Writing The Nation, Sadly Nationally

1. Something to Declare



One way to fuel the people's spirit

Is to write about their nation

In sad, suffering verses.



Remove all the happy endings.

The plot must be power plus

Its corrupt and corrupting

Consequences. It is like

Opening the chest of the dead,

Those killed by warmongers

Who have forgotten

The meaning of terror

For its own sweet sake

But use it to impose their will upon

The wind, wild and wise in its ways

As it gets into the heart

Of all that matters

To the land, sad and lonely,

Grieving for the turbulent times.





To write the nation

We need the pry open the veins

Of truth, the particular and personal,

The truth in the custody of moments

That allow the bleeding to commence.



It is a sacred rite, this

Dripping of blood onto the land

Thirsting for the cup

Of a solemn sacrifice.

This is the nation being written,

The nation as it should be,

The nation for all the seen

And the unseen,

The powerful

And the powerless.



The rite will complete all

That which is not perfect as of yet

Like the divide between loves:

One for the self

The other

For the other self.



2. Something to Keep



A while ago

I dedicated this poem

To you the poet of the people.



I spoke the word of liberty

In a foreign tongue, in the timbre

And tone you would not have approved.



You would have understood

The wit and quick cadence

Of concepts however strange

These are in many ways.



But

You

Would

Not, Never

Have approved.



You would have spoken

Of the people's poem

Who would feel each word

Like their own.





Aurelio S. Agcaoili

Nov. 30, 2004









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