This week, poet and cultural programmer Jared Maxilom (
@jaredmaxilom ) presents “Jaime” as part of our poetry series for Alserkal Art Month.
“Jaime” is a poem written across two rolls of film—one shot in Olongapo City in 2023, the other in Dubai on the day of his passing, before the news arrived. Together, the rolls move between two places and two moments of unknowing: the ordinary rhythms of streets, people, and built spaces that carry grief before grief has a name.
Addressed to its titular subject, the work asks whether writing can do what memory cannot: hold someone in place long enough to say what was left unsaid. Working within the epistolary tradition, the carousel becomes a formal device—each image a breath, each line a dispatch. What arrives is a meditation on the self-reflexive act of making: what it means to keep writing anyway, knowing nothing burns brighter than itself.
The poem attempts to answer an unanswerable question and, in the asking, to find something that resembles home.
Commissioned by Alserkal Arts Foundation
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Jared Jimenez Maxilom (b. Olongapo City, Philippines) is a Filipino poet based in Sharjah. His practice spans poetry, performance, and research. His work frequently combines text, found materials, ephemeral gestures, and communal authorship to create durational, communal encounters that build shared space.
His poetry has appeared in AGNI, Thrush Poetry Journal, NO NIIN, Postscript Magazine, and The Kingfisher. He has performed at Alserkal Avenue, Jameel Arts Centre, NYU Abu Dhabi, Emirates Literature Foundation, Mohammed bin Rashid Library, and the Museum of the Future, among others.
He is currently a fellow at Art Jameel, where his work focuses on public programming and community engagement.
Featured works:
Slide 13 - The Circle Game, 2016, Mary Ellen Carroll, Commissioned by Alserkal
Slide 18 - Untitled, 2018, Rogue Kronicles
