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I’m Not Scared of the Dark: The Tranquility of the Catholic Imagination
in Michael M. Coroza’s selected poems from “Dili’t Dilim”

It is rare in Philippine culture overall that the concept of darkness or “dilim” be examined

in such a positive manner. The idea of darkness has been associated mostly to the mythical,

mystical, and sometimes monstrous. Such examples are how our mother and fathers often scare

us when we were children about going into dark places. This inherent fear of the darkness claims

any inquiry into it either invalid, sometimes brave, but most often than not, crazy. Yet even

though such evaluations of the concept of darkness exist, literature is the one medium wherein

we could take a peek into such concepts without having the fear of actually suffering any

imagined mortal or spiritual injury. It is this light that this paper launches its inquiry of the

darkness. By doing so, it is the goal of this paper to provide comprehensive discussion of darkness

and unexplored potential spirituality it contains through analyzing Michael Coroza’s poems: “Sa

altar”, “Sa pagitan ng nakikita at tinatanaw”, and “Naghahangad tayong lahat ng liwanag”; all of which

are found in his collection “Dili’t Dilim”. In the proceeding examination, this paper will use the

concept of “tranquility”, as coined by T.S. Eliot in his preface to the “Lyrical Ballads”, in order to

be the representation of the unexplored potential spirituality that could be found in darkness.

But before proceeding into looking for representations of tranquility as this unexplored

potential in spirituality that could be found in darkness, there must be a defining of what

tranquility truly is in order for the paper to properly conduct an examination of the selected text

through the use of such a concept. The researcher decides to use a passage from the Bible in order

to define tranquility. It is stated in Matthew 6:6 that: "But you, when you pray, go into your inner

room, close your door and pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees what

is done in secret will reward you”. It is through this Bible verse that the researcher anchors his

definition of “tranquility” due to the reason that it is in congruency with how T.S. Eliot himself

had used the concept in order to define poetry as an “overflow of powerful feelings: it takes its

origin from emotion recollected in tranquility” (Brett and Jones 251). Therefore, we now
understand “tranquility as the amalgamation of isolation, brought about by the statement from

Matthew 6:6 which teaches that one must isolate oneself in order to find God within them,

intimacy, also due to the verse command to be alone with God, and meditation, which is

suggested in both Eliot’s definition of poetry and in Matthew 6:6.

The title of Michael Coroza’s collection “Dili’t Dilim”, wherein the selected poems are

taken from, already suggests the poet’s and the poem’s “tranquil” nature. The title itself translates

into “giving into the dark” or “it is not dark”. Through such translation we are able to note how

the writer already positions darkness as not being a threat, right at the very title itself. This

positioning of darkness as not being a threat posits that it is darkness that then becomes a concept

of value to the poet. And through means of deduction of what a poet is and his work entails

through Eliot’s definition of poetry, the idea that Coroza’s naming of the title as such already

provides the poems an inherent tranquil nature as well which represents the unexplored potential

spirituality in darkness. And because the poems themselves along with the title of the collection

are now bearers of this unexplored potential spirituality in darkness, they can be considered as

Catholic literature due to the reason that this justification of the “tranquil” nature coincides with

Mary Reichardt’s definition of Catholic literature as “good literature that employs the history,

tradition, culture, theology, and/or spirituality of Catholicism in a substantial, informed, and

meaningful way” (Reichardt 3).

The first among the three selected poems is “Sa altar”. “Sa altar” can be considered as

highlighting isolation, as a factor in tranquility, through its imposition, by imagery and form, of

the dark or “dilim” as being brought about by the inherent spiritual tranquility provided by God’s

image or presence. God’s image can already be immediately seen through the title of the poem:

“Sa altar”. The altar is a table or structure inside the church, wherein the bread and wine are

consecrated during mass. It can be also considered as an altar of prayers wherein prayers are

offered through lighting candles which are then placed in front of it. The latter definition best

first what is being told in the poem. In the first two lines there is already and imagery of a

flickering candle. The lines “Naglulumi-lumiyad/ Ang dila ng kandila,” already shows the imagery

of a candle having its “dila” or tongue, which can be presumed as its flame, flickering or
“Naglulumi-lumiyad”, probably because of the blowing of the wind (Coroza 2). The presence of

the candle being shown at the first two lines of a poem entitled “Sa altar” already posits the idea

that the imagery being shown could be that of an altar wherein prayers are offered through the

lighting of a candle. The candle here could be a signifier of an offered prayer, due to the

aforementioned possible setting of the poem. The proceeding lines “Tinutupok ang putlang/ Sa krus

ay umaagnas” shows the imagery of the melting of the candlewax on to the cross as described in

how the verb “Tinutupok”, which translates to “dismissing”, works around the noun “putlang”,

or “white”, which is then wearing down or “umaagnas” onto the “krus” or cross. This could be a

signifier of how our offered prayers to God are being caught by his sacrifice on the cross, as a

sacrament of how he sacrificed himself in order for us to live, and our prayers be answered

