The Lumy-Marie Voice

Whatever You Fancy, Take It Home…

-Lumy-Marie Potions Inc.,

Are you in despair? Do you want beauty? Do you want fame? Do you want youth? Do you want someone?

We can give it to you in no time by just drops of our products. Traditional technology is more powerful and we happen to be using them.

Everyone has a want, big things and small things, from the most trivial fancies to yearning of one’s desire, to an impossible hope of repossessing the lost.

Things can get unviable, they have said; but technology comes. However, when they say your wants are mere fantasies, look for Lumy-Marie Potions.

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We assure a 100-percent effectiveness of our products. No side effects because no hard chemicals are used. And aside from that Lumy-Marie Potions are more knowledgeable of magical technology that we utilize it to cater your desires.

Years ago, this technology was banned. However, the ancestress of witchcraft secretly crossed their stirring rods for an oath to keep the knowledge passing through generations until today it becomes a popular trend for the helpless. On 1991, Lumy-Marie began when two of these descendants decided to commercialize their products. Since then, our customers evolved from the poorest of the poor, to the hopeless romantics, to the ambitious elite, to people.

And on 1996, Lumy-Marie Potions Inc., have bewitched Asia. Now we have franchises at Thailand, Japan, Malaysia and Indonesia, winning awards and gaining recognitions almost every year. Recently, Lumy-Marie Potions Inc., has received the Best Tonic for Health Award 2008.

POETRY: Papers and Scratches

Everyone has a little twitch in the brain that enables us to think of situations that differ from what we experience. These imagined circumstances might be what we want, or want we do not like to happen, or probably what we observe in our own environment.

The Creation

Imagination and creativity are two factors that enable me to write my poems. All of them are fictional because I could not bear to write a poem about a part of my life. Everytime, I try to write one, I cannot will myself to write with much truth. My poems are bent to tell tales of another experience that has not happened in my life.

Most people consider me as a gentle person, incapable of committing crimes like murder. However, in my collection of poems, I have written four pieces (Arsonist’s Appeal in Court, The Payment, Rapunzel, The Warning) of which the main characters are quite of a psychopath who have the urge to kill. During the workshop in class, my critics once asked me if I have been enraged when I write those poems. The answer is ‘no’. I find writing poems with psychotic speakers interesting because it encourages me to imagine. By imagine, I mean of thinking beyond the perspective of a psychologically normal person. As much as possible I try my mind to have the perception of my characters, how much intensity are there in their malicious motives.

Contrary to the imagining activity which is interesting and mind-stimulating, the creativity part is stressful and mind blocking. By this, I mean of putting into writing what my adventurous brain has traveled through. In terms of comfort, I find ease in writing free verse than in metered and rhyming poems. This is because I ache for grappling the right words that will fit in the pentameter as well as to make it follow the rhyming schemes in the sonnet or the villanelle. Whereas, in free verse, the lines seem to flow, though, sometimes I hesitate as to where I should cut my lines that will make the line sensible as well as artful.

The Revision

There are only minor changes in most of my poems, except for the sonnets, Memory of the Last Minute and Sleeping Beauty: Marathon’s Prize. Though, I have not really overhauled them.

In Memory of the Last Minute, it happens that I have to change the whole scene, changing the speaker as the one who dies. I have also changed the whole third stanza because it has no turning point. Now it is the revelation the whole event happens just before the man dies.

Moreover, Sleeping Beauty: Marathon’s Prize intends to derive the story from the fairy tale Sleeping Beauty. I have changed some of the lines to make it more sensible.

Overall, in the process of revision, I notice that it is easier still to revise free verse because I do not have to mind the rhyming schemes and the metrical count of each line. The sonnets takes a lot of time to revise since, unfortunately, it occurs that I have to overhaul the third stanza wherein the turn should have been manifested.

What I like in poetry is the challenge it poses from the process thinking of a catching circumstance and how to put in lines, as well as the scratching of lines and crumpling of papers. Writing a poem is like creating a different world that I know is not mine.

