Two Myths: Arriving and Forgetfulness
First Myth: Arop arrive
At the start of our earth before the Nothing is the Kwan (which means "nameless'). And Kwan is before the Nothing and now and when the Nothing returns.
But in the time between the Nothing and now, Kwan spit out a seed from their mouth. And it fell to the ground and grew into a living thing that could question. Kwan, in whimsy, named it fut, meaning "Kwan's question."
Now fut, being one, had no other one. So Kwan spit out another seed and from the ground grew a new fut. The fut, being separate, fought. So the second fut asked to return to the earth. Kwan struck the second down and the fut returned to the ground.
So the first fut asked Kwan, "What am I to do now that you have spit me?" Kwan replied "Two futs fight!" And fut replied, "There is a way. Give me spit and seed and place. And I will seed my own ground. We fut will be of the same earth. And may the eyes of our dreams behold you, our Becomer and the Answer of our questions." Kwan, pleased at fut's words, hollowed the belly of the fut as a hiding place. It spit out its own seed. The second fut sprang from the mouth of the first fut.
Kwan was satisfied. But the first fut asked Kwan, "Kwan, can it be good, but still sad?" "Good yet sad?" Fut replied, "Do not be mad with me, but how is next the seed to come, and the one after that? Our seeds are self sown. What if you get bored with us (and we with ourselves) and go to another sky. We will reproduce the same forever (for there was no death on the earth). We have talked together and this is our story: Give us both part of the seed and one of us the hiding place to hold it until it is ready. Dig a channel so that the new fut will fall from our earth to the arms of the ground that first held us. And may the eyes of our dreams behold you, our Becomer and the Answer of our questions."
Kwan laughed. It was the First Laugh. But they thought, "we have grown from ourselves a creature that will not need us." Kwan took the second fut and made a sac for half the seeds and a finger to plant them. In the first fut, Kwan hid the other seeds and dug a channel towards earth. But Kwan also hid a fear of the first fut in the heart of the second. The fut joined and grew from themselves a great harvest. And they called the earth their Holder and named Kwan, their Becomer, and called themselves Arop, people arriving for the harvest. But fear took root and the Arop soon called Kwan Protector and Judge.
Second Myth: What We Have Forgotten
Now, there were beings in the sky, but they were kept by the dream of Kwan ("the nameless"). They did not know anything but Kwan, so they knew everything at once. Kwan called them "the dreamed". There were three, suuk the seer, kultu the holder, and koan the asker, who woke first. This is how it happened.
Now, Kwan told all the dreamed that the yellow stones by the river of life were not to be taken. As long as the beings in the sky were dreaming, they were fed by the river of life and did not crave the yellow stones. But occasionally, Kwan blinked, and for a short time the dreamed awakened.
Everyone knows that once you say "no" there will be one to say "yes." And this one was suuk the seer. Suuk was the first to awaken with a craving for the yellow stones. So suuk went to the river and took one and sucked it. The dream broke, and suuk began to see. She noticed her own form. She thought, "We are Kwan's dream but not Kwan's form. I do not want to be endlessly outside my own form. In my own form, I know only one thing at a time, but this is good. I can suck and savor it." She stayed by the river for a long time. She grew lonely, and then thirsty, so she drank from the river of life. Her form fell to the earth and she rejoined her people for a while.
She searched and found kultu the holder. When Kwan blinked a second time, she held kultu with her and gave kultu a stone to suck. Then kultu also became form. They heard a voice and Kwan was over them.
"Why have you cut yourself off from me?" Kwan sighed, "your choice will be your sorrow." But suuk replied, "I have known only you as me, and now I see myself and you. I know times of dream and times of not dream. Your dream will continue in me because you dreamed me, but now I must dream for myself." And kultu said, "I am still new, but I am one and many. This is an empty feeling. It s is good."
Kwan sighed, "You have sucked of the stone of separation. Surely sorrow will knock together like pebbles at your dancing, bruise you at your falling, stop you from your going, and interrupt your toil. I will be to you something far up. You will see my size and be afraid. You will hear my sound and hide. You will curse me, you will cut me down. You will follow any dream that calls to you. And the ones who come after you will do this to you. You will all suck the hardest stone, the stone of forgetting."
