Supremo

SUPREMO

To Andres Bonifacio

Your bones may be lost forever,

But we are possessed, fortunately,

Of your photograph, in which

You glare—proud, sullen,

Belligerent, yet also brave, staunch,

Inspired—Supremo indeed.

I do not doubt your genius,

Testified by, for one,

Your marvelous capacity

For self-education, though

You must admit that

Your keenness is blunted

By your weakness

In the aspect of strategy:

Your inability to ride

Rapidly transforming events

So that they instead

Rode you, shamefully,

To your wretched execution—

Unjust, no doubt,

Still, result of your failure

To play your cards well.

Unyielding to a fault,

Prickly, reckless,

Flawed by fatal hubris,

You forecast your own fate

In the red and black flags

Of the Katipunan.

Now, standing in dust and smoke

Beclouding your monument

By the illustrious sculptor,

Guillermo Tolentino,

I see the Great Plebeian

Brandishing bolo and gun

And wonder about the message

He purportedly signifies.

Is there wisdom in violence?

Behold, the sword that liberates

Is the selfsame weapon

That tragically destroys!

Originally published in Anak Sastra (October 26, 2014), pages 80-81

All Souls’

ALL SOULS’

The day of the dead is short respite for the living.

The tumult of life is stilled by the remembrance of the dead.

The living remembers the dead as the silence of the grass.

The grass is the dead ever present among the living.

The dead have not forgotten that life is breath and water.

They hover in the air, waiting for rain.

Water is the prayers of the living for the thirsty.

The living sometimes forget, the dead ever remember.

Mourning Angel Cemetery Sculpture

The Madrigal

THE MADRIGAL

I listened

To a madrigal—

Fire, fire, fire,

They sang

So brightly,

Ethereal,

I imagined

The song itself,

Everyone

Consumed

By flames.

Originally published in Eastlit (August 1, 2015)

 

Element of Fire, detail by Liz Whaley

Song of the Solitary

SONG OF THE SOLITARY

The moon abides invisibly in a day painted white.

At my shoulder a dark green shadow is floating, the sea.

Breakers rush toward shore, roaring lions inside a wind tunnel.

Peering within myself, I see bottomless water.

Stillness enters the space between two swells of breath.

Waiting is a desert journey, a dry mountain disappearing into the skies.

Solitude, a dove, hovers, bearing a gift.

For Father Pat Giordano, SJ

Trwyn Du Lighthouse

Aphorisms

APHORISMS

Tonic more powerful than music or spoken words is silence.

Solitude is the companionable presence of God.

A conscience at peace is a good night’s sleep.

Coffee is a beverage you drink with your nose and digest with your heart.

After the snake sheds its skin, it’s the same snake.

All play and no work makes Jack unemployed.

The path to Heaven is cratered with bad intentions.

A thousand words do not paint a picture.

Study the past in order to break with the past.

In practice law is not a well-wrought urn but the purveyor of tortuous vagaries.

Originally published in The Penmen Review (April 10, 2017)

Blue Train

BLUE TRAIN

To John Coltrane

I listened to your blue train sauntering by...

Rhythmic, not marching but the two-step

Of a bird in a courtship dance, switching feet...

Coolly, fresh waters of a brook...cloudless cobalt blue sky...

Curling stone sliding, deep diver gliding...

Bass, low rumble of savannah elephants;

Cymbals, soft rain, silver pom-poms;

Saxophone, lead, flashing a deck of cards;

Trumpet, sharp, blending harmonies;

Piano, lively, dueling with the brass;

Saxophone, once more, announcing a theme one way,

Declaring it another, opening, closing doors...

Approaching the station...wheels slowing, whistle blowing...

Weaving in and out, a boxer feints, dodges, scores—drums.

John Coltrane (1926-67)

Bayani

BAYANI

Hero and bayani do not have the same meaning. Bayani is a richer word than hero because it may be rooted in bayan as place or in doing something great, not for oneself, but for a greater good, for community or nation.

Old heroes were those who contributed to the birth of a nation. Maybe the modern bayani is one who pushes the envelope further by contributing to a nation in a global world.

