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From “The Book of Lights” by Chaim Potok:

“From the age of fifteen until the age of twenty-one he lived in the apartment world of his aunt’s whispery talking and his uncle’s coughs and brooding silence, and he did not know which was more frightening. For a while after his cousin’s death he thought his family had somehow been singled out for a special curse. But he talked to friends and found that throughout the neighborhood ran a twisting river of random events: parents died in slow or sudden ways, children were killed, relatives slipped young from life. The world seemed a strangely terrifying place when you really thought about it. He tried not to think about it too often.

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Tags: , Art, Books, Chaim Potok, religion, Writing
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A Thousand Bitter-Sweet Poems for Women
By Michael Ian Lomongo, March 21, 2001

Last March 10, I watched PETA’s “Komedi Club,” a festival of 10 to 15-minute plays written by members of the PETA Writers’ Bloc. In celebration of the International Women’s Day, the plays featured during that weekend (March 8-10) were written by women playwrights (except for Nick Pichay’s “Kahit na Magtiis”). The line-up included “Flight,” an interpretative dance choreographed and performed by Martina Gonzales-Quesada, Regina Lasam, and Verni Severo, incorporated with a poem by Inge Saltarin; an adaptation of Liza Magtoto’s Palanca-winning “Despedida de Soltera“; Sheila Crisostomo’s “Emergency” (the grand prize winner of the second Charley dela Paz Awards of the PETA-PDP Writers’ Bloc); Nick Pichay’s “Kahit na Magtiis”; and Lallie Bucoy’s “Isang Libong Tula para sa Dibdib ni Dulce.”

I liked the last two plays best.

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Tags: Art, Duality, Femininity, Filipinos, Gender Issues, Layeta Bucoy, Life, Machismo, Maternity, Philosophy, Poetry, Psychology, spirituality, Theater, Tony Perez, Writing
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(lovingly dedicated to friends, romans, countrymen, lovers, philosophers, philosophasters, grecophiles, ichtyophiles, insomniacs, amnesiacs, maniacs, dionysiacs, alcoholics, addicts, narcoleptics, lunatics, etc… happy valiant times!)

Athena: Variations on a Theme

I

Deep in the night
I stared into the eyes of an owl
Not finding sleep
I sought love
And tripped on wisdom instead.

II

Deep in the night
Staring into the moonlit eyes of an owl
I fought love
Sought wisdom
And caught sleep instead.

III

Deep in the night
Staring at the moonlight
With the eyes of an owl
I sought, without finding
Sleep, wisdom, love.

- ian lomongo, september 2002

Tags: Athena, Love, Poetry, Sleep, Wisdom
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My rough Tagalog translation of Jose Rizal’s “Song of Maria Clara,” inspired by my inability to recall Bienvenido Lumbera’s translation (“Matimyas mabuhay sa sariling bayan, mapagmahal dito ang sikat ng araw.”) in his libretto for Ryan Cayabyab’s Noli musical as well as my inability to get a copy of Rio Alma’s:

Ang Awit ni Maria Clara

Matimyas mabuhay sa tinubuang bayan

Kung saan kaibigan ang lahat sa ilalim ng araw

Buhay ang hanging umiihip sa kanyang bukirin

Kamataya’y di saklot ng hinagpis at higit na malambing ang pag-ibig.

Malalamyos na halik ang naglalaro sa mga labi ng isang ina sa paggising

Ng sanggol sa kanyang dibdibm, habang inaapuhap naman ng mga bisig

Ng sanggol ang leeg ng ina upang doon ito mangunyapit;

At sa pagtatama ng mapagmahal na pagtingin, sumisilay sa mga mata ang ngiti.

Matimyas mamatay para sa tinubuang bayan

Kung saan kaibigan ang lahat sa ilalim ng araw

Kamatayan ang ihip ng hangin sa kanyang kawawang

Walang bayan, walang ina, walang pagmamahal.

December 30, 2007

Rizal Day

Angono, Rizal

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Tags: Love, Mother, Native Land, Patriotism
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