SURVEY TO PHILIPPINE LITERATURE IN ENGLISH

Semi Finals Examination

GROUP 4

The Poets
Lighthouse
Phynne-Belle | Marjorie Evasco

Leader:
Padillo, Rosanna Angelica A.
Members:
Mansilagan, Mutya
Mantalaba, Monica
Masong, Maryjoy
Matanggo, Daiane Crystal
Nacilla, Shenneth
Padang, Christian Dave
Salcedo, Rhea May
 INTRODUCTION

What is The Poets Lighthouse?

The Poets Lighthouse is a podcast and a vlog that invites well-known literature
writers to talk about their masterpiece and their inspiration of writing. Through it,
we’ll get to know more about the lives of the invited writers and inspire us how
beautiful literary pieces are.

About the Host

Tricia De Jesus or Phynne Belle is a Filipino living abroad, San Francisco Bay Area
poet, podcaster, blogger, host, and a podcaster.

The Poets Lighthouse: Marjorie Evasco

Phynne-Belle, the host, introduces the guest, Marjorie Evasco.
Marjorie is a Southeast Asia writers Awardee for the Philippines given by the Royal
family of Thailand and the National commissions for Culture and the Arts Ani Ng
Dangal 2011 Awardee. Five of Marjorie's books have won the Manila critics circle
National book awards for poetry, oral history, for biography, and the arts. Her poetry
books in English with Spanish translations by Latin American poets are skin of water,
and fishes of light, Pesis De Luz which is co-authored by Cuban poet Alex Fleitas.
And in 1986, Marjorie Evasco was regional fellow for poetry of the University of the
Philippines, Likha and Center for creative writing. She also served as director of the
Bienvenido and Santos Creative Writing Center of De la Salle University in Manila.
Moreover, Evasco became an advocate for Literary development in the Visayas and
Mindanao particularly in creative writing in Binisaya. In 2017, she edited the
anthology of memoirs of growing up Bolohano called “The Bohol We Love”, where
she also translated memoirs, poems, and folk songs in Binisaya into English. Since
2019, until now she is serving the appointment as a writer in residence of the
University where she is also teaching Literature in its graduate school.

Additionally, Marjorie Evasco showed up in the video and explained the idea behind
her success in writing. According to her, writing begins with developing the skill of
being quiet in order to listen. And Marjorie said that of all her skills, listening is her
best skill. She is not very good at talking but she's good at listening and being still
creates a space for her to pay attention to what she's looking for. Also, she mentioned
that listening makes people hear the words that come into the ear, the mind's ear. And
when the words begin ringing in your ear, that is a beautiful sign that you know things
are steering up. Marjorie had shared that she didn't write right away because she's
really more a reader and a listener. And it takes her a long time to really compose, so
most of the time her daily practice is to write in her journal. She just writes a very
sharp description of what she was listening to or looking at or tasting. And it looks
like a way of being in the body, embodying what you are experiencing and saying.
And she thinks that such reciprocity with the world is also a way of being in the world.
Paying attention in your writing practice leads to having the time for observation and
not just automatic writing.
1. Salient Characteristics of Post-EDSA Literature
The EDSA Revolution was a series of popular demonstrations in the Philippines,
mostly in Metro Manila. There was sustained campaign of civil resistance against
regime violence and electoral fraud. The nonviolent revolution led to the departure of
Ferdinand Marcos, the end of his 20-year presidential term and the restoration of
democracy in the Philippine. Academic institutions where creative writing is a part of
the curricular offerings. – Writers organizations that particularly sponsor symposium
on writer and/or set up workshops for its members and other interested parties.

The characteristics of the Philippine literary scene after EDSA may be pinpointed be
referring to the theories that inform literary production, to the products issuing from
the publishers, to the dominant concerns demonstrated by the writers output, and to
the direction towards which literary studies are tending.

Salient Characteristics of Post-EDSA Literature

1. There is in the academe an emerging critical orientation that draws its concerns
and insights from literary theorizing current in England and the United States.
2. Post-EDSA publishing has been marked by adventurousness, a willingness to
gamble on “non-traditional” projects.
3. The declining prestige of the New Criticism, whose rigorous aesthetic norms has
previously functioned as a Procrustean bed on which Filipino authors and their
works were measured, has opened a gap in the critical evaluation of literary
works.
4. The fourth and final characteristic of post-EDSA writing is the development
thrust towards the retrieval and the recuperation of writing in Philippine
languages other than Tagalog.
5. Post-EDSA publishing has been marked by adventurousness, a willingness to
gamble on non- traditional projects.
6. A recuperation of writing in Philippine languages other than Tagalog.
7. Feminist sentiments also flourished in Philippine contemporary art and literature.
8. The declining prestige of the New Criticism, whose rigorous aesthetic norms has
previously functioned as a Procrustean bed on which Filipino authors and their
works were measured, has opened a gap in the critical evaluation of literary
works.
9. There is in the academe an emerging critical orientation that draws its concerns
and insights from literary theorizing current in England and US.
2. Famous Author and their writings

Lilia Quindoza Santiago

- Born in Manaoag, Pangasinan to Victorino Quindozo and Buena Cadanilla a
writer and an editor. Her work focuses on feminism in the lives of the Indigenous
people, the Ilocanos, and other ethno-linguistic groups in the Philippines.
Notable Works: famous poetry “Tula sa Sanaysay” the very last story of Huli 2.

