Tag: Maria Virginia Yap Morales

Editor's Note for April 5, 2009 issue

Editor's Note by | April 5, 2009

Her attributes have been labelled as “feminine,” which are right-brained priorities of receptivity, intuition, feeling, artistic pursuit. In the last four decades she is said to have developed “masculine” priorities in left brain assertiveness, intellectual pursuit, science, organization, mathematics. Living through discontinuities in her life, global statistics affirm – she is living a longer life than him. Because of all these, it has been said the 21st century is the woman’s century. Two issues of Dagmay harvests the promise of March and new beginnings in the poetry and prose of Agnes Miclat Cacayan, Rosalie Zerrudo, Lourdes Birondo Caharian, and painting by Anna Rhieza Rallos.

MARIA VIRGINIA YAP MORALES
Editor

Dark Pink Harvest

Poetry by | August 10, 2008

Peering through a picture window
I saw pastel-hued balloons dance in the air,
anchored to chairs built so low
uprooted children are ill-fitted there.
I gaze at you and me standing –
opposite ends of a rainbow:
I am writing history.
You are certain
in this country
there is a treasure of stories to know.
You finally understood why you had to go.
Seeping sambong in a screened porch
embraced by life-filling green
Alone I stare upon your raiment of dark pink torch
more lovely than I can ever imagine.

Dark Pink Harvest

Poetry by | March 2, 2008

A grandmother’s remembrances of last summer

Peering through a picture window
I saw pastel-hued balloons float in the air
anchored to chairs built so low
uprooted children are ill-fitted sitting there.
I gaze at you and I standing opposite ends of a rainbow.
I am writing history.
You are certain
in this country
there is a treasure of stories to know.
You finally understood why you had to go.
Sipping sambong in a screened porch
embraced by life-filling green,
alone I stare at your raiment of dark pink torch
more lovely than I can ever imagine.

War Diary

Nonfiction by | October 14, 2007

(Excerpted from the book Diary of the War: WWII Memoirs of Lt. Col. Anastacio Campo by Maria Virginia Yap Morales, published by Ateneo de Manila University Press, Quezon City, 2006)

Grandfather is remembered as the provincial commander Capt. Anastacio Campo (provincial inspector) of Davao, his last assignment before he retired after twenty-four years of military service in December 1939. He was farming when Davao was bombed by the Japanese forces. He promptly joined the United States Army Forces in the Far East (USAFFE) which was organized by Pres, Franklin Delano Roosevelt in July 1941. At that time, the Philippines was in a transition period called the Philippine Commonwealth under U.S. rule. Grandfather was promoted to major during the war. He finally retired thereafter, in July 1948, with an upgraded rank of lieutenant colonel.

After the war, Grandfather lost the strength of both of his legs and walked with the aid of a cane. But he always stood tall and lean, with a straight back owing to his military training. He had deep-set and attentive eyes, a tall nose, and a calm manner. He was fondly called “Tacio” by my Grandmother Remedios whom he called “Meding.” All of us grandchildren called him “Lolo Tacio.”

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