Link: http://opinion.inquirer.net/96994/bayani-a-richer-word-than-hero#ixzz4jkvfBAtJ 

 

—Ambeth R. Ocampo, “‘Bayani’ a richer word than ‘hero’,” Philippine Daily Inquirer (September 2, 2016) 

 

TATLONG BAYANI

Old heroes:

https://poetryofgonzalinhodacosta.blogspot.com/2017/06/tatlong-bayani.html

New heroes:

https://poetryofgonzalinhodacosta.blogspot.com/2016/09/tatlong-bayani.html

WHAT MAKES A HERO?

Through Executive Order No. 75 issued on March 28, 1993, former president Fidel Ramos created the National Heroes Commission, which is tasked to study and recommend national heroes to be recognized for their character and contributions to the country.

The commission was also tasked to evaluate, recommend, and come up with the criteria to determine how a historical figure qualifies as a national hero.

The committee came up with the following criteria:

- Heroes are those who have a concept of nation, and aspire and struggle for the nation’s freedom

- Heroes define and contribute to a system or life of freedom and order for a nation

- Heroes contribute to the quality of life and destiny of a nation

Additional criteria were adopted by the Technical Committee of the National Heroes Committee on November 15, 1995:

- Heroes are part of the people’s expression

- Heroes think of the future, especially of the future generations

- The choice of heroes involves the entire process that made a particular person a hero

On November 15, 1995, the technical committee of the National Heroes commission chose 9 Filipino historical figures to be considered national heroes:

- Jose Rizal

- Andres Bonifacio

- Emilio Aguinaldo

- Apolinario Mabini

- Marcelo H. Del Pilar

- Sultan Dipatuan Kudarat

- Juan Luna

- Melchora Aquino

- Gabriela Silang

Link: https://www.rappler.com/newsbreak/iq/180016-fast-facts-filipino-national-hero-criteria-heroes-day-philippines?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social

—Hannah Mallorca, “FAST FACTS: What makes a Filipino historical figure a national hero?” Rappler.com, August 28, 2017

MARCOS NOT A HERO

In a 26-page pamphlet entitled, “Why Ferdinand E. Marcos Should Not Be Buried at the Libingan ng mga Bayani”, the NHCP disputed Marcos’ record as a soldier during World War II, saying that it is “fraught with myths, factual inconsistencies, and lies.”

The commission said that Marcos “lied about receiving the Distinguished Service Cross, Silver Star, and Order of the Purple Heart,” a claim he supposedly made as early as 1945.

The NHCP earlier said it was the US Medal of Honor that Marcos claimed he received, but the commission on Monday, August 8, clarified it was the Distinguished Service Cross, along with the two other awards.

Marcos’ supposed guerrilla unit, Ang Mga Maharlika, was also “never officially recognized and neither was his leadership of it,” said the NHCP.

US officials, added the NHCP, “did not recognize Mr. Marcos’ rank promotion,” from major in 1944 to lieutenant colonel by 1947.

The former president’s actions as a soldier during WWII were likewise “officially called into question” by the US military.

Along with other sources, the NHCP referred to two documents from the Guerrilla Unit Recognition Files (1942-1948) in the Philippine Archives Collection.

The Ang Mga Maharlika file “contains letters, memoranda, reports, and accounts relating to the guerrilla unit Maj. Marcos claimed to have founded and led.”

Meanwhile, the Allas Intelligence Unit file “pertains to the organization led by Cipriano Allas, which claimed to be the intelligence unit of Ang Mga Maharlika.”

When a historical matter is doubtful, like Marcos’ WWII record, the NHCP wrote in the study’s executive summary that it “may not be established or taken as fact.”

“A doubtful record also does not serve as sound, unassailable basis of historical recognition of any sort, let alone burial in a site intended, as its name suggests, for heroes,” the NHCP added.

…Published on July 12, the pamphlet was the result of NHCP’s study as part of its mandate under Republic Act 10086 “to conduct and disseminate historical research and resolve historical controversies.”

Link: https://www.rappler.com/nation/142145-nhcp-objects-marcos-burial-libingan-bayani

 

—Michael Bueza, “NHCP objects to Marcos burial at Libingan ng mga Bayani,” Rappler.com, August 6, 2016

 

 

Indio Bravo (1880) by Juan Luna