"But we are of the same dream, you and I. We cannot separate completely. You will travel this time of separation hard, but it will bring you new understanding. I will carry you in my dream until no rock will separate us, till all the seeds of our words are fertile and the soil is black.
"Now, turn to each other and look, because the light of the dream is failing. It will be many generations before you will know that you came from the same place."
Kwan left with a mighty silence. And suuk called herself a moving thing. She slept in the day and woke at night. Kultu became grass and held on to a small part of the dream. When koan appeared on the earth they walked upright and did not know what had gone before. That is why they are called "the one who asks."
At the start of our earth before the Nothing is the Kwan (which means "nameless'). And Kwan is before the Nothing and now and when the Nothing returns.
But in the time between the Nothing and now, Kwan spit out a seed from their mouth. And it fell to the ground and grew into a living thing that could question. Kwan, in whimsy, named it fut, meaning "Kwan's question."
Now fut, being one, had no other one. So Kwan spit out another seed and from the ground grew a new fut. The fut, being separate, fought. So the second fut asked to return to the earth. Kwan struck the second down and the fut returned to the ground.
So the first fut asked Kwan, "What am I to do now that you have spit me?" Kwan replied "Two futs fight!" And fut replied, "There is a way. Give me spit and seed and place. And I will seed my own ground. We fut will be of the same earth. And may the eyes of our dreams behold you, our Becomer and the Answer of our questions." Kwan, pleased at fut's words, hollowed the belly of the fut as a hiding place. It spit out its own seed. The second fut sprang from the mouth of the first fut.
Kwan was satisfied. But the first fut asked Kwan, "Kwan, can it be good, but still sad?" "Good yet sad?" Fut replied, "Do not be mad with me, but how is next the seed to come, and the one after that? Our seeds are self sown. What if you get bored with us (and we with ourselves) and go to another sky. We will reproduce the same forever (for there was no death on the earth). We have talked together and this is our story: Give us both part of the seed and one of us the hiding place to hold it until it is ready. Dig a channel so that the new fut will fall from our earth to the arms of the ground that first held us. And may the eyes of our dreams behold you, our Becomer and the Answer of our questions."
Kwan laughed. It was the First Laugh. But they thought, "we have grown from ourselves a creature that will not need us." Kwan took the second fut and made a sac for half the seeds and a finger to plant them. In the first fut, Kwan hid the other seeds and dug a channel towards earth. But Kwan also hid a fear of the first fut in the heart of the second. The fut joined and grew from themselves a great harvest. And they called the earth their Holder and named Kwan, their Becomer, and called themselves Arop, people arriving for the harvest. But fear took root and the Arop soon called Kwan Protector and Judge.
Second Myth: What We Have Forgotten
Now, there were beings in the sky, but they were kept by the dream of Kwan ("the nameless"). They did not know anything but Kwan, so they knew everything at once. Kwan called them "the dreamed". There were three, suuk the seer, kultu the holder, and koan the asker, who woke first. This is how it happened.
Now, Kwan told all the dreamed that the yellow stones by the river of life were not to be taken. As long as the beings in the sky were dreaming, they were fed by the river of life and did not crave the yellow stones. But occasionally, Kwan blinked, and for a short time the dreamed awakened.
Everyone knows that once you say "no" there will be one to say "yes." And this one was suuk the seer. Suuk was the first to awaken with a craving for the yellow stones. So suuk went to the river and took one and sucked it. The dream broke, and suuk began to see. She noticed her own form. She thought, "We are Kwan's dream but not Kwan's form. I do not want to be endlessly outside my own form. In my own form, I know only one thing at a time, but this is good. I can suck and savor it." She stayed by the river for a long time. She grew lonely, and then thirsty, so she drank from the river of life. Her form fell to the earth and she rejoined her people for a while.
She searched and found kultu the holder. When Kwan blinked a second time, she held kultu with her and gave kultu a stone to suck. Then kultu also became form. They heard a voice and Kwan was over them.
"Why have you cut yourself off from me?" Kwan sighed, "your choice will be your sorrow." But suuk replied, "I have known only you as me, and now I see myself and you. I know times of dream and times of not dream. Your dream will continue in me because you dreamed me, but now I must dream for myself." And kultu said, "I am still new, but I am one and many. This is an empty feeling. It s is good."
