Literature after Edsa
1986-1995
The year 1986 marks a new beginning of a new scene for Filipino writers and artists. It saw the downfall of late President Ferdinand Marcos when he placed the Philippines under martial rule last September 21,1972. This action does not only oppress the writers' right to free expression but also created conditions that made collaboration and cooperation convenient choices for artists' struggling for recognition and survival. Furthermore, the growth of underground writing was created both in urban and in the countryside.
14. Like many other contemporary poets, Danton Remoto is trying to establish his own place on the history of Philippine contemporary
literature. Although his poetry reflects his youthful idealism, Nationalism and his struggle against loneliness, still his poems possess a
resounding resonance and exceptional nuance which move the spirit and the soul of the readers. It is necessary to note that he produced
all poems in this collection when he was still on his early twenties . The way Remoto presented a simple idea and his mastery in capturing
the imagination by presenting a striking imagery is exceptional. No other poets can duplicate his mastery in weaving verses.
In the poem Antipolo Vender (Skin, Voices, Faces, Anvil, 1991, p.4) he said:
A gaslamp throws
shadows
of the face
of the pregnant vender.
Her half frozen blood
Curdles,
as the hills hug
their knees
In the dark shiver of sleep.
Candles melt
the hard darkness
inside the church
This is my country,
that seems to have run
out of candles to burn
From the dream of sadness.
there, the skin
stretches into walls
The drawbridge of the tongue
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