ang mga bitoon
wala baya’y timon
ang bulan wala
say layag
apan kabalo
sila asa paingon
paspas ang pagtagbo
sa kagabhion
—-
Si Ric S. Bastasa usa ka huwes sa Dipolog City.
Tumong
Poetry by Ric Bastasa | July 25, 2010
Panaw sa Ilalom sa Ulan sa Lawod nga Dagat
Poetry by Ric Bastasa | July 25, 2010
Panaw sa Ilalom sa Ulan sa Lawod nga Dagat
by Ric S. Bastasa
milabay ta sa mga batong
bungtod nga
opaw, sa sakayan nga
walay layag
wala nato damha ang
kusog nga ulan
pagkadagko sa lusok
nga nangahulog
sa aping sa dagat
apan mas dagko ang
sa imo
wa na ko mahikurat kabahin
anang mga mais
nga luha sa langit nga
gitisok sa
lapad nga dughan sa dagat
ang akong nahihumduman
mao lamang nga
init kaayo ang tambutso sa
baroto og duro nakong
hawid sa katig
—-
Si Ric S. Bastasa usa ka huwes sa Dipolog City.
Bukambibig 2010
Events by Dominique Gerald Cimafranca | July 20, 2010
Bukambibig 2010, the poetry reading series of the Davao Writers Guild, will have a public performance on July 22 (Thursday) at Gaisano South (Ilustre) 5/F Entertainment Center. Event starts at 6 PM. Special guests are Tita Lacambra-Ayala and Aida Rivera Ford.
Bukambibig will also be heard on Blue Knight Radio through Mellow Touch (94.7MHz DXLL) on July 27, 29, and 31, from 11:00AM to 11:45AM.
Saying Goodbye
Nonfiction by Fritz Gerald M. Melodi | July 18, 2010
I think I was the last person she saw before she went into coma. Her vitals dropped earlier that morning and so we gathered by her bedside at two in the morning. A few of her friends were there, family members, me and my sister, while she took deep heaves for elusive oxygen. Our pastor friend was there and by the looks of it, I could guess, he suffered a momentary distress as to what to pray for. What could we pray for? Plaster all the punctures in the heart? Revive the collapsed left lung? Scrape off all the cancer from the liver? In one miraculous swoop? I’m sure God could do all that, but I’m quite content that God was just there in the love of the people she spent her life with.
So the pastor, finally asked us: “What do you want to pray for?” Nobody answered. It was as if it was all too much to ask. But someone had to answer. “If she’s going, I pray she does so painlessly,” I replied. Almost everyone bowed their heads. Was that too rash? Heartless? Too fast?
Frostbitten Apathy
Poetry by Paul Randy Gumanao | July 18, 2010
What’s in our aircon classrooms
that convinces you that
the blood in your veins is blue?
The coldness makes you half-frozen
thin layer of flaking skin
wrapping your meandering tenderness.
Move. Why don’t you move?
Wipe the mists from the window pane;
mists like tears held back.
Wipe the mists, wipe the tears.
Beyond the windows
is the dying race of the living.
—-
Paul Randy Gumanao is a BS Chemisty student of Ateneo de Davao University.
Pakopyahin Mo Na Nga Ako
Poetry by Karlo Antonio David | July 18, 2010
Pakopyahin mo na nga ako
– Matuto ka nang makisama –
Sige na, huling beses na ‘to
Lahat na nga ay nasa iyo
‘di mo pa kayang magparaya
– pakopyahin mo na nga ako!
Syet kasi ‘tong teacher nating ‘to
Wala namang silbi ‘tong quiz niya-
(Sige lang, huling beses na ‘to…)
Sige ka, at kasalanan mo
Kung hindi ako makapasa!
Pakopyahin mo na nga ako!
Believe me, ‘tol, kahit ayoko
Requirement na pati kumopya
(-kaya nga huling beses na ‘to…
(…Amin pa kaya ‘tong buhay na ‘to?
Basta, tapos na ‘to mamaya…)
– Pakopyahin mo na nga ako
talagang huling beses na ‘to.
—-
Karlo Antonio David is a 3rd Year AB English student of Ateneo de Davao University.
Translation 101
Poetry by Gratian Paul Tidor | July 18, 2010
kung patabukon nimo ning balaka
sa pikas sidewalk,
dunay mga pulong nga muagi
sa pedestrian, o musaka sa overpass.
dunay mag-jaywalking,
dunay mudagan
aron di matapsingan
sa nanglabayng dyip.
dunay magpanaganag tabok,
dunay magpaagak sa batang buotan.
apan duna puy maligsan
tungod kay nagdinangag.
mabalian, mapulpog, mapidyat.
kung palayaton nimo ning balaka
patabok sa pikas pangpang,
siguro dunay makatarog tugpa,
dunay makatabok apan mapandol
o madalin-as ba kaha pagtupa.
dunay mapiangan, mapangos.
dunay igo ra makakapyot
sa sagbot nga nanurok
sa tumoy sa pangpang.
apan dunay di kaantigo mulayat.
maong kung pugson
nimo sila og tabok
matagak sila
diretso sa ilang lubnganan.
—
Gratian Paul R. Tidor is an AB English student of MSU-IIT. He was a fellow of the 17th Iligan National Writers Workshop.
Remembrance of the Workshop Past
Nonfiction by Arvin Antonio Ortiz | July 11, 2010
Almost two decades ago, writer Doreen Fernandez, a noted critic herself, pleaded that this country should have more critics. They do an important work in telling the readers which stories are good and which are not, which plays are worth watching and which are not, which books are worth buying and which are not.
Yet to us Filipinos whose sensibilities are not like the Americans’ it is hard to have critics around. We cannot withstand criticism nor have our work—the mere completion of which took us a long time to achieve—subjected to it. We take criticism, however constructive it may be, personally. We mistake criticism as an assault on our very being.