Day 16. "It’s Selena Day, National Orchid Day, National Librarian Day, National Eggs Benedict Day, National Wear Your Pajamas to Work Day . . . and much more!"
Maureen Thorson’s NaPoWriMo prompt: “Today, we challenge you to write a poem in which you closely describe an object or place, and then end with a much more abstract line that doesn’t seemingly have anything to do with that object or place, but which, of course, really does. The ‘surprise’ ending to this James Wright poem is a good illustration of the effect we’re hoping you’ll achieve. An abstract, philosophical kind of statement closing out a poem that is otherwise intensely focused on physical, sensory details.”
Robert Lee Brewer’s Poem-a-Day suggestion: “For today's Two-for-Tuesday prompt: 1) Write a poetic form poem, and/or . . . 2) Write an anti-form poem.”
My poem today merges the two prompts. It is a haibun, a Japanese poetic form that yokes a haiku with a prose paragraph — Brewer's form and anti-form in one poem. À la Thorson, the poem describes a location and then transforms into something else at the end. The speaker of the poem is the mythological Philippine sea dragon, Bakunawa, who strives to eat the sky's seven moons and almost succeeds until people figure out they can stop Bakunawa by making loud noises — banging drums or pots and pans — ultimately saving the last moon, which we still see in the sky to this day. (Wikipedia)
Bakunawa the Sea Dragon Desires
the Seven Moons in High Heaven
| I look around my domain, blue and black and glorious. Water flows through all my doors, while my eyes pierce the darkness. Schools of fish swirl like spirals of glinting light in the distance. I often swim up to the surface of the water and point my snout towards the heavens. Up there in the firmament, I glimpse against the sea of bright points of light, the faraway stars, seven spheres gleaming in the night. Every time I do this, the number of spheres changes, sometimes just two or three, other times six or seven. These moons glimmer in different shapes, from curving slivers to crescents to full roundness. I hunger for them. Below the surface, I feast on whales and massive clouds of shrimp, but there is nothing like the seven spheres here. During the day, there is the fire of the one sun when it rules the sky. The sun is too hot to eat. But when the sun is gone away each night, the seven moons shed their delicious light, and I want to eat them. |
I will launch myself
into the star-riddled sky,
eat all seven moons.
—Draft by Vince Gotera [Do not copy or quote . . . thanks.]
 "Bakunawa" by Vince Gotera
Here is a phone-drawing I made some years ago of Bakunawa eating a moon. The dragon is in the national colors of the Philippines: red, blue, and yellow. (Click on the sketch to see it larger.) If you google "Bakunawa art" you can find plenty of artistic renditions of the Bakunawa.
In this poem, I allude to one of my favorite poems, "Morning Swim" by Maxine Kumin, which has the lines "water fell / through all my doors."
Incidentally, a poem of mine on a similar theme, "Bakunawa the Sea Dragon Eats the Fifth Moon," was published yesterday in the Eye to the Telescope magazine. Go over and read that poem to compare with today's poem?
Friends, won’t you comment, please? Love to know what you’re thinking. Thanks!
Ingat, everyone. ヅ |
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