I shall leave

I shall leave.
And if granted, at most, decades,
or at least, years,
shall look back through years
of debris, rubble, broken things,
wrecked by my leaving.

And to myself
shall say (perhaps without remorse
nor sorrow, after all
their accusations and mine):
Decisions had to be made.
Decisions have to be made.

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On depersonalization

"The emotion of art is impersonal. And the poet cannot reach this impersonality without surrendering wholly to the work to be done." -- T.S. Eliot

In fit of jealousy,
don't sit down to write poetry --
storm out that door into
crime of passion.

When jealousy subsides,
go sit down to write a poem --
with no time to waste and
bloodstained shirt on.

*  *  *

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Ice water in glass (Tribute to Herman Hesse)

(Photo from www.livestrong.com.)

One encompasses its solid self

that melts into its liquid form

encompassing it; transparent

as the glass holding it

in different forms

becoming one

with the other,

and they have

always

been

one,

are one,

is one.

*  *  *

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Marikina City Host to two Monuments of Marxist-Leninist Revolutionaries

Note: I'll make this short, and hopefully, sweet. But I think I'll improve and expound on this later, when time and (more importantly) motivation permit...

Distinguished historian Prof. Vicente Rafael of the University of Washington, in his erudite foreword entitled, "Radiant Hope, Dark Despair," for the remarkable autobiographical opus Subversive Lives: A Family Memoir of the Marcos Years (2012) of the siblings Susan and Nathan Quimpo, wrote in his beginning paragraph (bold letters mine):

THERE ARE NO monuments to communism in the Philippines. Instead, there are numerous statues of nationalist figures. Whereas it is common, perhaps even essential, to commemorate national heroes, the nation seems unable and unwilling to acknowledge those whose nationalism was colored by communism. Even the Bantayog ng mga Bayani, which is run by a private foundation and not by the government, commemorates the victims of the Marcos regime primarily as nationalist martyrs rather than members of a radical revolutionary movement. Why this absence of memorials to communists?

The fact is, Marikina City holds the distinction of hosting not just one but two monuments to socialist revolutionaries! As "early" as  2001, then city mayor Bayani Fernando erected a statue of labor leader Filemon "Ka Popoy" Lagman (March 17, 1953 - February 6, 2001) -- just a few months (I believe) after the latter's assassination. To this day, it stands proudly at the middle of a busy intersection of Barangay Concepcion Uno:

(Yours truly took this photo recently, of the statue of -- in the interest of full disclosure -- my uncle, my mom's brother. :) )

Then in 2014, only a month after he perished in a vehicular accident, Arvin "Tado" Jimenez (March 24, 1974 - February 7, 2014), renowned TV personality, activist and comedian of the absurd (preceding Ryan Rems Sarita), was honored with a mural along a road straddling Paliparan, Marikina:

(Photo from marikinacity.wordpress.com.)

Trivia: There was this encounter between Ka Popoy and Tado, when the former allegedly grabbed the latter by his long hair, angrily, and...I think I'll just let their comrades, who actually witnessed that, complete the story. ;) Still, years after Ka Popoy died, Tado proudly declared in an interview with Kris Aquino his deep admiration for the murdered revolutionary, that he emulated him. So, regarding their respective months of birth and death: coincidental? 

*  *  *

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The Ghost Debate

Little Milo shouts,

Look! Look!

Ghost! Ghost!

Watch curtain

form a nose,

agape mouth,

then ten finger tips

pushing, menacing!

Littler Mikael replies,

I see curtain

form a nose,

lips of mouth,

fingers flowering,

but all I see is curtain --

not the ghost behind it.

So I don't believe it.

And he goes back

reading ghost stories.

(And, I love this shortie film. :-) )

*  *  *

Check out My Personal Anthology (12 Poems). 

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Coincidences?

I.

Last August 8, I started a new blog which I named, "The Gods Envy Us." (Yup, after the line from the Troy movie.)

Last August 12, I bought a book of poetry (rather casually and hurriedly, from a book sale) entitled, The Gods We Worship Live Next Door, by Bino A. Realuyo.

(Cover design by Gerry Baclagon, book design by Jo B. Pantorillo. Anvil Publishing edition, 2008.)

II.

Earlier this afternoon, I added the following phrase to my secret prose poem:

perhaps among the 150 buried in Payatas...

Just now, this late evening, I read the following from her* poem:

A few miles away, the residents of a dumpsite are dead, their bodies buried in an avalanche of trash.

*Last night, I visited, just for the second time, a bookstore which -- according to the "attendant" there yesternight -- the poetess co-owns. (To my sweet surprise!)

And, barely an hour ago, I watched Rated K and found the place where Ryan Rems Sarita was interviewed as quite familiar. ;-)

*  *  *

Check out My Personal Anthology (12 Poems). 

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When Workers Work...

When carpenters work, they don't argue if God or which god prefers a hammer or pliers to hammer

that nail; they just use a hammer to hammer that nail.

When road construction workers work, they don't debate whether God or what god recommends concrete or hay for the highway; they just pour the concrete to pave the highway.

When agricultural workers work, they don't fight over what god or whose god commands the use of sickle or disposable razor blade to harvest rice; they just cut with the sickle to harvest rice.

We eat, travel, and live thanks to the workers who work and suffer under the few ungodly gods among us; providing us food, roads, and shelter that we may all eat, travel, work, and live.

In solidarity with USA workers, on their nation's Labor Day next month, September 7, 2015.

Photo from Bukluran ng Manggagawang Pilipino (BMP)/Solidarity of Filipino Workers.

*  *  *

Check out My Personal Anthology (12 Poems). 

This blog is sponsored by Limitado

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