Dagmayhood

a poem by Roger B Rueda

Water, earth, or rays are superfluous to it.
Deep down in the core, come hell
or high water, something pushes,
then parched curls of the corm tingles,
and that something starts to lay out,
makes space for a sprout to shift up
through all the coats that have moulded
bit by bit, one about the other,
for a spell long past remembering,
and set off the outer skin  dry russet,
to tore asunder and chip off.
Inside, the core kips - up to that instant,
unidentified, cryptic, when it stirs, rouses,
calls on the root and sends
new shoots  skyward headed for the glow.

Some Safeties to Observe at the Dinagyang

an essay by Roger B Rueda

Do not bring classy jewellery to the city. Do not wear it to parades or leave it in your car or hotel room. Utilise your hotel room's safe, if it has one, or bring a piece of luggage that locks in which to place your valuables when you leave the room for the day to go to parades.

Don't bring a purse. For one day this is not necessary. Leave it at home!

Pick your jeans with pickpockets in mind. Don't put your wallet in your back pocket. It's a good idea to carry money in some pockets (Pin cash inside your pocket and only take out when buying something) and keep an ID on you and perhaps one credit card in another. The Dinagyang day is a ‘cash’ situation. Most places that offer quick fare, refreshments, and pick-me-ups don't accept credit cards. Too, let everyone in your group carry some cash ‘just in case.’

Wear comfy walking shoes or flip-flops. Make sure they are helpful with plenty of cushioning. You'll walk and walk and walk.

Dress for comfort, not for style. Weather during the Dinagyang usually varies from 50-90 degrees Fahrenheit, so come ready.  It's a good idea to pack a mackintosh lest it sprinkles. Just make sure that whatever you wear you can take off if you need to, or put more on for warmth. Comfortable layering is the key and the look on the Dinagyang day!

Put suntan lotion on your visible skin, and try to add in a sunhat in your getup. It's hard to find a shady place on the Dinagyang day, and though it might be cold in the morning, by the middle of the day you might be melting! You need to hold an umbrella over you.

If you must bring a camera, go for the smallest, lightest, and least expensive.

You might want to get superior shots from your expensive camera, but you'll lug it about only to find that you can't get any good shots with all the people about you bumping and pushing! Further, after ‘holding’ everything you own all day, you'll appreciate the fact that you aren't weighed down and remember the far-fetched things you saw in your memory!

Bring water. Bottled water is expensive at the Dinagyang. Avoid drinking soda water. Be careful, some bottled thirst-quenchers contain aspartame, a synthetic sweetener. Peer at the label before drinking anything else.

Try to locate a place near you that offers washrooms. Some washrooms are in a far-flung corner of a mall in Bonifacio Drive. In La Paz, washrooms are convenient. You can go either to a shopping mall towards the performance area or to a hotel or an eating place nearby. Bring wipes and napkins, and antiseptic.

Don’t tattoo your bodies with henna. It has a certain funky charm, I guess, but it can cause allergic reactions in your skin.

Women have to dress modestly, to avoid being harassed by the locals. Avoid a drunken hooligan, if there is any.

See everything you can and make some marvellous memories.

Though the Dinagyang is under the watchful eye of police, use 117 to call for police, fire, or ambulance emergency services. Be vigilant and report anything suspicious.

The Dinagyang: It’s More Fun in Iloilo City

an essay by Roger B Rueda

The festive spirit is now permeating the city with the approach of the Dinagyang as Iloilo City holds it every fourth week of January. It’s a marvellous festival in the tradition of the Ilonggo origin, diversity, and Christianisation. It’s killing the fatted calf. It’s lively as a grig.

Every year, the city streets seem to be a sea of multi-coloured people. It’s breath-taking, a delight to watch. It’s a fabulous sight - it's fresh, varied, fun. Everyone is in a mood to celebrate.

The Dinagyang dance is vigorous, but full of subtlety. It fills us with a sense of awe over and over again. Their step design is very novel, yet intrinsically Ilonggo. The Dinagyang tribes dance down the streets to the next judging area.

The tribes have got it all so nice. How artistic they always are with colours! They are invitingly vivacious. They all have extraordinary vibrancy as they dance with great passion. The warriors are bonded by a spirit that is truly Ilonggo.

