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Come, let us bow down in worship; let us kneel before the Lord who made us. For he is our God, and we are the people he shepherds, the flock he guides. Ps 95:6-7 #wordstoliveby #lordofcreation #ourgodandfather #godbepraisedforever #sunriseinthepines https://www.instagram.com/p/CSMDTAnLfF0/?utm_medium=tumblr

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[iseeyououtmauindow]

On Subsequent Decay: A Feedback on a Poem Selection by A.E. Litiatco

Lord of Creation

A.E. Litiatco

  Ground a twig;

Roses bloom.

  Bury acorns;

Oak trees loom.

  Sow some seeds;

Tendrils sprout.

  Plant a man;

Worms come out.

   THE FORM:

The poem Lord of Creation by A.E. Litiatco, written in (8) eight lines and separated in (4) four couplets had an AB-CB-DE-FE rhyme pattern. The poem was made short and simple and the speaker is in the first person point of view with a didactive feel. By first reading, the poem Lord of Creation covers planting, literally.

THE FEEDBACK:

Planting is more than just a hobby for it is where the survival of men in multitudes is rooted. It reminds me that even elders would often encourage their young to plant crops in order to ‘breed good virtue’. I really don’t get this at first but by reflection on what this mantra had suggested with insights on the poem’s message, I was able to get a tidbit on what it means until the last couplet.

The last image of the planted man in decay has a negative connotation especially when a writer ended a poem of natural imagery containing blooming roses, looming oak trees and sprouting tendrils. This particular decay was also an image exhibited by foreign writers of romanticism in which Tierra had in his poem in place of the man. We see it as subsequent details or symbols in literary works such as the rotting portrait of Dorian Gray, and of Frankenstein given life (the irony) among others. Man as framed in the poem, served a symbol in contrast to the growing foliage.

The poem could have meant by the triumph of life over death, if seen in reverse. Or rather,

Hope lingers on.

Or maybe,

There’s life after death.

I never thought of 'you reap what you sow' as the closest meaning here but I say, man before being planted - or buried, in the ground had once lived. Man, experiences growth from a lot of troubles, happiness, anger and pains of living but of all the troubles of a life once lived they were all but laid to rest underneath the earth. It is a sad fate to see that through man's decay and fall, the fleeting decadent existence could make the planted seedlings and stems grow in time.

So from the last couplet why was the word ‘plant’ used instead of ‘bury’? Planting a man does not mean burying them all forgotten and in anonymity. Man when planted in the ground could have mean that a man should have grown and lived a life of virtue before his impending death. Though worms may thrive from the cadaver, these worms could have been the vice of a life which could breed virtue in return through helping plants sprout in their midst.

Both poems: 1940 A.D. and Lord of Creation, which were written in the year 1940 had its own unique language and imagery in which Manalang-Gloria and Litiatco had brought to light.

If we are ask to choose among the two poems, I would prefer Litiatco in his Lord of Creation – which is terse and simple but encompasses the images which implies the romantic meaning of a man’s life, of the triumph of life over death, and also on the ‘synergy' in which all living things and lives share in common.

- Maria Louisa Pasilan

* edited 07/15/13