Tag: Philippines

Batasan ng Lansangan — Street Parliament

[fusion_builder_container hundred_percent=”no” equal_height_columns=”no” menu_anchor=”” hide_on_mobile=”small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility” class=”” id=”” background_color=”” background_image=”” background_position=”center center” background_repeat=”no-repeat” fade=”no” background_parallax=”none” parallax_speed=”0.3″ video_mp4=”” video_webm=”” video_ogv=”” video_url=”” video_aspect_ratio=”16:9″ video_loop=”yes” video_mute=”yes” overlay_color=”” video_preview_image=”” border_size=”” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” padding_top=”” padding_bottom=”” padding_left=”” padding_right=””][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type=”1_1″ layout=”1_1″ background_position=”left top” background_color=”” border_size=”” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” border_position=”all” spacing=”yes” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” padding=”” margin_top=”0px” margin_bottom=”0px” class=”” id=”” animation_type=”” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_direction=”left” hide_on_mobile=”small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility” center_content=”no” last=”no” min_height=”” hover_type=”none” link=””][fusion_text]

By Arthur Altarejos

[/fusion_text][fusion_separator style_type=”none” hide_on_mobile=”small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility” class=”” id=”” sep_color=”” top_margin=”” bottom_margin=”” border_size=”” icon=”” icon_circle=”” icon_circle_color=”” width=”” alignment=”center” /][/fusion_builder_column][fusion_builder_column type=”1_2″ layout=”1_1″ background_position=”left top” background_color=”” border_size=”” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” border_position=”all” spacing=”yes” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” padding=”” margin_top=”0px” margin_bottom=”0px” class=”” id=”” animation_type=”” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_direction=”left” hide_on_mobile=”small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility” center_content=”no” last=”no” min_height=”” hover_type=”none” link=””][fusion_text]

Batasan ng Lansangan

Naririnig ko na sila bago pa ako lumiko
Hinahati ang hangin, kutsilyo’y kanta
At katok ng tibok ng tambol na ginugunita
Ang tunog ng sumasayaw na kawayan

Dito sa puso ng imperyo
Kalahating mundo ang pagitan
kami’y nagtatagpo’t nakikiramay
Para magbukas ng korte at ipatunay
Na ang distansya ay hindi nagbubunga ng apatya
Hindi rin nito tinatastas ang tela ng pagalala
Na bawat kawalan ay dahilan din ng aming kalungkutan
At bawat kaapihan ay amin ding hahatulan

Na may pananalig kasing sigla ng araw
At tapang ng isang bala na pinalaya
Kami’y patuloy na umaawit
Sa ilalim ng isang radyaktibong kalangitan
Na binubunyag ang bawat butil ng galit
Ng bawat kasapi na gumawa ng paraan
Magkongreso
Bilang isang bayan
Sa dayuhang lupang ito

[/fusion_text][/fusion_builder_column][fusion_builder_column type=”1_2″ layout=”1_1″ background_position=”left top” background_color=”” border_size=”” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” border_position=”all” spacing=”yes” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” padding=”” margin_top=”0px” margin_bottom=”0px” class=”” id=”” animation_type=”” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_direction=”left” hide_on_mobile=”small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility” center_content=”no” last=”no” min_height=”” hover_type=”none” link=””][fusion_text]

Street Parliament

I hear them before I even turn the corner
Carving the dull air with song
And drum beats that remind me
Of the sound of dancing bamboo

In this city at the heart of empire
Half a world away
We come to hold court and prove
That distance does not beget apathy
Nor does it strain the fabric of memory
That each loss is also ours to mourn
And each slight ours too to condemn

With the conviction of daylight
And the confidence of a bullet
We sing our songs
Beneath a radioactive sky
Reflecting every bit of rage
Of every little life
We have managed to congress
Into a nation
On this foreign soil

[/fusion_text][/fusion_builder_column][fusion_builder_column type=”1_1″ layout=”1_1″ background_position=”left top” background_color=”” border_size=”” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” border_position=”all” spacing=”yes” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” padding=”” margin_top=”0px” margin_bottom=”0px” class=”” id=”” animation_type=”” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_direction=”left” hide_on_mobile=”small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility” center_content=”no” last=”no” min_height=”” hover_type=”none” link=””][fusion_text]

Arthur Altarejos is a Filipino community organizer, community worker, and health educator based in New York City. He writes about the things lost and gained in translation between Hiligaynon, Tagalog, and English, the languages of his home. His writing has appeared or will soon appear in Sky Island Journal and Blue Daisies Journal.

Image credit: “Drumming and Day-Dreaming” by Wayne S. Grazio via a Creative Commons license.

A note from Writers Resist

Thank you for reading! If you appreciate creative resistance and would like to support it, you can make a small, medium or large donation to Writers Resist from our Give a Sawbuck page.

[/fusion_text][/fusion_builder_column][/fusion_builder_row][/fusion_builder_container]

Tribute

By Eric Abalajon

 

My coffee tries to push back the basement chill
crawling up my legs, as I read a friend’s message.
I want to describe to you my table, Mayamor.

I remember your poem where you simply
list the towns won over by,
and sustaining, the movement.

It was, however, a security issue to publish it
in any mainstream venue, even a college folio
as it could be used as a blueprint for retaliation.

Safe to assume in this protracted fight,
our enemies read our poems as well.
The piece is an interesting rejoinder to
the image of a subversive poet, one not writing
witty metaphors against tyrants
but labors in naming of an emerging realm.

I would like to imagine, it was drafted
in folded cigarette packs during breaks
from long treks where you were
embracing fauna, seldom
acknowledged allies to armed encounters.

Another thorn of living in the
other side of the world is
the unease waking up to tributes for you.

Evenings is when we grieve our martyrs,
but I get to feel your weight of your life
on my chest, like Mount Napulak, in broad daylight.

 

Eric Abalajon is currently a lecturer at the University of the Philippines Visayas, Iloilo. His works have appeared in Ani, Katitikan: Literary Journal of the Philippine South, Cha: An Asian Literary Journal, The Tiger Moth Review, and elsewhere. Recently his poems are included in the collections Sobbing in Seafood City (Sampaguita Press, 2022) and Footprints: An Anthology of New Ecopoetry (Broken Sleep Books, 2022). He lives near Iloilo City. You can find him on Twitter @JLaneria and on Instagram @jacob_laneria.

Image credit: “Cemetery of San Joaquin,” Iloilo, Philippines, by EdseastresD600, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.

A note from Writers Resist

Thank you for reading! If you appreciate creative resistance and would like to support it, you can make a small, medium or large donation to Writers Resist from our Give a Sawbuck page.