We are saddened by the death of beloved poet Al Robles on Saturday, May 2, 2009. He provided tremendous inspiration, mentorship and joy to all of us and he is one of the main reasons why many of us became so involved in the arts in the community. Please read on, poet Genny Lim has shared with us a few reflections about Al.
Thank you Al, we miss you.
Francis Wong
Co-Founder and Creative Director
Asian Improv aRts
From
Genny Lim
Eyes closed, he nodded slightly when I asked him if he would like to
be read some Zen poems. I read Zen Master Jakushitsu's poems about remote
mountain temples hidden under clouds. about solitude and aging, serenity
and truth. The morning silence transformed the small hospital room into
a retreat hut. Al embodied serenity, an innate quality of simplicity
and humility, attributes of a dying breed of salt-of-the earth, free-spirited
Manongs, who were undying lovers of music, dance, poetry, nature, love
and joy. It was this spirit of joy which emanated from Al's love of
humanity which drew people to him.
Al's
love of art was not confined to galleries and museums, nor were his
poems to lecture halls or posh sitting rooms. His poems, often written
on rice paper scrolls in calligraphy, belonged to the canvas of the
sky and the streets of the city. He was the only Community Artist, whom
I consistently ran into at airports, enroute solo to a beach hut in
Hawaii, to a pueblo in New Mexico. We traded adventure stories at the
crossroads, promising to join trails at some future juncture. That future
juncture would never happen in this physical world.
Manong Al Robles was an itinerant poet in the tradition of the wandering bards of old, cut in the same cloth as Basho, Tufu and Jakushitsu. The world was his oyster and his poems were pearls smoothed and worn by years of walking in this world and observing deeply the suffering of people, especially his own. Gentle and giving as the ocean tide, which sustains the earth, again and again, Al's generosity of spirit will live on in each of us who knew him, day after day.
Genny Lim
May 3, 2009
Arts AdvocacyOct 15, 2006
The California Arts Council has done a tremendous job in working it's way back to what it was. Please help all Californian's by supporting the arts by puchasing an California Arts License plate! Proceeds from the sales go the California Arts Council which support individual artists and organizations up and down this wonderful state! Click on the logo below for more information:
