Poetry&Stuffby
MARNE KILATES
MARNE
S
KRIPTS
from
Antinostalgia & the Tokhang
Rhapsodies
from
Antinostalgia & the Tokhang
Rhapsodies
From Mga Biyahe, Mga Estasyon
From Journeys, Junctions
(a collection of travel poems)
from
Antinostalgia & the Tokhang
Rhapsodies
Poems 2022
Poems 2022
Poems 2022
Poems 2022
From Mga Biyahe, Mga Estasyon
From Journeys, Junctions
(a collection of travel poems)
From Mga Biyahe, Mga Estasyon
From Journeys, Junctions
(a collection of travel poems)
From Mga Biyahe, Mga Estasyon
From Journeys, Junctions
(a collection of travel poems)
From Mga Biyahe, Mga Estasyon
From Journeys, Junctions
(a collection of travel poems)
From Mga Biyahe, Mga Estasyon
From Journeys, Junctions
(a collection of travel poems)
From Mga Biyahe, Mga Estasyon
From Journeys, Junctions
(a collection of travel poems)
From Mga Biyahe, Mga Estasyon
From Journeys, Junctions
(a collection of travel poems)
In the corner of an almost lost mural
The painter creates the poet.
In grand gesture and translucent colors,
“Balagtas!” Botong (probably) exclaims
Under his breath, himself quite surprised
As the poet takes shape, as he
Savors or limns fugitive racial memory
In the tongue, slipping past cuartel
And guardia civil, as he draws an arc
Like God, towards Malakas and Maganda,
At the flick and daub of pinsel
Of squirrel or camel hair, squeezing
Figment from pigment, conjuring
Sinew and tissue from segment of bamboo.
His arms are his arms, his colors are his
Verses. He gives him the face of Lapu-Lapu
(Another rib from his side, another shade
From his palette): muscular, strong-chinned,
Tight-jawed. How we want our race to look
And how we’ve forgotten it. He gives him
His anguish and his tenderness.
The poet creases his brow, touches his
Temple and grips his pluma as he writes
The Florante at Laura, allotting his breath
In twelve syllables, carefully marking caesura:
Sa loob at labas ng bayan kong sawi,
As the ghosts of Albania swirl around him,
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Strewing strophes and antistrophes,
Stanzas and alexandrines, weaving
Romance and revolution in trope,
Tayutay and code—the code of freedom
And humanity that will poison the minds
Of Hermano Pule and Gomburza,
Paciano, Marcelo, Graciano, Juan, Jose,
Andres, Emilio, Antonio, Macario,
Until all of them are rewritten into
Scoundrel, recalcitrant, cimarron, bandido,
Under the new code of Manifest Destiny.
The painter tries to retrieve the code
From the petroglyphs of San Mateo,
But instead he is enchanted by shades and
Hues—Thus his murals are epic, his epics
Murals. But now because of our ignorance
And neglect, they rot at City Hall or are stained
With beer in some bar for journalists.
Or finally restored with tender hands and
Enshrined at the Museum of the Filipino.
Entranced guest, code-addict, the poet is smitten
All over again by the Code, and in drunken
Haze re-creates the painter in his words.
Marne Kilates
(24 May 2009; 16n April 2011; Rev. 16 February 2018)
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Botong Paints Balagtas
JOINING the celebrations of the National Arts Month (February 2018) and the restoration and installation of the Carlos Botong Francisco masterpiece, Filipino Struggles Through History, at the National Museum of Fine Arts. BOTTOM: The Mural newly installed at the National Museum.
