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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