THE BLADED POEM Behold the bladed poem (Tensile and razor-sharp Cold and glinting silver In the light or dark. Aenyion See how the blackhird Of a hiit flies Bedecked with pearls On the firm mobile hand. 45Look at each face On the leaf.of steel, The virile subtle flames, Images of incised gold. On one face are toilers Varied with pike and ore, Crucible, hammer and anvil, Water and whetstone. Plow and carabao on soil, The oyster in the sea, Carving and etching tools, Bowl of acid on a table. On the other face Are the same workmen massed Upright and poised to fight Behind the radiant flag. The uprising completes The figures of labor And urges another surge With the well-versed weapon. Grasp well the bladed poem And let it sing in your hands This kampilan is a talisman» © ~ Of the people in red headbands. f March 1982 AGCOMING IN March 29, 1980 in = morning Before birdrise Before the songs of good omen The careful voice of the watchman Rouses the squad from sleep In the silence of lamplight We Prepare our packs and check our guns Before the peasants rise We are ready for the enemy And so we wait Our minds three steps ahead of POsSibilities The hamlet trusts 15 Our maneuvers are Storied among the people All's well With the cock’s crow clear and confident All’s well With the fire and the kettle full DF sweet potatoes and grandmother concern Before the song of mortar and pestle T catch a gentle wind Before the ricehusks billow like sails Topen up at the edge of this mountain 16eyes are the eyes of guerrilla forests with the intensity of a grenade land comes in” Jy from the nightblue sky land comes in ly from the white areas unevenly citied the sunlight of this countryside falls gracefully from house to house paddy fields to paddy fields changes into a hurrying river my class consciousness climbs steeply the rushing waters 's with the ease of mountains d spreads as history in che becoming of gills time is paced here ‘morning now with the peasant masses nce I flew like the sky without direction ince I flew like the wind without assignment fow caught in this Gran Cordillera turning earn much from the sky and the wind land moves in on me in a new time upheaving proletarian spirit ‘Tcan balance like a ravine in the moonlight ‘And unearth me and the gifts of the masses he land fulfills urgent tasks in the people’s war ‘And wages armed struggle from start to finish Now the sky and the wind are in the land The call is to remold relations NY To release the forces of production . ‘And coming in is as the Party the Army the People_ 7The early light burns brightly Summons up a wealth of vision T look back and wonder at where it began ‘And what and why and how My urban centers are placed at midnight Heavy with the breath of liquor and sounds of words ‘A memory now without regrets With tales to tell to children and old men Foolishly I ask why the hills outrace the valleys ‘And leave the vacillating to look for their shoes ‘The dawn answers questions precisely tactfully Limns the backwardness of an irrigation system Checkers the selfish promise of ancient payaos ‘And presents a peasant’s house riddled with bullers Over there that ridge last month We waired for the enemy to enter a killing zone In single file correctly distanced ‘The mercenaries crossed our sights with the dikes ‘A morning's moment held me so closely T tensed even if | knew what I was fighting for Surprisingly hangups disappeared like shadows Seized by the sun unerringly Home assumed the lostness of abandoned scaffoldings Red fighter. ‘The mind grasps key links ‘And nonessentials are abruptly forgotten ‘The beurgeois world crumbles in the ambush positioncome to this thus far we yet to clean the rice ing groups have to be formed and consolidated of it all this movement to bring the land in with the time of the proletariat’s persistence middle of life the recruit is not lace ‘accepts to be one with peasant worker and soldier the class enemies of the toiling masses land called barren carries the sunlight Jand that shatters dreams ‘me to fetch water from the spring Tanoh Grandmother 1 know where the spring is rade Jason of petty bourgeois origin‘eams May 1973, Aquino Ranch, Tanay, Rizal) threat of a massacre: _ ‘and the suggestion it either I have experienced a massacre that it is a recurring dream. Or perhaps just the massacre scene either a book ora movie which a whole village is shot down cattle, shot down in an enclosure. movie with Anthony Quinn? The 25th Hour? which the protagonist either gives the order imself or tolerates it later it hangs on his conscience, ‘ta much later time. Anyway, my dream is that