Antonio Mercado Pena, Virac, Catanduanes, Philippines
Antonio (Tony)Pena, Virac, Catanduanes, Philippines Tonypena49@hotmail.com Education: BSC Accounting, AB English Organizations: Akademyang Kapampangan Tavika Group, Amanung Sisuan, Inc.; Off-The-Wall Haiku, Pinoy Poets, Makata Awards: Most outstanding Kapampanga Awardee in 2007 arts and culture References where listed: Dalityapi Makata, Ing Susi, Our Own Voice, Ribbons, Pampanga-on-Line, Ing Bie Kung Delanan, Ing Bie Kung Balikan On-line publications: http://bungasasa.bravehost.com/kapampangan http://www.angelfire.com/poetry/nombresin/index.htm (English)
The Philippines has a national controversy over language. Should Tagalog or English be the national language for all to learn in school, or should people be taught also in their native language of which there are over 180 in the Philippines. Antonio Pena is working to preserve the native languages along side teaching in the national language of Tagalog and the international standard language of English. Tagalog is a language based on Pilipino, the language of Manila, mixed with lots of Spanish and incorporating words from throughout the Philippines and other languages. Tagalog came into use after World War II.
Antonio Mercado Pena
See also his page in Kapampangan
NOSTALGIA: a plight and a flight
By Antonio Mercado Pena
my exodus
outscreams
the cold silence
of the tomb
i, a moses
of unknown
fate and endless
odyssey, rush swiftly
back home
to the warm
cuddle of the womb
egocentral i am that facial image upon the pond with mirror-smooth water a careful dip of your finger sends a thousand ripples crippling my facsimile.
beg me not to set free my natal freudian grip it is not easy to be me allow me to heal myself let me be solely alone my name is Narcissus!
(There are some lives enjoyably preserved and spent inside cocoons!) metamorphosis i lost some parts of me when i found and plucked you a thornless rosebud and listening from what you have left unsaid our communion was a mistake sanctified! let this delicate secret settle and die calmly to its terrestrial repose then I to the next eternity will bravely seek to forgive myself including yourself. very soon i will be free enough for these fast growing wings to flap and fly me to a higher interlude of space and time: the fleshis made Word! footprints
(tanka chain)
as I capture your sighs in my arms passion pulsates rupturing its cocoon celebrating its first flight! monsoon rains wash ashore the twigs off the bonfire unkindle the last simmer of the fires of summer! white sands cooling at sunset i lay my head gather my last refrain easing a yester-pain! looking back at the footprints ashore only a pair left yours, swept by a rushing tide mine, kept reliving the allure! the pain of your nearness melts into tenderness as I touch, trace the sand for your footprints!