Between the Polar Extremes

To appreciate a novel entails one to have scrutinized the elements that consists a novel. In comparing two novels, the genres of the each novel are also considered since the styles of narration of these two books are one of the factors that contrast their variation.

THE NOVELS

O.C.W. A Young Boy’s Search for His Mother by Carla M. Pacis and Planet Waves by Eric Gamalinda both have male protagonists which have their own motivations that have been highlighted in each novel. The two novels are extremely different in terms of the approach to the story and narration. The former novel is a Children’s Novel for Intermediate Grades to High School, while the latter is the kind of novel with a tinged with philosophical insights as presented by the protagonist. There is only one aspect that makes the two similar: their protagonists have their own problems. The way they handled their own situations are unique with one another.

O.C.W. is about the boy, Tonyo, aiming to search for his mother who goes to Hong Kong to work as a maid. He does not have to search for his mother if his father has acted responsibly. Moreover, he has faced a lot of problems now and then after leaving their home in Mindoro.

On the other hand, Planet Waves reveals the thoughts of a young man, Joaquin, as he encounters his experiences that mould his manliness.

STYLISTIC THEMES

Mood

Being a children’s literature, O.C.W. has a heavy situation enough to make one’s life complex yet the story is presented in a lighter tone. The book focuses on highlighting the positive facet gone through by the protagonist, giving an idea that there can always be goodness and happiness even on bad times.

The style of narration of the novel uses the objective all-knowing point of view which tries to zoom in and out of the characters’ minds. However, it only covers the superficial emotions and reactions of the characters towards the untimely events being faced.

In contrast with O.C.W., the second novel Planet Waves expresses the blatant truth that life is not purely sweet and colorful sunny days. Sometimes it is bleak and gloomy which is how the most of the daily experiences of the protagonist is depicted. Probably this is because the main character, who is also the speaker, presents himself as a very unfortunate man. Most of the mentioned events in the novel tackle violence, a little sense of happiness, loneliness, insecurity of Joaquin to his friend Bart, unrequited love, and the grotesque imagination of Joaquin as a form of escapism. The tone of the speaker also seems to be rather pejorative brought about by poverty and the tension experienced.

Setting

Both novels share Manila as one of their settings. The pictures taken from the novels tell much about the poverty experienced in the Philippines, most deploringly in Manila where children are exploited or they themselves learn the underground businesses that lurk in the city.

O.C.W. is set during 1990s when the zeitgeist is to go abroad and work as domestic helpers than pursuing the previous profession. Tonyo’s Nanay has chosen to work in Hong Kong as a helper because the money she earns there is greater than her income as a teacher.

Furthermore, from Mindoro, Tonyo has landed to different places in the endeavor to search find his mother so as to convince her to come back because their family has been out of control lately since she left. While in Manila, he experiences being involved in stealing, drug trafficking and accompanying the other ‘palaboy’ as they try to survive their tainted life struggles as homeless children. He also met Father Randy who takes care of him after his escape from the earlier misfortunes with the other children, and he has worked in the bakery of Mang Mario which helps him to earn money for his voyage to Hong Kong.

It is also mentioned that there has been occurrences when Filipinos would sneak in a cargo ship to Hong Kong even without passport: illegal but Tonyo has no choice. In Hong Kong he receives help from Jimmy and Lorna who has found better life in Hong Kong along with many other Filipinos.

Meanwhile, Planet Waves is set solely in Manila during Marcos regime which explains the bleak atmosphere of the novel. Joaquin would talk about the slum area which the government, in the form of a politician named Tingson, tries to evade and to cover when there come the country’s visitors. He also mentions the manly escapades Bart has suggested such as being promiscuous with the prostitute neighbor. The city of Manila has been colored with exploited little children by pedophile adults including men homosexuals (which happens to be Joaquin’s half-brother).

