Kung Ibig Mo Akong Makilala she is already contented with the representations of
the husband
- Ruth Elynia S. Mabanglo
- Somewhere you are actual. Happen to me there –
Love me past the physical:
you are not here
Guhit ng mahugis na balat
Titig kong dagat
Do not expect anything from me:
Ang kasal
Ibangon ako at saka palayain
- Pagibig na lipas ng lingap - Jerry B. Gracio
- Tahanang Malaya sa pangamba at sumbat - Haharap siya sa dambana ng walang dangal – buntis
My requirements: - Anim na buwan ng may laman ang tiyan.
Tuwa at kaluwalhatian - Haharap siyang malinis sa altar – she is not guilty for
- Buto, utak, kaluluwa what she has done
- Sisirin mo ako hanggang buto – sperm cell swims - Ang pagmamahal na kumikislat sa kaniyang
sinapupunan – she loves the baby
- Ilang saglit siyang natigilian nang Makita ang lalaki –
Katrains for Quit nakaAmerikanong Itim – she hesitates, black: color
of despair
- Angelo V. Suarez - Hindi siya narito upang magluksa – ang lalaki
- Originally known as: “Qutrains for Kit” which refers - Sabay niyang ihaharap sa dambana. (2x) – to
to Kit que encourage himself
- Repeating sounds: sh-f-sh-l - Hindi sila magkakarat – sex
There are no shadows when it comes to you > only - Kapag ang pangarap ay hindi natupad, saka lamang
nightscapes magiging pagibig ang lahat.
Praise for the beauty of the woman
Forehead is the biblical wilderness
Insulting/teasing the woman 27
Mouth dismantles planetary systems and detonates
stellar clusters - Nerisa del Carmen Guevara
Sensual - By the time I reach 80
Night falls when you close your eyes, my love, and - All hate gone, all sorrow. The word absence would
nothing stirs except my heart not make sense – death
Adoring the woman - The dinosaurs are still underground. All the species
the eco-warriors were not able to save – but it does
not matter, what matters is that they lived
As far as Cho-Fu-Sa - Remembering even what we try to forget – we
always remember those who passed away
- Mookie Katigbak
- River Kiang, River-Merchant’s Wife Theme: It’s life that matters, the memories we leave,
“ If you are coming down the narrows of the river that truly matters, not death.
Kiang, let me know before hand and I will come out For Maningning Miklat: suicide at age 23
to meet you as far as Cho-Fu-Sa”
- A composure of stone: not allowed to misbehave
- Beyond this wall must be better weathers: not
Read Me
allowed to go out
- The white gulls – husband: sudden interruption by a - Ophelia Alcantara Dimalanta
thought - Whenever my voice flings arrows – I want to be
- Sparing nothing from the ardors of my stare – she gentle
spends all her time looking at the plants in her - When I viciously tangle with you – I want to hold you
garden - When I try to lord it over – I’m really a weak slave
- Blue plums, paired butterflies repeat you – - When I insolently seek out pulpits to mount my
substitute for husband gospel truths – I really want you to correct me
- To clear the moss, mend the gate but nothing moves - When I try to light you up whole – I just really want
– she wants to prepare for the husband’s return but to see your flame
- When I am wind taking roots – I want to run away You won’t miss us
with you or you can really catch me off guard You were always one step ahead
- When I prance around – I am actually lost
Read me and kung ibig mo akong makilala – self -> other
(will you still love him/her once you see the other) Subterranean
- Eric Gamalinda
- We do not have enough time
Garden - There is no cycle of life
- Acknowledgement of limitations
- L. Lacambra Ypil
Out of this world ideas of the author:
- Slow and deliberate fall of the full fruit
The sky is a membrane in an angel’s skull
Tree – Mother
Trees talk to each other
Fruit – Child
Ice is water in state of silence
- When we talked about the world, we were talking
about order – Who will die first? Embryo listens to everything we say
- When are are dying: we stop growing, we fall, we are - The people are nameless because they are strangers
consumed ( child skipping rope, girl on rain, Spanish man)
- It’s easy to pretend that we have a world of choice – - The author comes from a place of compassion
we cannot choose how/when to die - The author’s view about death is scary
- The orchids tenaciously cling to their dark barks – Source of all my grief:
being afraid to die - He views death as something undesirable
- Night and its reckless weeds. The light was not ours
to give – the cruel ways of death but life is not ours
to bestow Putol
- Michael M. Coroza
- Kanang paa putol, naka-Nike
Incantation - Indifference of basurero who’s used to killings
- For M.T., who died at 24 - “Sayang, wala na namang kapares”
M.T. is a she Basurero’s principle: The dead are already useless, I’m
She imagines the girl lying alone in her grave and he still alive, I need to live.
hopes for the girl to see the sun once more. He has
nightmares (The windblown words return to me as
screams in a dream)
The March
- Repeating words
- Mourning: no coherence - Ramil Digal Gulle
- Mumbling because of sadness - Four men carrying a coffin in the rain – death/sins or
secrets are calling out to you
- Four: Chinese word sounds like the Chinese word for
Relatives visit the Korean air lines plane crash site death
- Four men could be dancing or not – thinking about
- Danton Remoto how death feels
- Sakhalin - The rain is not happy, not sad, not impatient –
- Petal by petal, the drop the chrysanthemum – slow nature is not subjective, its neutral but random and
acceptance of death arbitrary. We cannot choose who will die
- The author comes from a state of panic
- Those who kill themselves – everything sways
because they die by hanging themselves on trees Big
- Arne – the one who committed suicide;
- Ramil Digal Gulle
You can’t keep a cup of coffee still + the rules of
- “ He lumbered about the house” “On legs like my
soccer constantly change -> she committed suicide:
grandfather’s ipil trees” – but he was slow, silent,
her world sways
ponderous
Nauna ka na:
- “The biggest thing about him was his voice.” “A small
thing defined by his bigness” – size is relative
- “After his stroke, my father began to shrink in slow,
unseen degrees. A mountan sinking into the earth” –
the author becomes aware of his father’s weakness
- “ hurt by light and raged over loud noises, he wanted
his room completely dark” – practicing death
- Vace so weak, so small (?)
- “Surprised that we were exactly the same size” – size
is relative
- “How could someone my size leave an absence as
big as the world” – the death of his father left a big
hole in him
The conversion
- J. Neil Garcia
- My family that loved me – but did not accept him
- The water had been saved, setting – shows that the
family was not well-off
- All the neighbors gathered around – the family
wants to show to society that they are solving the
problem
- Uncles – the dominant persons in the family are the
male
- Dead mother’s cabinet – child’s instinct to hide to
the mother
- Modesty – he did not want his family to be shamed
- “The girl kept sinking deeper”
- For the pot of rice left burning – he was only thinking
about food
- Redeemed. Four children, all boys – proof of my
manhood & signifies old cultures and beliefs
- Cousins who never shed their masks – he himself
was hiding behind a mask
- I have stepped caring what it will be – children were
considered as just proof of manhood
- The drum is still there – he is still hunted by his past
- It does not hurt to show who’s the man – he
imitated his father and uncles; women are not
valued
- I sometimes think of the girl – he is haunted by this
true gender preference
- Better off dead. And my family that loves me for my
bitter bream. We die to rise to a better life – The
choice to be accepted rather than to be free