Charles Ong
Charlson L. Ong multi-awarded fictionist who has received, among others: a Palanca
award for his short story, The Trouble in Beijing; a second-place Philippine
Centennial Literary Prize for his novel, An Embarrassment of Riches; and several
National Book Awards for his works across the years. Currently teaches literature and
creative writing at the University of The Philippines' Department of English and
Comparative Literature. Notable Works: Blue Angel, White Shadow The
Execution The Trouble in Beijing An Embarrassment of Riches.

Marjorie Evasco
She is the founder of a women's organization that assists in the publication of
collections of writings by women writers, called Writers Involved in Creating Cultural
Alternatives (WICCA). Her poems written are included in a collection entitled
Forbidden Fruit, a collection of Women's Erotic Literature in 1992. Her SarHing
collection of poems is titled Kung Ibig Mo (If You Desire). Marjorie Evasco writes in
two languages: English and Cebuano-Visayan and is a supporter of women's rights,
especially of women writers. Marjorie Evasco is one of the earliest Filipina feminist
poets.
She is a recipient of the S.E.A. Write Award. Evasco's famous poetry book includes:
Dreamweavers: Selected Poems 1976-1986 (1987) and Ochre Tones: Poems in
English and Cebuano (1999). The "Dreamweavers" was launched in 1987 at the UP
Writers Workshop in Diliman, Quezon City, in Tagbilaran City, and in Dumaguete
City at the Sillman University National Writers Workshop. While the Ochre Tones
was launched in May 1999 at National Artist Edith L. Tiempo's residence on
Montemar (Sibulan, Negros Oriental) and at the Filipinas Heritage Library in Makati
City. Marjorie Evasco calls this volume a " book of changes," following
Dreamweavers which she considered as a " book of origins."

Although she has many poetry collections, we will focus more on the poetry she
mentioned in the video and highlight three other poetry in which we’ve chosen to
present in our sketch. We will get to know more about Marjorie Evasco in this
synthesis.
3. Video Clip Synthesis (The Poets Lighthouse)
In the video, apart from the Author, Marjorie Evasco’s background, she also shared
some of her poetry and its inspiration.

SHADOW MOTHERS (Marjorie Evasco)

In Monochrome, the Mother and Child She was a mother’s double,

images,
from old family photo albums
Become something else
Memory retrieve a shadows, soft as
forget-me-nots
Blooming in a corner of a garden, a
Mother must have loved
In those mid-mornings when she was
young
and the children were just learning to
say
Their first syllables, “Mama, Yaya”
It was sweet language to the ear.
Whenever she was around to hear it,
The Child recognizing two faces
Constant sentinels of the daily round of
feeding, washing, cleaning, pacifying
And humming songs to sleep by.
Her arms ache, holding close a sleepy
child
Now quietly brought to bed to drift
dream
Like the silver dragonflies hovering
above the lilies,
Her laugh a soft cushion, her breasts
smelling of sun and sweat of earth
Unlike the bosom perfumed with soap
talc and something else.
From distant gardens the grown-up
child learned to name
lavender, wisteria, clematis, hydrangeas.
She was the one to whom a child would
turn
Because she was there, ubiquitous as the
scent of sugar
Planted in the grape haciendas.
Where the rest of her kindred toiled,
Was she, shadow mother or the one
Indelibly printed onto a child’s sentient
body.
You say of cyanotypes
Blue is also the color of the ocean of
distance and longing.
Our memories of all our mothers,
Taste of salt-water, relentless waves of
beckoning
Blue black cease.

|This poem talks about a child’s appreciation of a pure love from a shadow mother or
what we called “yaya”. Marjorie mostly compares her Shadow Mother to nature
because its visual provides a means to process and express response to events or
stimuli.|
Vesak 2020 (The Poets Lighthouse)
(For Seann Tan-Mansukhani)
The prayer flags you brought me
from your month-long retreats
in Nepal hang in my garden,
fluttering blessings in the wind.
This morning, I spied a yellow-vented
warbler pecking at the frayed edges
of the oldest flags, stripping the threads
and carrying these up to its nesting
partner.
I imagine her beak receiving filaments
of bright red, blue, green, and gold,
weaving each into the twigs and straw,
a sheltering circle of prayer-fragments.
On a betel palm’s midrib, the nest
balances, a trick of geometry
winged beings know, threaded
into tarsus, throat, and song.
Manila
May 7-15, 2020
|The second of A Turtle-Poet Dreams,
Given Time: Three Poems by Marjorie
Evasco focuses on the character's
feelings toward Buddhism. Despite not
explicitly stating that it was about
Buddhism, Evasco titled it "Vesak," the
most important holiday for all Buddhists
because it was a sacred day to them.
Vesak is referring to an exploration of a
question that a person is dealing with for
wonderment through prayer. It
commemorates the emergence of faith,
awakening and enlightenment. Its
evocations of our emotional connection
to found the scenery beautiful to the
natural environment and the affective
impact of environmental appreciation
that are intended to encourage individual
to pray in a peaceful place to have a
conversation and it is our place to pray.
Vesak emphasize that Prayer is a surge
of the heart, a simple look toward
heaven, a cry of recognition and love
that embraces both trial and joy.

