The Philippine Online Chronicles

With Tulaan sa Tren, the National Book Development Board (NBDB) hopes to invigorate the ordinary Filipinos’ appreciation for Philippine poetry and rekindle their interest in reading the best poets and authors of our country.

MESSAGE*

For the past seven years, the National Book Development Board has been committed to supporting the creative sector, especially Philippine poets, through promotion of their works. Thus, it is with great pleasure that we present the second compilation of Tulaan sa Tren which contains Filipino and English poems that are delightful and instructive, regaling and refreshing, moving and musing.

In this installment, we bring together new and seasoned treats for reading, reciting, listening and reflecting. May these words, verses, tracks and trains of thought and tone from our veteran and budding poets consolidate our collective conscience, clarify our sense of reality, and strengthen our sense of country.

Once again, we thank the Light Railway Transit Authority, the Book Development Association of the Philippines, the Optical Media Board, Vibal Foundation and our other project partners for helping us sustain and expand our reach and our constituency.

Mabuhay ang mga makatang Pinoy! Mabuhay ang tulaan sa pakikipagsapalaran ng bayang Pilipinas!

Dennis T. Gonzalez

Chairman, NBDB

INTRODUCTION*

It’s been a week since the great flood of September 26, 2009 brought by Typhoon Ondoy. In the meantime, the Light Rail Transit has become more than a train that ferries people from one point to another; it has, for a week now, been transporting relief goods from higher ground to the flood-affected cities of Marikina, Cainta and Pasig; ferried the President from Malacanang in Manila to these affected areas because her vehicles could not go through the muddied and flooded streets to reach people whose homes have gone under as much as 20 feet of water; while the Santolan Depot, the place where we launched Tulaan sa Tren 1, has become a DOTC relief center. The train has come to mean more to this city than just a means of transport.

When we launched the Tulaan sa Tren 2 poetry contest, inviting people to send in their poems on travel and journeys to be posted in the trains, we were surprised at how many of the 262 entries came from Filipinos all over the world rather than from just within the Philippines: a winner in the Filipino division works in Italy; another in the English division is in Saudi Arabia. We didn’t expect the kind of poems we got either, waiting mainly for poetry that spoke of wanderlust, or the joys of discovery, or even a sad longing for memories in places left behind when one undertakes a long trip. We certainly did not expect the many poems of pain that made us realize how, for many of our people, travelling on trains has become more than just getting to and from school or work, it means separation from family and country, not just for the temporary few hours within a workday but for months—even years on end. And the pain that comes with this separation spoke of these far away places not as places to visit as tourists, but as places to make agonizing sacrifices for those left behind. The trains in these faraway places figure prominently in their poems, meaning more than transportation from one place to another, more akin to the transportation of relief from what we hope would be a temporary misery.

It’s a long way between the city that was on September 25, 2009 and the city that is after September 26. But because of the help of many, especially that of Esther Vibal and the Vibal Foundation, who are printing this beautiful book that travels well, and leading poets Gémino Abad, Bienvenido Lumbera and Alfred Yuson, who judged the winners of the contest, edited, chose and arranged the poems for this collection of travel poetry, may this book serve as relief indeed for Pinoys everywhere feeling just a little bit travel weary.

Andrea Pasion-Flores

Executive Director

Pasig City, 04 October 2009

FROM THE EDITORS*

Poems also travel, swifter than light, but their route singular: from poet to reader, heart to heart, words ablaze with the teeming mystery of nature and humanity. For the poem is the real: the shock of this recognition is what sparks and makes the words luminous in the essential dark of language.

– Gémino Abad

May panahon noon na ang tula ay bahagi ng kulturang popular na aliwan ng mga Filipino. Salamat sa TULAAN SA TREN at muling binubuhay ang tradisyong iyon para sa kasalukuyang henerasyon ng mga Filipino.

– Bienvenido Lumbera, National Artist for Literature

The train as a moving image has often suggested a train of thought. When that thought turns poetic, there’s no border that can’t be crossed, whether it involves cities or countries of the mind. This collection honors the notion of locomotion that in olden times of steam spiraling to the sky resembled, as sound, the dactylic meter of formal poetry. Here we go informal, casual, hard-edged, loving and losing, while the wheels of unimpeded transport take us to rhythms and realms exalted.

— Alfred A. Yuson

*As appears in the print version of "Off the Beaten Track: Tulaan sa Tren 2"

LIST OF WORKS

1. "Tren, Tren, Tren!" by Abdon M. Balde, Jr.
2. "2121 Abenida Rizal" by Epifanio San Juan, Jr.
3. "Himagsik ni Jojo" by Bienvenido Lumbera
4. "Sa Metro Linea 3 (Pagkamatay...Pagkabuhay)" by Gexter Ocampo Lacambra
5. "Pan-Rush Hour" by Joselito D. De Los Reyes
6. "Estranghero" by Rio Alma
7. "Amay Nang Magdiklom (Maaga Nang Dumilim)" by Kristian Sendon Cordero
8. "Awit sa Estasyon" by Mesandel Virtusio Arguelles
9. "Sa Sandaang Pulo" by Jose F. Lacaba
10. "Tulang Sinulat sa Tayog na 35,000 Talampakan" by Amado V. Hernandez
11. "Paglalakad" by Michael M. Coroza
12. "Baguio" by Manuel Principe Bautista
13. "Sa Tabi ng Dagat" by Ildefonso Santos
14. "Tayo" by Ivy Rosales
15. "Kay-ikli ng Pagdalaw sa Palawan" by Rebecca T. Anonuevo
16. "Matuling Sasakyan" by Teo S. Baylen
17. "Roxas via Gamu" by Alwynn C. Javier
18. "Tabi Kayo" by Benigno Ramos
19. "EDSA" by Marra PL. Lanot
20. "Alamat" by Vim Nadera
21. "Paglalakbay" by Joi Barrios
22. "Dahilan ay Ikaw" by Danilo Diaz
23. "Kung Bakit Tayo Paluwas at Walang Sunong na Kalakal" by Axel Pinpin
24. "Matapos Matanggap ang Mensahe ng Isang Kaibigang Makata" by Mikael de Lara Co
25. "Pakpak" by Jose Corazon de Jesus
26. "In a Metro by the Station" by Ralph Semino Galan
27. "A Train Window Picture Show" by Louella Santiago Suque
28. "A Leg of the Journey" by Marie La Vina
29. "Poem on a Wire" by Juaniyo Arcellana
30. "Compass" by Joel Pablo Salud
31. "Train Stories" by Edgar B. Maranan
32. "Transient Times" by Anna Bernaldo
33. "Love Poem" by Andrea B. Teran
34. "Unplanned Holiday" by Jim Pascual Agustin
35. "The Telling" by Mookie Katigbak
36. "Despedida Between Cities" by Patrick Rosal
37. "Vanish Without a Trace" by Cesare A.X. Syjuco
38. "The Plan" by Kash Avena
39. "Monologue" by Angelo V. Suarez
40. "To get to our house" by Jhoanna Lynn B. Cruz
41. "Moving House" by J. Neil Garcia
42. "Softness" by Joel M. Toledo
43. "What Mr. Biswas Saw" by Rowena Tiempo Torrevillas
44. "Still Life with Jeepney Window" by Ricardo M. De Ungria
45. "Bus Trip" by Raymond G. Falgui
46. "I, Migrant" by Raymund P. Reyes
47. "Globalization on a Budget" by Isabela Banzon
48. "The Beach, Plus Pablo" by Alfred A. Yuson
49. "Making the Broomstick Poem" by Marjorie Evasco
50. "Quivered Calm" by Victor Jose Penaranda