Up Mountains

[Wjames]

Up Mountains


1. Daragang Magayon: Prologue

Magayon grew up to be
a beautiful woman.

Men loved her. Men
fought for her. Ulap
fought Linog, Pagtuga
for her. He won. She
ran to him. An arrow I don't know if the enjambment adds anything.

followed. Ulap
embraced her, drew
the same point through
his heart. Together,
they fell. 

Pagtuga burned. 
Linog shook the earth. 
A mountain grew,
black as the night, 
obscured by white cloud.

2. Maria Cacao: After Typhoon Sendong

Cacao lumber scattered
along the surface -- woman Strange syntax here "woman naked", I think the break would be stronger if it was "naked woman", and the break happened after naked as well.
naked springing out
of muddy water -- white
elder love invades. What does white elder love invade? The woman? I don't understand what that white elder love invading means, either - it could be rape, or something innocuous.

Without music, the shadow
of her breast crosses
her navel, her boat
stirs her river
to the sea, and her voice I like this stanza a lot. "her boat stirs her river" is wonderful.

rings out: come,
send me your poor,
your sick, your suffering
children and old men,
let me lighten your burden.  The statue of liberty?

Her mountain, shape
of heaven -- what a burden.

3. Maria Makiling: Ecological Study in Los Banos

If I were not this coarse a man,
always switching between
good Christian and vile Pagan
every change of company, Maybe add "with" at the start of this line? It tripped me up on first read.
would you have appeared to me,

hot white lady of the mountain,
when I shut off my headlamp
and scrambled down slopes invaded
by American mahogany? But there is
a second error of my nature

insurmountable: never can I be I think "I can never be" is more natural syntax. It might be intentional, though, like woman naked.
as humble as your farmer. Even you
couldn't guess at the strange speech
of the pale white man who pitched
his tent so close to your hut,

at the intellectual's lingua franca
as vital to me as my sex.

4. Maria Sinukuan: The White Man's Burden

Surrender now, for God is with us:
his bird, the eagle, is our light.
The black feathered boa that constricts
your throat with ticklish grip, that thins
heaven's air -- the glassy knife

that slides across the skin, that severs
your precious sex -- the lying Jew
and honest Christian purified
by a little cracker, cup of wine --
God shall turn them all to swine!

just as he shaved surrender's head
with summer rain and snow-like ash,
transformed her figs fat on the twigs
into slabs of spotted white,
then entered her homely cave

not with a torch another statue of liberty reference?
but with a snuffing breeze.
I liked this part 4 section, it was enjoyable to read.

I know nothing about myths, so this flew right over my head. There were some sections I really enjoyed reading, though, in part 4, and the middle stanza of part 2.