ELEMENTS
In the video, they talked about how poem is being generated and how beautiful and
being creatively used in the poem, as the host compliments the poem. Marjorie added
that they will allow to use to run their imagination and they even received a list of
jargons which is new to them and confusing. If you read the poem it's like intoning a
prayer itself. She just watching the bird and she has a Mac Arthur palm in her garden
and she took a photo and there's a nest on it. Furthermore you just have to follow the
strands. Marjorie Evasto mentioned about how she can hear image as if it talks in
vernacular language which is Bisaya, which she stated that bisaya is such an intestinal
Language and hard. Marjorie is an observer and more on imagery and auditory on
what she see and hear she can easily process. She engage herself along with the
environment on what she feels. The poem is more on experience based on what did
she experience in the reality of realm.
POETRY LANDSCAPE
Not only have we been seeing the emergence of important women's voices in poetry
recently in the last several years, but also there is a stronger presence of yet to be
discovered and marginalized women poets. What this means for our poetry landscape
having this happen is that in the Philippines since the 90s, we’ve been advocating for
writing in our native or our Philippine languages, and so even let’s say in western
Visayas, where they have three languages with hiligaynon, akianon, and kinaray-a.

The great writer, the late Leoncio Dariana, called it cultural engineering because he
was saying to the younger and younger poets and writers, write in your mother tongue,
because you need to write for your people, and I think that kind of ethos is growing in
fact in Bicol. For example, we would say that there was a resurgence of literature in
the language when the language was about to fall into oblivion among the young
people, but they have a movement where they write in Bicolano.

For example, I have met a wonderful fiction from the Bla-an tribe, not the indigenous
peoples. They have their own writers already. They are not only writing in their
indigenous language but also in Filipino and English. So many of us who are writing
in the Philippines are multilingual, a shift between three languages, and when I sit in
the ES workshop, there are five languages there. They are dealing with a situation
where sometimes the story is in Filipino, sometimes it is in Hiligaynon, and
sometimes it is in Binisaya. If you are a reader in all these traditions, the discussion is
very exciting, especially because you are hearing it from the young, and that’s the
future of literature.

CLOSING
Phynne-Belle adored young Filipinos about what they've done, like merging from
Southeast Asians to write their own poem using their own language. At the last part of
the video Ms. Phynne-Belle throws a last question to Ms. Marjorie Evasco about who
are those people behind that inspired or part of her legacy and what's her thoughts
about those people who dream to be like her. Marjorie Evasco answered with all her
heart and gave things to those people who had made her what she was now.

She gave thanks to all the professors she had naming them one by one as big part of
her journey for inspiring her pursue her dream. Her Prof also told her that workshop
was a luxury wherein she must be a critical reader and thinker at the same time.
Marjorie Evasco tells that all of the people she's mentioned were a part of who she is
now as a writer. The kind of tradition about women writing or poetry appeals to her
because it was much to awaken her about redemption.
4. Draw/Sketch the common theme/s derived from the varied literary pieces.

Shadow Mothers
In those mid-mornings when she was young
and the children were just learning to say
Their first syllables, “Mama, Yaya”
It was sweet language to the ear.

Whenever she was around to hear it,

The Child recognizing two faces
Constant sentinels of the daily round of
feeding, washing, cleaning, pacifying
And humming songs to sleep by.

After the publication of Dreamweavers, my first

collection of poetry which I call a ‘book of origins,
“I journeyed on to write poems for this second collection
which I now feel is a ‘book of changes.’ I made a new
and distressing discovery: I wanted to write poetry not
only in English but also in Binisayà, and I did not know
where to begin. Or, to put it more precisely, I sensed I
was back to that strange place of portents, out of this
configuration I composed “Poet in Exile.

Skin of Water

She had known ever since she felt

the miracle of his heart quickening in her,
it would end the way it began:
her arms
gathering his hurt body again and again
into her indigo mantle,
the shield of her love
bringing the world to complete silence.

“My Bohol Inkscape. I have been blessed with a childhood

shaped by the sea of my home-island, Bohol. And in my heart,
wherever I am, I keep looking for the healing horizon where
the sea meets the sky. At sunset, before the rise of the full
moon of December 2008, I was by the sea in Laya,
Baclayon, and caught the light on the mangrove as
in an inkscape. If there were an image of how my heart
listens, this would come very near the experience.”