have vaguely gone through such a massacre now face another one — ina church, it seems; Iseek to avoid it. I try to walk away jonchalantly. It seems I escape ‘he massacre. I cannot remember every part f the dream, and it is possible 1 iad other dreams the same night, which {y pnosis can reveal. But I do remember he flight, perhaps with a new-found ilm friend, JG; perhaps with others, can no longer remember. Anyway, we Look for hiding places, not only for us, But for others: a closet, a church tower, Many others, I can no longer remember.HOMILY =P HON your eyes to the power of the people and the arms they bear ent and gun and a story living in their hearts! different is the violence of the ruling classes and their foreign masters ir social system of exploication and oppression! People’s war is violence of symbol and war: Sprouting from crushing rock and earth; Pushing out a sky full of dead stars; ‘other and child struggling against the darkness of wombs, e of Yahweh confirmin, death he stunned the precision and finality of his Sunrises, his mighty wind raised the Son of Man from the dead. ig the nothingness of evil and als of revolution are these and human birth, of Jesus glorious from the tomb, above all. ‘reat story is told, of driving force, and the people deeds of sun and seed 13IN MEMORIAM Zacharias Agatep and Alfredo Cezar (Died: October 11, 1982 in Salcedo, Hocos Sur) Death shall have no dominion The people release you from its shackles And hold you in being in their hearts Fallen comrades you rise anew with the masses And now you are more guerrilla Par-reaching and persistent as sun and moon Lighting/shadowing the hills and valleys And coves of Hocos No enemy can block the trails Salcedo is everyone/everywhere Where once you served the people Where others continue the good work of revolution For you are story now Recalled and relived by poor peasants and workers For you are poems now Sung by Red fighters and cadres to the people You add to the people's firepower Their arsenal of proletarian mind/gun and grenade Mass organization and Party cell You are spirit force greater than you 86Friendly as the feel of birds Never shall you cease to serve The future is long/generations arriving You prove selflessness unto death Opens us earch Cracks us rock/and death shall hace 10 dominion 87‘(ATCH istinguish between what is and what is not, a what is awake and what is asleep; ile at the jokes of teasing trees, mark the flights of a hundred fireflies, the steep momentum of critical hours a sentry on duty well armed and placed. lay the senses for a proletarian poem ind Red fighters resting in their tents. .rse the shadows in the mind with blue 1a even in the rain or in the easy fog, arrest the ido in its flight. For the eyes see and love command the darkness. release a story like blood in our veins, one team that moved swiftly to safety, of one comrade who died in a night raid, story steadfastly real like ground and guard the still secrecy of a vantage point ching bush and thicket for soundless targets. 27NOTHING MORE BEAUTIFUL I decided a long time ago That if I were imprisoned i I would do as Comrade Ho, : To write revolutionary poems. A ‘The movement was on the rise When he was put behind bars. As he sang of the grain of rice Made pearl white, he never lost touch. I think of all the reasons That in due time { shall be out. Tam sure that the passage of seasons Will further shed from victory any doubt. Meanwhile, there's nothing more beautiful Than to sing songs of freedom, Songs of the people’s struggle, ‘To fight tyranny and boredom. A spirit as active and free as mine Can never be entombed in a cell, I shall continue to rise In defiance af t 30 December 1977Jose F Lacaba i Setyembre 1972: Kalatas sa anak Sa pagkakadeklara ng batas militar Anak, pansamantala ay di mo makikita, di mahagkan ang iyong ama. Pagkat siya'y kaisa ng api, dukha’t masa, subersibo ang turing sa kanya, Sa ina mong kapiling, ang mahigpit kong bilin ay huwag na huwag kang palakhin sa kutson, luho't lambing, bagkus pa nga'y sanayin sa dahas ng sakit, sa hilahil, Naglipana ang tukso, maghehele sa iyo— magarang damit, manok na prito, tubig na may yelo, TY, air-con, awto, tinig ng dilag sa telepono. Subalit lilitaw at lilitaw, laman ng aking laman, ang dugo’t damdamin ng magulang: tiyak, sa iyo'y pupukaw ang daing ng bayan at ang tawag ng himagsikan.Kung Baga sa Bigas hg isipang tulog ay paano lalahok sa pakikihamok ng lungsod, nayon, gubat at bundok? Maging bakal ka sawing bakal sa ang kamao, dibdib at anak, tigas adhika, at sa araw ng bukas Ibigkis ang lakas *e Takas ng masang hangad ay laya,