Plot

While the sequencing of events presented in O.C.W. follows the Freytag’s Triangle in which the conflict trails the rising linear action towards the climax and then ends with a resolution, a happy ending for Tonyo and his family, the plot of Planet Waves is quite bizarre. It follows the same plot style with Alice Munro’s short stories in which one event jumps back and forth from present to past to future to present. However, the events of the said novel may be presented in short and individual parts, in the end, the story is reconciled and has created its own closure.

The novel began with an exposition about Joaquin’s grandfather (the love story of Joaquin’s grandparents, the aspiration of Joaquin that has once been his grandfather’s). He lived with this truth about his grandparents which is presented bit by bit in recurring ruminations of the speaker as he tells his story. The flashbacks are well inserted in the novel because it does not disrupt the flow of emotions as the story progresses.

Being a character-based novel, the conflicts depicted are from the protagonist’s ruminations. The greatest conflict in the novel is Joaquin’s unrequited love for Melissa (who eventually becomes Bart’s girlfriend). From the time Melissa goes away, Joaquin creates an imagination –a fantasy story- which leads to another conflict. The second conflict began with the dying situation of his grandmother.

Hence, the novel ended by resolving the second conflict – his grandmother has died but before that she was able to tell Joaquin that his grandfather did not die, he left. This revelation brings about the destabilization of the truth he once has believed about his grandfather. The second resolution is Melissa’s leave-taking to Germany with a Mr. Hausser who has promised to take care of her and her baby. So much mixture of pain and relief for Joaquin that when he walks out of Melissa’s former apartment, he experiences an epiphanic moment at last.

ESCAPISM

The two novels adhere to escapism. In O.C.W., Tonyo’s mother has escaped poverty in the Philippines by going to Hong Kong. In Planet Waves, Joaquin’s grandmother escapes the bitter truth by telling lies. Melissa goes away in shame to Joaquin when she learns that she is pregnant and then going with a wealthier man — when she knows she could be happy with Joaquin—because she also knows poverty will eventually rot away happiness. Joaquin creates an other personality through his stories because he feels the world is too bitter (yet also in his stories, he still encounters hardships).

Everyone goes. The story always ends when one faces what he or she has been escaping.

edited: Modern Rapunzel

I admit: I did it
not the witch.
I hate my suitor,
Who still lives in middle ages.
He doesn’t own a cellphone,
doesn’t know what a car is,
and doesn’t have an inkling
how to court a woman like me.
Everyday he rides on his horse
from his faraway palace up to my fortress
just to utter words of the same idea
all over again.
He wails out my name outside,
as if Witch Neighbor won’t hear him,
(I’ll be in trouble for that)
and commands me to let down my hair
so he can climb up with it.
I’ve been suffering
from hair dryness and hair fall
for weeks already;
because, for the Kingsake,
he is ignorant of how
to use my secret elevator!
He cares for me not, I know,
for he keeps on looking at my breasts
saying, “I love to see thy
heart beneath thy breasts
than the mind beneath thy eyes!”
Maniac!
So when he turned to glance at the sunset,
I pushed him hard towards the window.
Then see below,
how my Prince Charming looks at me—
bewildered.

edited by someone named Dominique, editor-in-chief of

I was also bewildered that this poem was published in Sunstar/Dagmay. There were really some errors on original since I created the poem at midnight during one of my very stressful days last March. This rush poem was only to satisfy my requirement in CL122 (Literary Criticisms2). The original version was posted in this blog too and I didn’t bother removing despite its errors. I wanted to save the memory of being in a rush to produce a literary piece and publish it immediately because of the nearing deadline.

The Emperor of Ice Cream

Call the roller of big cigars,
The muscular one, and bid him whip
In kitchen cups concupiscent curds.
Let the wenches dawdle in such dress
As they are used to wear, and let the boys
Bring flowers in last month's newspapers.
Let be be finale of seem.
The only emperor is the emperor of ice-cream.
 
