By JULIANE JUDILLA
Bulatlat.com
Retired University of the Philippines- Visayas Professor Sir Tomasito Talledo released his new chapbook ‘Wounds of the Earth’ featuring 11 poems, all of which were written over his years as an educator and scholar in the academe, as an activist, and as a kaupod (comrades) in serving the masses.
The title itself speaks volumes about its theme—or does it? I searched for many possible meanings for it. Wounds—pilas. Pilas sang kalibutan? Wounds can be taken literally as the crisis, problems, and trials born out on the surface of the earth. It bleeds through the cracks of the soil, like how the sun reflects its rays on massive icebergs and snow caps as they deteriorate. But wounds, as throbbingly painful as they are, can also be openings.
Talledo’s poems are not just mere literary masterpieces; they are tributes. In Body Snatchers, Eaters of the Dead, Talledo honors slain activist Randall Echanis, also mentioning Kian Delos Santos and Randy Malayao. Mayamor, for revolutionary artist Felix Salditos (otherwise known as Maya Daniel), and the rest of the Antique 7 who were killed by state forces in 2018.
In Concha Araneta Bocala of Panay, a poem, Talledo employs and explores literary devices that make his every piece of work compelling, such as the apostrophe. Often, this device is used in admiration or longing, addressing things far away with wistfulness or praise. We navigate the life of Ka Concha, who was killed in a supposed encounter just August of this year. Through Talledo’s metaphors and evocations, such as the lines: “but at the peak of Panay ranges/ after crossing zigzagging rivers/ to reach the hideous cliff there/ quietly blooms sweetest beautiful/ Revolution,” and“’Je suis Charlie’ is a deathless name/ but in mysterious Holm of Tumandok/ names gifted to audacious children/ honor her revolution: ‘I am Concha!’”, we see the path Ka Concha chose; the life she enfolded. She died in the mountains with the people she swore to serve all her life.
The same goes for Justice for Dr. Drey Perlas, Francis Cagampang of the LFS, Memorial Poem to John Mark Espera of the Hamili Brotherhood. Talledo speaks to the dead; he writes odes about the lives they embraced, nurtured, led and left behind. He explores grief and longing, tugging at the readers’ consciousness, pulling at their heartstrings, and leaving them yearning yet hopeful. He writes with a formidable urge to shape not only their perception but also the depths of their understanding of why people struggle, persevere, and prevail amidst despair, loss, and pain– it does not halt a movement grounded on more than what the fascist state tries to destroy.
In C.S. Forest, Tree of Liberty, Barbarian of Miagos, Tao of the Revolution, Wounds of the Earth, we fumble in the dark in silence, with covered eyes, covered faces, and a covered heart. We ate fish—tangy, sour—and washed it down with sweet wine; we traversed the mud-covered path. Cold is the gouged-out eyes and broiled liver of the tyrant, served on a silver platter as we feast for justice. Talledo’s vivid sensory imagery through words shines like a freshly polished diamond after cutting. It was indeed a sensory feast. We were transported to a different world, one poem after another, one feeling after the next.
Talledo tells stories with complexity but with clarity. His poems are obscene, cathartic, transformative, and revolutionary.
The entire book is a testament to the people’s struggle, a memoir and a remembrance of those who fought, but were buried in the depths of the earth. Like a wound etched into our skin, like a cut—deep, red, bleeding—it leaves a mark, but it replenishes, heals, and it leaves an opening.
This is not just an attestation to our martyrs and the valorous lives they led for the masses they sacrificed their lives for; it is also a call. As a line from one of the poems says:
the backpack isn’t heavy,
and the masses are waiting.
* Juliane Judilla is a community journalist working as anchor and writer for Dampig Katarungan, the local radio program of Altermidya-Panay. She also works for Daily Guardian as a reporter, and is currently serving as the secretary general of the College Editors Guild of the Philippines- Panay Chapter.