The Dinagyang shows more than an Ilonggo cultural and religious inheritance. It remains a valuable showcase for Ilonggo talent. For one, Ilonggos have got lots of talent, and it has been their brilliant talent and performance that established their reputation across many countries. The Dinagyang includes several other festivals such as on film and the Kasadyahan, where the best of other festivals in the West Visayas participate. Some fairs, by the way, at the Dinagyang offer crafts and food as they celebrate the unique character of Ilonggos.

The city’s blessing of prosperity is celebrated with the fiesta. It is a celebration of life, love, and passion. Ilonggos are genuinely appreciative of all the success they’ve had, for one thing.

Any spectator can enjoy the liveliness of it with the rhythmical beat of the drums. For one thing, it has a lot of fantastical aspects: The dances have stories to tell as one’s thought can be in a whirl. Even from a distance the effect of the Dinagyang costumes is stunning. Its ambience is uniquely favourable to merrymaking. Everybody can go on the town.

Ilonggos are wonderful fun to be with, don’t worry. They are hospitable and welcoming. So any tourist can go out of her way to eat and mingle with the locals, or go on a bender. Grills are across the streets. One can strut her stuff and be on the tiles. Shindigs are all over. Live through the bopping and jiggling the night away and the jollity of the celebration.

Experience Iloilo City as it goes global through the Dinagyang! See you here this week. You still have time to join in the fun.

In Pantophily

a poem by Roger B Rueda

For you, phantophile, I mean anthrophile, lover of floras,
of corkwood, moringa, squash, banana, hibiscus:
retrophilia, phagophilia, sitophilia,
philocaly, philomath, mageirocophilous -
all this love, of the past, of eating, of food,
of splendour, of knowledge, of cooking;
this is chart and boutique:
cynophile, basiphile, dromophile, anginaphile,
atephile, automysophile, scopophile.
A dog crosses a narrow street,
near the buildings in ruins, so dirty,
in Iloilo City and stares at you.
Love this: lygophilia, amaxophilous, lithophilous.
Be in the midst of shingles, in the midst of jeepneys,
amongst dimness. Nelophilous: you love glasses.
Philopornist, philotechnical.
Why not adore the whore?
Love that - a junction, all that jazz
is not near, all the mess you hold onto, furtive.
Palaeophile, hormephile,
ornithophilous, apiphilous: you, antiquary,
don’t shock me, fertilised by birds, by bees.
Oneirophilous: all this a way
to dream pinkish corkwood petals, clinophile,
on the bed you love; phyllophilous,
petrophilous, stigmatophilous,
traumatophilous:
love leaves, live near rocks,
cut tender and stinging; for you topophile, sociophile:
what place do you love? Potamophily?
Thalassophily? Apeirophily? Agoraphily? Scolionophily?
Domatophily? Ecophily? Koinoniphily?
Logophilous, verbophily: all these words
for passion, for you, graphophilous, all these ways
to say believe in ideophily, joeyphily,
aphenphosmphily, automysophily, to say let us live closer.

One December Night

a poem by Roger B Rueda

There are presents to wrap,
a Christmas pudding
to bake
and carol singers whose
strands of hair
whipped in the typhoon wind
at the door
under a sprig of mistletoe.
Flood flashes by.
Everyone comes
to find their mothers, fathers,
and children,
and in their dotage,
grandmothers and grandfathers;
too, their aunts and uncles -
wading across a floodwater
like plunging freaks
rising underneath,
to reach them.
But they've gone missing.
Some of them walk
into the fierce water
and drown themselves,
some clambering over huge trees
and got soaked in the deluge.
A living carabao floats
amongst the floating carcasses.
Dogs come swimming
with curious wonders.
A cat swims frantic
by the floating ducks.
The whole city is strewed
with abandoned cars, jeepneys,
fridges, televisions, ovens,
chairs, houses, stalls, carts,
laptops, logs, corpses,
lanterns, Christmas trees -.
As if by magic,
they've become
refugees or exiles
fleeing wearing
tattered clothes
splashed with mud
as it gets light.
Grief perches on their faces
as coffins, a gift from Pampanga,
are being unloaded
from lorries got struck
in the sludge.They
taking a sip of Lucky Me soup
thoughfully,
a sight of colourful
umbrellas fording the water
from afar as if splashing about
sounds as their hope.
Later, on GMA,
packs in Christmas wrappings
and baskets filled
with a miscellany
of things shipped free by LBC
are handed to them
as they are very near to tears.