Take from the dresser of deal,
Lacking the three glass knobs, that sheet
On which she embroidered fantails once
And spread it so as to cover her face.
If her horny feet protrude, they come
To show how cold she is, and dumb.
Let the lamp affix its beam.
The only emperor is the emperor of ice-cream.
 
    -- Wallace Stevens
 
 
My Reading:



The first line of the poem tells us that a roller of big cigars has been called to do something. The big cigars refer to the wrapping of cured tobacco in a cigar leaf and the man called for is a worker from a tobacco industry. The second and third line exposes that the man is muscular, and he is called to whip/ In the kitchen cups concupiscent curds. Why is the muscular man making the ice cream? Probably he is a relative to whom the festivity is celebrated for. The concupiscent curds might relate to the ice cream, (as it was mentioned in the title), being a mouth-watering dessert. Concupiscent opens the window to a wider scene which is presented in the next three stanzas. The word itself entails a powerful physical attraction following an itch of desire. On the scene, girls and boys are present: the girls, described as lowly and promiscuous, and the boys flirting with the girls. The ice cream and the muscular man symbolize the pleasure and attraction of the men and women. 

 

With how the first stanza is presented, I can tell that people are having fun. They are eating, chatting, including the flirting of females and males. Now where is this festive occasion? 

 

The second stanza reveals that there is a dead woman in the poem. A funeral it is as where the people at. It is quite awkward how the dead woman is presented: her drawer lacks three glass knobs, her face covered with the fantails she once embroidered; her horny feet protrude because the fantail lacked enough length to cover them. The woman must have frequently used her drawer since they already lost knobs. Being unable to buy new one tells that she was a woman of poverty. Even the sheet that used to cover herself was only an embroidered sheet of pigeons and birds, and lacks the length. Her feet, as said, showed how cold and dumb she was – completely unaware that a festivity was going on during her wake. In contrast with the typical scene of mourning and weeping during wake, this scene showed a loud neighborhood lively eating, chatting, and flirting. 

 

The emperor of ice cream being the one giving food is the bringer of the festive air. At any occasion, there he is. What happened in the poem shows that the people seize the day when it calls for a celebration. They came to show deference to the muscular man, who must be a relative, who calls an attention by his physique and the ice cream he makes. The line Let be be the finale of seem means that what happens everyday is the same with what happens on that day. The wenches would wear what they were used to wear and the men would bring flowers in newspapers, unlike the properly wrapped from flower shops. Also, they wouldn’t even pretend mourning.

 

The poem in overall shows a set of ironic images. I bears a musicality because of the  alliterations in the lines.

When She Lies

She tells enough white lies to ice a wedding cake.            

 

-Margot Asquith

 

 

They say women are more deadly when they lie. Women liars are tell more lies than men, that is what geeky distrustful men perceive of gorgeous women. For the benefit of desperate boyfriends or husbands, here are some tips how to see when “she” lies:

 

There’s something about her SMILE

 

Take the mouth movements as signs when your woman lies to you. Limited mouth movements show the restraint of emotions. For example, a fake smile would just be

Flying Stars

Before I edited my blog, it was first titled Flyingstars.

Stars never fly, they only hang at night watching over the people who pass below them (or else let the people watch them, especially lovers)… I never get the chance to watch the skies at night with a lover coz I don’t even have one. Some people who are fed up with much romance think that stars are lovely to the eyes particularly when they are shared by lovers. The only chance that I was able to watch them at night was when I’m with my friends.

 

As I looked up, the trees were hindering my clear view from the stars. I tried to focus my eyes to one tiny glittering object that I’ve seen through the branches. At first, I thought it was a star but then it started moving. That’s when I realized that it was actually not a star but a firefly.

 

Of all the flies that I know, it is the only fly that doesn’t disgust me. In fact, it is the only fly that humans like to keep; either they are fascinated by its uniqueness or driven by their curiosity. Since then, I tend to look up at the trees whenever I have time to pass on that road and get overwhelmed by the sight of it. There were times when even thought I saw a shooting star and wished, only to feel half-disappointed, half-amazed. Such creatures were able to cheat my eyes. However, either it be a falling star or a firefly, both were a pleasure to the eyes. I would love to be fooled then.

