BCC Shines a Light on: James Penha

Name of the piece published by BCC:

In Name Only

When/where was it originally published:

The very first publication was in the program for the Benefit Concert described below. Later that year, the poem was published in The Jakarta Post, an English-language daily. The following year, the poem appeared online at the wonderful but now defunct Wired Art from Wired Hearts.

What is the background of the piece? What led you to write it? What’s your process?

I was teaching English and Creative Writing at the Jakarta International School in Indonesia and was faculty advisor to our students’ outreach to help feed, clothe, house, and school the city’s street children. No easy matter then or now. To raise funds for the group’s projects, we held a Benefit Concert at the school in February 1998. I was asked to read a poem at the event and decided, since we were trying sonnets in Creative Writing, to write a sonnet appropriate to the occasion. I always advised my students that a sonnet typically raised in the octave a problem and provided in the sestet a conclusion. Not a solution to the problem, I stressed, since worthy problems have no easy solutions.

How did you feel when it was first published and how have your thoughts or feelings on the piece changed from then to now?

I love to read poetry in public. The Benefit Concert provided a full house, an appreciative audience, and the knowledge that the poem was working as a sonnet, yes, but also doing good work by helping to raise money for children in need.

Is there a specific message you'd like readers to take away from reading this piece?

Oh, yes! But they need to find it there.

Where can readers find more of your work?

https://jamespenha.com