it before a major faculty meeting in Far Eastern University while I was teaching there and to end a communication seminar that I conducted for teachers.

Now that work demands much of my time and energy, I haven’t memorized new pieces but I was able to compose a few: these were the results of bursts of either inspiration or strong emotion, a fluttering in my heart, a broken heart, the mundanity of life, my internal protest when someone was buried in the Libingan ng mga Bayani, etc. In the last quarter of 2023, I memorized “The Man in the Arena” which former US President Teddy Roosevelt delivered in 1910. I feel that the words resonated with me. Allow me to share a few lines with you:

It is not the critic who counts, Not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better; The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena; whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood…”

To all of you, my fellow toastmasters, I encourage you to look at poetry in a new light and realize that, more than a string of words, they are actually reflective of different moments in life and can articulate our innermost thoughts and feelings. So, why don’t you learn a new poem today?

Author’s Notes:

Pathway Project – Team Collaboration

Level 3 – Connect with Storytelling

Objective: This project addresses storytelling techniques and descriptive skills to help make every speech relatable and interesting. The purpose of this project is to practice using a story within a speech or giving a speech that is a story.

Time Allotted: 5-7 minutes

I delivered this speech during the meeting of the UP Manila Toastmaster Club on 27 January 2024. For the main comments, the evaluator liked the speech and said that it met the objectives. She also liked the topic (as someone who loves poetry herself) and commended the lovely words and good articulation. For the recommendation, she suggested to select only 1 poem per life’s stage and tell a story behind it, for more focus.