 

12/4/07

cram corner (re-post)

They say that one only has to think deep and he can already write in just a click. These words are mostly uttered by our English teacher in high school. I never thought it would be this hard though I never believed in discouragements. I try to see things like they are tolerable and you can just be good if you tried harder.

For me, writing is a challenge wherein you still have to perform a whole session of yoga, twice if necessary. It’s a mind-draining exercise wherein when you think you all have the materials for writing then suddenly you come to a stop and hesitate about the next thing you do. It is like studying for your math exam for weeks and weeks and on the exam proper, you memory gets blocked.

 

CRAMMERS CRAMMING

I have it as a habit to set things aside not until the night comes and I remember that tomorrow will be the day that I have to pass an essay. “What I still have to write”, meaning, I still haven’t written it.

 

I tried to change but change doesn’t try its best on me. How can I force change to come into me when it refuses to be…

 

Last Thursday, I was inspired to write my very first memoir. The idea of it gives a kind of excitement to me — it gives me an excuse to daydream about the past. So I propped up my brains, my mood set on the past, the laptop in front of me. Suddenly got baffled. I was confused how to write it.

 

It got me on my nerves because when the time comes that I have all the materials I need for writing, the skill was not there.

12/4/07

Emily’s Peppermints

(from Peppermints in the Parlor)

 

 

In front of Emily stood a gleaming bowl

Of pink-and-white striped peppermints.

Her eyes were glued to the colorful and yummy candy

as her mouth was watering with temptation.

She dared not to touch them,

not a single move that would reveal

the cries of her desire.

For she knew that there,

awaiting for her failure to resist

was the whip —

unhesitant, swift, fierce.

Aunt Twice wouldn’t let her either,

afraid ofthe consequence of sinning.

They were the rightful owners

but made servants,

so Emily bowed her head,

bidding farewell to her peppermints

and the luxury that should have been hers.

 

 

 

Psychoanalytic

I tried to incorporate Freud’s Psychoanalytic theory through Emily’s struggle with the temptation of her favorite peppermints. The Id, the pleasure-seeking part, is Emily’s desire of touching or eating the peppermints. The Ego is the rational part that tells Emily of the consequences that lie ahead if she won’t restrain herself. If she eats the peppermint, she will have a taste of its deliciousness again; but if she does touch it, she will also taste the harsh whip. Meanwhile, the Superego, the one which holds the moral/ideal principle, is depicted by Emily’s awareness that she has been demoted as a servant; therefore, she must control her temptation.

Dream of Perfection

When I grow up, I want to be like my Tatay,

a contented and hard-working fisherman.

 

At dawn, he sets off towards the whispering sea,

Adrift, he journeys with his boat and fish net

farther from the shore.

 

This peaceful life in our community is incomparable

to the city’s loud whines and murmurs.

 

I don’t want those cars with screeching tires;

they are such noisy pollutants.

Nor the big house with aircon;

for I love more the cool fresh air I feed my lungs.

 

His fish buyers tell me that I can get real life in the city’s challenge.

But life should be lived with an easy mind, he says.

He whistles at problems and laughs at failures.

 

I dream of being happy like him than being stirred with worries.

I prefer the perfect life he has than his buyers’ real life.

 

 

 

 

Marxism

The social class depicted in the literary piece above is that of the lowest class. They are the fishermen who are already contented with their lives away from the ’stir of society’. As what I’ve learned the mindset of an individual depends on what class he is born in.

The mindset of the “I” persona in the poem is influenced by the culture he has grown in. His culture is the father’s satisfaction of life. Because he is not determined to move out from the life he lives, he will remain status quo. And status quo is what capitalists try to maintain — the one Marxism criticizes.