Dr. Amado M. Yuzon, World Poet
– The following is a modified excerpt from a biography of Dr. Yuzon written by Dr. Ernest Kay, Director General of the International Biographical Centre, Publisher of the Fifth Edition of the International Who’s Who in Poetry. The original text was taken from “Praise for Dr. Amado M. Yuzon”, edited by Dr. Wanda A. Rider, Ph.D, and Dr. Chester G. Rider, Lit., D.)
Born August 30, 1906, Dr. Yuzon was a village boy from the midst of the rich but turbulent Central Luzon in the Philippines. He started from scratch, and through sheer determination and perseverance, rose to be a lawyer, university professor, author, editor, civic leader, congressman, technical assistant under four presidents of the Republic, first acting national commissioner of culture, cultural envoy, the life president of the United Poets Laureate International, and the pioneer-leader of the World Congress of Poets movement.
He has given poetry a new cause and course to pursue, a new flag to flaunt and a target to achieve, that is, to organize and mobilize the poets of the world for the cause of international peace.
In the promotion of this ideal, he has travelled extensively a number of times in most regions of the universe, addressing, steering, and leading to action his kindred soul, while at the same time distributing poetry awards, including the creation and coronation of poets Laureate.
To him, the crusade is, as summarized in the concluding quatrain of a birthday Asian Sonnet:
While I cannot walk on waters, Lord,
But with my sweat I will wash the feet of men
Giving myself a purpose, flag and word
To make worthy in Thy sight. Amen!
On the birthday anniversary of any of his members from more than 85 countries and states, Dr. Yuzon has not failed to send an Asian birthday sonnet in the thirteen years of his group’s existence. If only to develop a warm and fraternal fellowship with the poets and to inspire them with militant spirit in the pursuit of the world peace ideal, a collective ideal which is unprecedented in the history of civilization and culture. To him the late poet Laureate Masefield, O.M. of the United Kingdom, wrote in 1965 after Dr. Yuzon proclaimed him Honorary Poet Laureate of the World in his Parnassus at Abingdon:
The English say ‘the really wise,
Come westward from the eastern skies,
The western wisdoms, are increased
Only by pilgrims from the east,’
I write to say I think it’s true
And add, they make us happy, too.
In the further implementation of this ideal of World Brotherhood and Peace Through Poetry, he founded almost single handedly the First World Congress of Poets in manila 1969; suggested and advised the Second congress in Nationalist China in 1973; accepted the invitation from Maryland and Baltimore City leaderships to hold the Third Congress in America in 1976, and of course, with the official sanction of the Second Congress; and the Fourth Congress in South Korea in 1979, while the Fifth Congress was offered to be held in San Francisco, California in 1981 on the official invitation of the San Francisco leadership and the major West Coast organizations.
With his meager earnings from his profession and a small ancestral lot, some membership fees and voluntary contributions from UPLI members and just one loyal and efficient assistant, his cousin Virginia, he has been able to run a world-wide quarterly magazine of poetry and built the UPLI YUZON ‘THE POETS CORNER,’ ready to house within its façade of George Washington Mt. Vernon residence the books and papers sent to him by international poets.
Dr. Yuzon has renewed one of the best ancient traditions of Rome and other Latin countries of crowning distinguished poets with gold and silver laurel wreaths. He has suggested the selection of the first National Poet Laureate of America to the American delegates in the Baltimore Congress, resulting in the official nomination of Dr. Richard Ebenhardt, one time poet consultant of the Library of Congress and a winner of the most coveted Pulitzer Prize in Literature.
In his keynote speech to the Baltimore Congress, Dr. Yuzon had advocated to stir all segments of human society – men of letters, the mass media, cultural and civic organizations, educational institutions, the churches and the wealthy men in trade and industry – to contribute their shares in the sacred cause of World Brotherhood and Peace through Poetry.
And to this man of humble origin in a tiny but fast advancing Republic in East Asia, the Philippines, the Honorable Ghulum Ali Allana of Pakistan, incumbent Chairman of the United Nations Commision on Human Rights has paid the following tribute:
Your life is far too precious for the whole world, for human understanding, for international brotherhood, for universal peace through poetry. So I wish you many many years of vigorous health and happiness.
Indeed, almost totally delinquent in eyesight and weak in physical constitution, he can merely touch and feel with his hands the hundreds of trophies which nations, organizations and world leaders have awarded him including busts by famous sculptors, honorary doctoral diplomas from a number of foreign universities, plaques of all kinds, medallions, laurel wreaths from local to international, cultural souvenirs, etc., but he can only consider every one of them not the personal glory they have heaped upon him but in all humility as an unmistakable symbol that the UPLI crusade will continue to march and expand “until such time as it can create a saintly atmosphere of universal sentiment for universal peace.”
ABOUT DR. AMADO M. YUZON
(From his book, THE CITIZEN’S POEMS)
Pampangan, Lawyer, former University Professor, member of the First Congress of the Philippines, delegate to the 1971-1973 Constitutional Convention, President of the United Poets Laureate International (UPLI), Founder of the World Congress of Poets Movement (WCPM), International Poet Laureate, Fellow Adviser, Patron, and/or honorary President of regional, national, conventional, and world poetry societies in the various continents.
AS A POET
1972 Poet Laureate-winner of the International Platform Association Poetry Contest in Washington, D.C.: crowned Life Poet Laureate of the World University in U.S.A.; more than 20 times endorsed, acknowledged, cited, proclaimed, and/or crowned Honorary International Poet Laureate in New York, Rome, Vienna, Liberia, India, Nationalist China, Illinois, Texas, Colorado, Hongkong, Malaysia, Belgium, South Dakota, Brazil, Bolivia, Pakistan, Guam, California, Maryland, Senegal, Lebanon, France, England, Brunei, Papua, Mauritius; recently a co-awardee of the Zobel Prize for Spanish Culture, and recipient of a number of honorary doctorates from foreign universities. He is the inventor of the now widely known Aisan Sonnet, rhyme-abaab, cdccd, ef ef.