(Coroza 2). The last two lines “Humahalinghing ang hangin/ Humalimlim ang dilim”, which roughly

translates into “the wind blew/ the darkness fell”, shows how darkness is introduced as a

manifestation of God’s power, rather than a threat to the light (Coroza 2). Here, we can now see

a complete imagery of the setting of the poem: a candle flickering on an altar of Christ’s cross,

solitary in the dark as the wind blows. Not only does the words show in the poem support the

imagery of a candle, but also the form in which the poem is written or structured.
 The image (an actual picture of the page containing “Sa altar” from “Dili’t dilim”) above

shows how the poem is structured in the same manner as to which the candle is described in the

poem. Solitary. Here the representation of isolation, a factor of achieving tranquility, comes full

circle. As it is seen and written in the form and imagery of the poem, the candle serves as a symbol

for humanity (the people and their hopes and prayers) being in isolation with God’s presence

(represented in the image of the cross) that allows the putting into written text of the isolation

needed in achieving tranquility. Therefore, the first poem shows the isolation mirrored in the

spiritual nature of being with God as said in Matthew 6:6, and the isolative factor needed in order

to achieve and discover the unexplored potential spirituality that can be found in darkness which

is tranquility.

The next poem among the selected three is “Sa pagitan ng nakikita at tinatanaw”.

Immediately after the beginning of the poem is a sort of disclaimer enclosed in a parenthesis

which reads: “Pasintabi kay Octavio Paz”. This could be read as a sort of homage to Octavio Paz.

Paz was a Mexican poet and also a diplomat. He is the author of the poem “Between Going and

Coming” to which could be the poem that Coroza drew inspiration from in the writing of this

poem. The title of the poem already posits a spiritual meaning due to its rough translation which

reads as: “the space between what can be seen and what is looked at”. This space already merits

inquiry. Yet before such defining of the aforementioned space could be done, there must be first

a reading towards the two not-so-distant concepts that create such a space. It is in the first section

of the poem that there is an exposition of binary concepts that create this space. The poem reads

in the first section (translated from Tagalog): “In between what is seen and what is looked at/ In

between what is heard and what is being listened to/ In between what smells and what is being

smelled/ In between what is tasted and what is savored/ In between what is touched and what is

felt/ [a] poem”. This first section of the poem offers to the reader what the persona believes a

poem to be. Coroza presents it as an entity in between the reaches of our senses and what our

senses choose to sense. When reading this firs section of the poem, I cannot help but me reminded

of a statement from God in Isaiah 55:8-9, which reads: “’For my thoughts are not your thoughts

neither are your ways my ways’, declares the Lord. ‘As the heavens are higher than the earth, so

are my ways higher than your way and my thoughts than your thoughts’”. In this verse the Lord
speaks to the Israelites about His promise to them that He will deliver them to the promised land.

What prompted such a statement from God is the question of how He remains to the Israelites,

when they haven’t. Such a statement mirrors how Coroza builds up his notion of a poem in the

first stanza. Rather than defining what the space is or what is contained within the space in

between, Coroza prompts the use of comparison in order to tease at the reader’s thoughts on what

is contained in the space between the enumerated binary concepts; much like how God defines

His ways to the Israelites. But by the end of the first section Coroza reveals this space as being the

“tula” or the poem. By the second section, Coroza now proceeds to move the binary concepts into

action by stating how poetry explodes onto the pages our senses, through the lines “Isinasabog ng

tula/ ang ating mga pandama/ sa lawak ng pahina”. The following lines continue to describe, in the

same fashion, how the binary concepts’ (e.g. “what is seen and what is looked at”, “what is heard

and what is being listened to”, “what smells and what is being smelled”, etc.) spaces in between

them should be traversed in order to find the experiences that are lost in the moving from “what

is seen” to “what is looked at”. In this manner, Coroza shows how there is a need for a certain

level of reflection of the senses in order to recover or find these lost experiences only seen in the

aforementioned spaces of the “In between”; a manner akin to how as believers we are

commanded to reflect on God’s word, as said in

Matthew 6:6. In the image on the left, there can be seen

how the second section of the poem is formatted. It is

written in such a way that it encourages the reader to

see the spaces in between the words, much as how

Coroza’s words encourage reflection of the spaces of

what our senses in order to recover lost experiences.

And lastly in the third and final stanza of the poem,

there is a reconciliation of the binary concepts that

produces the product of freedom in this isolative

search for tranquility. In this poem, tranquility is seen

as being achieved through one of its factors which is

meditation. As tranquility is representative of the

unexplored potential spirituality that could be found in darkness, this poem is now a direct

instruction of traversing this dark unexplored potential spirituality of the space of the “in

between”. If the first poem shows how isolation is a gateway into tranquility, this poem shows

how important meditation is, in the processing after isolating oneself in order to find tranquility

in God.

