Online Journal 2: Analysis of Carlos Piocos’ Poem
Piocos’ poem discusses a love from a person being challenged by fate by having death near the speaker’s side. The poem is written like a letter. It discusses the different parts of a letter and they are correspondingly placed in their positions as to how they are written. It has a slightly sad and love tones to it. The persona is writing to a loved one, which could be identified as a lover. The persona could be identified as a soldier or a person of war. He could be dead when his lover received the letter.
From the line” Bukod sa pangalan, lagda at lunan, kalakip ng sulat na ito ang lahat ng aking mga pangkaraniwang lungkot: lukot-lukot na ulap, isang itim na balahibo ng uwak, isang pinggang may pingas sa labi, larawan ng matandang simbahan, tatlong itinuping bulaklak, at isang pares ng natuyong pakpak ng paruparo. Ito na lamang ang naiwan, at ang lahat ng ito’y ipinauubaya ko na sa iyo,” this could signify the things they have loved before that he cherished. Now that he is deceased they become simple things to grieve over.
“Ganito marahil sinusulat ng mga pantas ang kasaysayan.” The stanza containing this line shows the persona dramatizing his process of writing the letter as he bid farewell to his lover. From graduation speeches to just simple goodbyes, dramatic goodbyes are only given when something really grand would happen after- it could be death, separation, or a comeback. In the case of the poem, it could mean that death is coming for the persona.
In the next stanzas, the persona would narrate the different hardships he had been through in his life as a soldier or just basically away from his lover. The sixth stanza showed the hardship he faced as a soldier or person of war. The persona being a soldier or person of war was deduced from the line, “Nais kong banggitin nang aking mga kasama’y naglaho nang lahat, nilamon ng hamog at usok,” the smoke and fog could symbolize a battlefield or a war zone. Explosives of different kinds are used in warfare.
From the line containing “Labis-Labis na Alindog, Labis na Pusok, Labis-Labis na Libog,” it shows the persona longing to be with his lover that time. In the heat of that moment, he wanted to be with his lover and spend some time with him. In the next stanza, it may give off a kind of sexual tone. It showed the speaker getting ready for something sexual that could happen, as if he were getting ready for his meal. “Nililimas” means clearing something. His longing for his lover made him take off everything like his clothes, and even his sleep.
As the soldier pine for his love, he could not bear the fact that he is in danger and he would have to leave his lover alone in the world. And to not leave any of the sad memories behind, he wished for the letters to just be destroyed. The mentioned things from the second stanza are commemorations of their love.
The poem wanted to show another form of bidding farewells. It showed how a person far from his lover would feel if it would be their last goodbye. It had shown all his hardship as a soldier away from his lover, but it is not caged to this idea (it can be anyone). Bidding farewell is not always the case we see on mainstream media, it could be in different ways depicted in the poem. Having your special person or the person you most cherish in the world on your side, even your last breath, is something worth keeping to get rid of the last simple sadness inside you.