Skip to main content

164 CANAL GRANDE DI VENEZIA


164               CANAL GRANDE DI VENEZIA



In Italy, Canal Grande di Venezia (Grand Canal of Venice) has inspired the creative energies of many, owing to its artistic heritage and history. Juxtaposed against the complexity of the modern times, it remains “the most beautiful road in the world”, the center of popular life not only to the residents but for many artists, poets and writers, representing a constantly changing pattern of elements, concepts and humanity.

Venice, a city in northeastern Italy, “has no roads, just canals – including the Grand Canal thoroughfare – lined with Renaissance and Gothic palaces. The central square, Piazza San Marco, contains St. Mark’s Basilica, which is tiled with Byzantine mosaics, and the Campanile bell tower offering views of the city’s red roofs.” Each year, the 50,000 residents of Venice receive 20 million tourists ferried by boats, not buses.

I think of Venice when I see Dagupan City being cradled by the flood. Perhaps this is because, in the midst of disasters, I tend to imagine the brighter side of possibilities in the worst circumstances. On top of this tendency, the poetry in the madness of its slow transition to usher the conditions it finds itself in, and its efforts to mitigate the impact of the thickness of the mud and the decay that callousness and indifference nurtured over time, I see the beauty of Dagupan’s soul, slowly being polished ironically, by the constant beating of the murky water, that serves as a brew to its own awakening.

Dagupan has always risen. How it rises from drowning would depend on the unselfish, imaginative, long-term vision of a cross-section of its citizens working together, setting aside petty political divisions. For this, Dagupan needs unselfish leaders collectively thinking and acting together, unifying and integrating creative inputs backed by scientific research and experience from institutions and citizens who have surmounted similar challenges around the world.


The body

the remains, remain
waiting for the drain, to drain
the sky weeps, it rains again


The hearse

slowly, it wades
through the murky streets
a debris among debris
kissed by the flowers


Wedding

the bride marched down
dragging her gown
on a flooded aisle
flashing a smile

the groom wears a frown
as he took her hand
doubting, to swim away
or to drown



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

168 ESTABLISHING “FACTS”

168           ESTABLISHING “FACTS” In 1997, during his professorial lecture at the City College of Manila, Ambeth Ocampo, former Chairperson of the National Historical Commission (NHCP) said "Personally, I think this controversy like that of the site of the first mass -- Limasawa, Leyte or Masao, Butuan -- belongs in the basura (trash). But then, textbooks and quiz shows require definite answers. People want "facts" not lessons or perspectives."   Vicente Calibo de Jesus, a relentless researcher on the subject of the first “mass” disagrees. He said, “A historian has a moral obligation to Truth, and an ethical responsibility to his readers, domestic and global.” There is also a claim that the first “mass” was actually in Bolinao, Pangasinan celebrated in 1324 by Odoric of Pordenone, OFM, also known as Odorico Mattiussi or Mattiuzzi, an Italian late-medieval Franciscan friar and missionary explorer, predating the  mass ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Armi

Published by  Sunday Punch Dagupan Pangasinan   July 23, 2019 Armi By Virginia Jasmin Pasalo It is not clear to me how I first met Armi Bangsal. I had this impression that she was introduced by Enoch Tan, but I could be wrong. Maybe she was introduced to me by another friend, Josefina (Josie) Lolarga. I have a clearer memory of how I met another friend, Fe Mangahas, from a timeline she remembers, which became the basis of my recall of the occasion. However, the clarity of our memory recedes over time, and with it, modifications of the stories, and so I think there may be an earlier event where we had met, which escaped her memory. Armi and I stayed close friends up to this day, seeing each other occasionally, sometimes only during Christmas and her birthday, and mourning the passing of other friends. I saw her more often during the last few years, because of the meetings scheduled by the Pangasinan Historical and Cultural Commission in Lingayen, where she res...
Post a Comment
Read more

155 INDEPENDENCE DAY

155           INDEPENDENCE DAY I had lunch with an old friend at Chocolate Kiss on Independence Day. We talked about our relationships and how we, considering our advocacy on women empowerment and environmental coexistence, experienced independence, codependence and interdependence.   “Alam mo, nakakapagod din. Buong buhay ko, nag-aalaga akong tao.” (You know, it is also tiring. All my life I have been taking care of people.) “Come to think of it, tama ka. Ganyan din ako.” (you are right. I am like that too.) “Sana sa next life, tayo rin ang alagaan.” (Hoping in the next life, we are the ones being cared for.) “Why in the next life? We can make steps to realize this, in this lifetime. And we can pray to God to make this happen.” “I miss him. It’s been years since I was pampered that way. He knows what I need before I even utter it. Sometimes, even before I think of it.” “In a way, we are lucky. At least ...
Post a Comment
Read more