Tuesday, January 25, 2005

Psalm to Poverty

Ruth Mabanglo is both a poet and scholar. She has been publishing poetry for over 30 years and has received numerous literary awards and honors, most recently the Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature Hall of Fame Award. This poem is generally about poverty. This talks about different less unfortunate people who dream of something better. Yet all they can do is sleep for even their voices, their "rebellion" is muted. It reminds one of the recent Hacienda Luisita incident where more than a few people were killed when they tried to negotiate. In the ending it talks about a day that they will finally rise to the powerful people.

Ceferino Luta III

Psalm to Poverty
Ruth Mabanglo
Sleep now, child who craves
Canned milk and chocolate,
The coffee and cocoa trees in Cavite
Are now collateral to the puti.
Fuse into the currents of your dreams
All that you lament
Even the muted rebellions
Which they prevent
Sleep now, young woman who envies
The powder and silk of the singkit
Scattered pesticides wither
The kapok and ramie in the western fields.
Fuse into the currents of your dreams
All that you lament
Even the muted rebellions
Which they prevent
Sleep now, young man who dreams
Of appliances and fast cars,
The workers stir up trouble,
Supporting thousands of placards.
Fuse into the currents of your dreams
All that you lament
Even the muted rebellions
Which they prevent
Sleep now, father and mother,
Sleep on the bed of suffering,
We will arise with the chirping of sparrows
And illuminate the morning with blood.

Source: http://www2.hawaii.edu/~mabanglo/EnglishPoems.html

3 comments:

Jessica Lace said...

The poem describes how people are forced to just dream because that is the only way they could get close to their aspirations. They have simple wishes but because of poverty it all seem too complicated and difficult to achieve. They are forced to just imagine because reality is too far to be reached. Poverty is something that holds people back from their goals and hopes in life. When they cannot take it anymore and live in poverty and undergo the sufferings brought by it, they turn to revolutions and fight for their rights but they are also suppressed and left helpless. This may seem a never-ending cycle in our country, but I think we all have the power to change it and make those dreams a reality. -Jessica Evanglelista

Anonymous said...

This poem deeply saddens me. It does not seem to have any trace of hope in its lines. Its images vividly concretize the truth that almost all of the poor's cravings are satisfied only in their dreams.
-Melissa Santiago R16
I BS BIO

Anonymous said...

This poem reflects the Philippines in many ways. It speaks of the poor people who are left to “dream” for a better life because poverty holds them helpless. It speaks of the repression they get when they try to voice out their situation. It also speaks of the rich people who abuse the poor in the society. In real life, the “dreaming” for a better life is so real for the poor people in the Philippines. Since they can’t do anything to uplift their situation, they just sleep and dream to forget their hardships in life.
-Richmond Valdellon-