The third and last poem is “Naghahangad tayong lahat ng liwanag”. The poem’s title

translates into English as: “We all long for the light”, which posits the meaning of searching or

longing. It could be assumed that this longing or searching can be associated to how man searches

for meaning or “light” in his life. This light can also be seen as somewhat representative of God’s

grace, or even God’s presence. If we are to follow Matthew 6:6’s structure of how one finds God,

it could be assumed that this title also implies such meaning. In the first stanza of the poem it

reads (as translated to English from Tagalog): “We all long for light/ That corrodes all doubt that

covers/ Even if nothing doesn’t end in the dark”. From the beginning of the poem, there already

is the notion of how darkness is something constant in our lives even if we long for the light that

we hope can eliminate it. The second stanza offers an argument in favor of longing for the light,

as it reads (as translated to English from Tagalog): “We run out of the darkness/ Because we fear

bad things may happen/ We all long for light”. By showing our inherent reactions towards the

dark due to our fears, there is a justification here of why people start to long for the light. The

third stanza reads (as translated to English from Tagalog): “In holiness we hug the myth/ Of

happiness’ consciousness in light/ Even if nothing doesn’t end in the dark”. This stanza now

swings from favoring the light into questioning its validity as our source of happiness by ending

in a somewhat pessimistic note of how everything ends in the dark. As for the fourth stanza,

which reads (as translated to English from Tagalog): “How can the light be enjoyed/ If we cannot

understand the dark?/ We all long for the light”, there is now a merging of both light and darkness

as binary concepts to which are essential in fully appreciating and understanding any one of the

two. The fifth stanza on the other hand, reads (as translated to English from Tagalog): “We all

believe that it is not right/ To trust the darkness that covers/ Even if nothing doesn’t end in the

dark”. This specific stanza strengthens the argument towards how the darkness should be valued

by questioning the doubts and fears we have toward darkness. And lastly, the sixth stanza reads
(as translated to English from Tagalog): “We don’t want to believe that the consciousness/ Of our

understanding is fed in the darkness/ We all long for light/ Even if nothing doesn’t end in

darkness”. The last stanza follows by stressing our fears toward the darkness as a farce since we

cannot admit how our own consciousness and understanding is fed most in the darkness. It ends

by reiterating the most repeated lines in the poem (as translated to English from Tagalog): “We

all long for the light/ Even if nothing doesn’t end in darkness”. In summation, this poem has

talked how darkness is essential as our search for the light is. That in the parallel search for

tranquility as the unexplored potential spirituality found in darkness, it is intimacy (as a factor of

tranquility) which is the final requirement in order fully find tranquility. Aside from isolation

and meditation, it is intimacy that fully forms our search for the tranquility of our faith. To which

in the end, it is our realization to be intimate with what is constant and what awaits us at the end

that should be the final step in realizing tranquility.

As can be summarized, the aforementioned poems revolve around three themes,

respectively, that are factors in achieving tranquility as the unexplored potential spirituality

found in darkness. The following factors are: isolation, meditation, and intimacy. By following

the argument that sacramentality, as pointed out by Ron Hansen in his essay “Writing as

Sacrament”, can be found in good writing due to its inherent religiosity, the same then could also

be said of tranquility; that tranquility can be found in the “darkness”, as portrayed in literature,

through its inherent bringing of isolation, meditation, and intimacy, which are in themselves

factors in achieving tranquility (Hansen 1). Therefore, tranquility is then reached through these

three poems through the factors of tranquility that each of them represent which in turn

transforms tranquility from being an unexplored potential spirituality found in darkness, to the

spirituality in darkness.

It is said in Psalm 23:4 that “Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no

evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me” and can be considered that

the darkness is controlled as well by God; and that in our inquiry into the furthest depths of the

darkness, we must be calm and remember that it is also in darkness to which we can find our

God.
Appendix:

The Selected Poems from Michael Coroza’s “Dili’t dilim”

Bibliography:

Brett, R. L., and Alun R. Jones, editors. “Wordsworth’s Prefaces of 1800 and 1802.” Lyrical
Ballads: Wordsworth and Colleridge, the Text of the 1798 Edition with the Additional 1800
Poems and the Prefaces, by William Wordsworth, Routledge, 1991, pp. 233–257.

Coroza, Michael M. Dili’t dilim. University of Santo Tomas Publishing house, 1997.

Hansen, Ron. "Writing as Sacrament." A Stay Against Confusion: Essays on Faith and Fiction
(New York: Perennial, 2001) 10.7 (2008).

Reichardt., Mary R. Exploring Catholic literature: a companion and resource guide. Rowman &
Littlefield, 2003.