In celebration of the conclusion of this month, I focus on three women\u00a0\u00a0poets from the Republic of the Philippines:<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Ophelia\u00a0\u00a0Alacantara\u00a0\u00a0Dimalanta<\/strong> (b. 1932 \u2013 d. 2010) was a revered musician, poet, Ph.D. who wrote many poetry books and received many awards during her lifetime. Here is an excerpt from a poem by her on childbirth:<\/p>\n \u201cThere will be no sleep. No twilight calm, no pain<\/em><\/p>\n No syllables but pure primal<\/em><\/p>\n Rhythmic knowing, an urgent<\/em><\/p>\n Forward flow, a powerful arched<\/em><\/p>\n Wave, love rhythm, leaves<\/em><\/p>\n Opening, opening.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n Merlie Alunan <\/strong>was born in 1943. She\u2019s a teacher in Leyte with five children and writes in Cebuano or Waray. Here\u2019s an excerpt from a long poem by Merlie: Tales of the Spiderwoman<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cWhen your shadow crosses my door,<\/em><\/p>\n please enter without fear<\/em><\/p>\n But remember not to ask where I\u2019d been<\/em><\/p>\n or what had fed me in this empty room<\/em><\/p>\n curtained with fine webs of silk.<\/em><\/p>\n Ignore the seethe of all my memories<\/em><\/p>\n Come, take my hand<\/em><\/p>\n I am human at your touch.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n Luisa A. Igloria<\/strong> is originally from Baguio and is the author of 16 books. She served as the 20th<\/sup>\u00a0Poet Laureate of the U.S. state of Virginia from 2020 to 2022. Here is a complete poem by her. A ghazal is an Arabic love poem with a recurring rhyme and a limited number of stanzas.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Ghazal, With Cow Burial <\/strong><\/p>\n By LUISA A. IGLORIA<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cThere are only 31 horse burials in Britain and they are all with men.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Out of a pit, they\u2019ve found a woman\u2019s bones – whittled by time<\/em><\/p>\n bearded by dust, clutching the ambered remains of a cow.<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n Was she matriarch, widow, wife? Did she die struck by illness or blight?<\/em><\/p>\n archeologists say her wealth and status are proven by this cow.<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n Some days, I quip to friends and family: my name might as well be\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n Bob (short for Beast of Burden). But life\u2019s yoke is heavier than a cow.<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n What would I want to take with me? In Chinese burials<\/em><\/p>\n the dead are ferried to the afterlife: not on cows<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n but in paper limousines with symbols for wealth: coins, bills, sweets,<\/em><\/p>\n cigars, what one liked here enough to take to there; but not a cow \u2013<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n In the winding Cordilleras I call home, the dead are neatly tucked among<\/em><\/p>\n the hills, with jars of betel nut and agate beads \u2013 never with a cow.<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n A friend reminds me: in Hindu myth, should the population<\/em><\/p>\n be in danger, they\u2019ll save the women, children, and the cows.<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n The cow that in this life was a cow, does it remain the same? Does it dream<\/em><\/p>\n of feathered grass in the fields, of gnats, the low symphony of fellow cows<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n chewing the cud? They poke at beetles the color of jewels\u00a0\u00a0–<\/em><\/p>\n embellishments on face plates of sleeping mummies. The cow<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n as sacrifice, as plenty, as months of food and fat and solid warmth.<\/em><\/p>\n And the woman: how was she loved, missed, valued more than cow? \u201d<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n I sincerely hope readers will be inspired to check out more Philippine poets.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In celebration of the conclusion of this month, I focus on three women\u00a0\u00a0poets from the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":387597,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[42,21],"class_list":["post-392746","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opinion","tag-food","tag-life"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/392746","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=392746"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/392746\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/387597"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=392746"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=392746"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=392746"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}