Philippine Literary Text:

POETRY
Wife (Marra PL. Lanot)
Brave Woman (Grace R. Monte de Ramos)
Marra PL. Lanot
Life & Work

 Poet, essayist, & freelance journalist (Filipino, English, & Spanish)

 Graduated from University of the Philippines (UP)
 Taught literature, creative writing, & film at UP
 Worked as an Associate Artistic Director of the Cultural Center of
the Philippines (CCC) & Board Member of the Movie and
Television Rating & Classification Board (MTRCB)
Life & Work

 Published 6 collections of poetry, 3 collection of profiles, & a book

of essays
 Recipient of Catholic Mass Media Award & Carlos Palanca
Memorial Awards for Literature
 Received 2nd prize for Poetry in the Palanca Awards for her 1st
collection of poetry, Sheaves of Things Burning (1967)
 Imprisoned w/ her husband during Martial Law
Wife
Marra PL. Lanot

As a tot she was

Surrounded by fishbowl silence
She had no horns
No wings, no tail
Just a smile nobody
Noticed while adults
Talked at mealtime.
She did not ask what worth she had—
Who am it or
What is I.
When guests arrived
She gulped down food
Slipped out of her chair
And floated into her room
Like a bubble and burst behind closed doors.
Now she’s an actress
In search of a script.
Sometimes she freaks out
Tired of her horns
Wings, tail, tired
Of bowing, smiling
For no one.
Guests come
And do not wonder who she is or
Is she an it
A doormat, an empty chair
A wallflower or décor.
She still remembers to
Sneak out like a bubble
Float into her room
And burst behind closed doors.
She is protected
By her fishbowl silence.
Speaker
 Wife
Tone
 Resentment
Symbolism/Metaphor

 Highlighted red in the text

Grace R. Monte de Ramos
Life & Work

 Poet & translator

 Graduated from Silliman University w/ a degree in Creative Writing
 Taught literature at Silliman University
 Worked at Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP)
 Currently a full-time mother
Life & Work

 Translated Ang Bukid Nga Nahigugma Sa Langgam, the Binisaya

(Cebuano) version of Alice McLerran’s The Mountain That Loved a Bird
 Poems were published in literary journals Caracoa, Ani, Sands & Coral,
Likhaan, & the Philippine Studies
 Poems also appeared in textbooks & anthologies of Philippine literature
& feminist poetry
 “Brave Woman” (2003) chosen for inclusion in the book Poets Against
the War, a collection of the best anti-war poems from among 13,000
submissions by writers opposed to war with Iraq
Brave Woman
Grace R. Monte de Ramos

I am a mother of sons.
Two joined the army when they were young;
There was not enough money for school,
They had no skills for jobs in foundries
And factories, and it was easy to sign up
And learn how to handle a gun.
I am a mother of sons, two sons
And one, the youngest, now gone.
In his youth he was taken
By men whose names I never will learn.
I only know they were soldiers, like my sons,
Cradling fearsome guns.
He was a fine young man. I took care of him
For seventeen years and they took him away
And now I am searching for his bones.
I will never learn their names.
Alone I try to imagine the scene: Were their faces
Bearded or clean-shaven?
Perhaps their bodies were robust.
Did they wear uniforms the color of shrivelled
Sampaguita or fresh horseshit?
How pointed the bullets from their guns?
My soldier sons come home
When life in the barracks is still.
I hide their brother’s picture;
It makes them cry and remember.
Perhaps they, too, (God forbid it),
Have given other mothers sorrow.
Perhaps my son had to pay for what they borrowed.
I cannot cry, though I am told
It is better to cry and let go.
Where is my son’s body for me to bury?
I only wear my grief in the lines
Of my face, my sunken cheeks.
Silent, I mourn a woman’s
Bitter lot: to give birth to men
Who kill and are killed.
Speaker
 Mother
Tone
 Grief
Symbolism/Metaphor

 Highlighted red in the text

Photo credit:
 http://womenwritersinmedianow.blogspot.com/ (Marra PL. Lanot)
 https://mothertonguepublishinginctranslators.wordpress.com/2006/12/31/grace-r-monte-de-ramos/ (Grace R.
Monte de Ramos)

Prepared by:
Articulo, Jesselle Kayla
(MAELL Student)

http://kalayeditor.wixsite.com/mysite