Literature is the people’s collective masterpiece,
their imprimatur.
1. Three words for a book title title, Philippine Literature Today,
The essence of three elements: space, subject and time;Yet subjective and elusive to the critical eye and mind
But courageous at the frontline, gentle over our clime.
2. What is literature to the old is also that to the young;
Bridge of generations, continuum of race and culture;
Heroes of old, heroes of new, and those awaiting, too,
Living book, not archive or litany, to love and treasure.
3. Dawn the prelude to sunrise, brings in a new sentinel,
New to the learned, to the unlearned, to the new born,
Sunset not the end of day and coming peace of night;
But rage, for to settle down is sin when the flag is torn.
4. Wonder the sun rising late and dying young in smog;
Wonder a high rise cast its shadow to hide a shanty;
Wonder ostentatious shows, courtesy of the needy;
Wonder literature thriving on romantic dichotomy.
5. Icons, masters, the pedestal too crowded for a few;
Names branded by fraternity, laurel or olive wreath;
Vanity and fancy, in language beautiful in the clouds,
Cordon sanitaire that wisdom is barred to bequeath.
6. While the world moves on by leaps from a small step,
In quantum of knowledge beyond the brain can hold;
Cyberspace the blackboard that was, now unlimited,
Makes the old torch a lightning bolt its power untold.
7. Literature its profile from Baby TV to Disney to HBO
Its domain epics and tales to history, science and ad;
Access on the palm and wrist, biometrics and robotics;
Quo vadis literatura? The canons are now old and sad.
8. Talk about Black Death, talk about COVID, both dreaded;
Angels and astronauts; about Noah’s flood and Yolanda;
Tenants in the field and condominiums they don’t own;
Man-made islands and deserts, the mall and talipapa.
9. No part truly speaks of the whole, comprehensive it may,
For literature defies science; unlike happiness multiplies
When divided in the magic of synergy and imagination
Above reason like rainbow that often comes in disguise.
10. Pathfinders at the heels of the world’s men of letters,
Universal truth in Rizal, genius put to test in martyrdom;
Reyes the Lola Basyang, relived fairies and the dwarfs
By the hearth and tamed the giants in faraway kingdom.
11. The doyen, Leona in Philippine poetry past, preserved
The endangered classics of the west tuned in vernacular;
Balagtas brought on stage Shakespearean drama alive;
Four pillars stand over our literature like shining star.
12. To our shores came Aesop, Homer, the Grimm brothers,
Stories from far north and south, and across the globe,
In times war and peace, in colonial days and in liberty;
An invisible hand guided our destiny from the cold.
13. What now from millennia past, in postmodern age -
The atom a ticking bomb, the life’s secret in DNA code?
The world has shrunk into a gadget, now owned by all
At fingertip’s command, at anytime, by young and old.
14. The second Big Bang that in cyberspace never sleeps,
Rousing and prodding, intruding, unyielding to our right,
Where computer and literature on busy feet moving,
Like a river of no return, rushing aimlessly in the night.
15. Humbly this book presents a less trodden way, perhaps nil;
Footsteps it lays ahead on a long journey on the horizon
By pioneers unknown, untested, theirs not of the glory
But courage and joy beating a path to a promising zone. ~
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Lesson on former Paaralang Bayan sa Himpapawid (People's School-on-Air) with Ms Melly C Tenorio. 738 DZRB AM Band, 8 to 9 evening class, Monday to Friday
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