Kwan sighed, "You have sucked of the stone of separation. Surely sorrow will knock together like pebbles at your dancing, bruise you at your falling, stop you from your going, and interrupt your toil. I will be to you something far up. You will see my size and be afraid. You will hear my sound and hide. You will curse me, you will cut me down. You will follow any dream that calls to you. And the ones who come after you will do this to you. You will all suck the hardest stone, the stone of forgetting."
"But we are of the same dream, you and I. We cannot separate completely. You will travel this time of separation hard, but it will bring you new understanding. I will carry you in my dream until no rock will separate us, till all the seeds of our words are fertile and the soil is black.
"Now, turn to each other and look, because the light of the dream is failing. It will be many generations before you will know that you came from the same place."
Kwan left with a mighty silence. And suuk called herself a moving thing. She slept in the day and woke at night. Kultu became grass and held on to a small part of the dream. When koan appeared on the earth they walked upright and did not know what had gone before. That is why they are called "the one who asks."
Insurgence
Ramon reads the note by candle
in the middle of the floor. The wood is warm but cooled by a breeze from the open window. Ka Mon, kailangan kita The words kiss his heart like gasoline to grass hwuag/sige na/kailangan kita. Halaka, the winds hiss, lick the wall with long tongues, halaka, halaka. When the flame flattens back like the ears of a dog, Ramon too is afraid. “Iha,” calls ina “lamayin ka diyan?" No, inay.Tulog na." She crosses herself and sighs, pray for us all, and all night on his bed he pretends to sleep. KP 1984 |
Bigyan ng UlanShe breaks, and the rain rakes the Pasig
near evening. BIGYAN MO, roars the water, DIOS KO! she screams, and Nanay’s arms plunge for The raw baby breaching. “Babae,” she calls. In the drenched dark, my titas stop keening. I squat in door as they wrap the inunan, wipe the bleeding. Tomorrow you come In your alb straight from mass At nanay's bidding. I run in chinellas, uncombed Show a turtle I caught. After this kind of rain they come In with the seaweed. K Poethig 1982 |
Three Cantos
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Oakland MagnificatWhen the Oakland Cathedral was destroyed in the 1989 earthquake, the land was converted into a park. The women of Critical Mass celebrated mass there.
Let me sing you Mary’s promise, a Magnificat of grace, not for linen, gold and monstrance but for Oakland and this place. In the rubble of her Cathedral Mary offers a reprise, a canticle to the city from the parkbench, piss, and sky: For the old ones with seasoned rosaries and the new ones whose prayers are sweet, for the graveyard shift at Kaiser and the inmate at OPD, for the hookers on MacArthur in their pay-by-the-hour motels. from Lake Merritt down to Havenscourt her melody soars and swells. for Cambodian wedding banquets for the mayor and the Bart, for the Friday farmer’s market, for the homeless in this park. As she sings, the sirens echo on their way to an Eastside brawl. As the silver autumn moon bejewels Oakland's irony and sprawl. And she blesses the city’s faithful for their private and public good. but her word is Jesus' warning of the Powers shaken and renewed Chorus: “I will shake what has been erected I will unlatch the locked door I will take from the stones rejected and you here are my first floor. “I will eat from an open table I will bless all who serve milk and honey, clothes and money bread and wine with joy and courage.” We are gathered to serve the city We have come here to heed the call of the women who share a vision of a church without doors and walls. Kathryn Poethig October 4, 1998 |
In a Minneapolis public libraryAt dusk in the public library the books are roused to their stories which thickens one’s own thoughts because the words leap through the pages and collide, brewing a sort of yeast. So that, if you truly intend to read, you must rise towards the ceiling. Such things are common here Wednesday afternoons. I came from Chicago where I first heard such forms of speech when I once bent to hear my feet, and a different cool silence risen from the street was lowing. K Poethig 1982 Many are called and some not chosen
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Before the winter broke
Before the winter broke
My dreams turned green. Lichen like frost hoars at the dark root as April breaks lilies in her teeth and the hard relentless rains begin. Before you left I dreamed in brown, ocre and rust retched at the stream edge. A dead tree cracks, clutches, whips the shocked air as it comes down. I learned that you were dead in arctic light, sharp as a thin knife, white. I walk through snow with no horizon. K Poethig 1979 |