Poem: "The Rugged Inaccessibility of the Mountains"

[ysabetwordsmith]

This poem came out of the October 4, 2022 Poetry Fishbowl. It was inspired and sponsored by Anthony Barrette. It also fills "The mortifying ordeal of being known" square in my 10-1-22 card for the Fall Festival Bingo.


"The Rugged Inaccessibility of the Mountains"


The Philippines span
many tropical islands,
thousands of them
scattered in the sea.

They are tall and green,
knife-edged mountains
rising out of the foam.

Wave after wave of
peoples have settled
in those islands.

Unlike other places,
however, they have not
assimilated each other
or driven out the weaker.

The rugged inaccessibility
of the mountains has
preserved the diversity.

Over a hundred tribes
remain, each possessing
its own niche in the nation.

There are the Igorot and
the Bugkalot in the north,
the Lumad of Mindanao,
the Dumagat spread around,
and numerous other groups.

Not even the conquistadores
could stand up to the harsh terrain
and its bellicose hordes of headhunters.

Out of all native tribes, they are spared
the mortifying ordeal of being known.

In this regard they are nearly unique,
for most others have been absorbed
by this or that conquering nation.

In order to survive, the Filipinos had
to become as fierce as their mountains.

* * *

Notes:

The Philippines consist of mountainous islands inhabited by diverse peoples. Unlike most places, many of them were never overrun by colonizers due to hostile terrain and a widespread custom of headhunting.

The conquistadores were a bunch of genocidal maniacs from Spain and Portugal who preyed upon native peoples around the world during the Age of Invasions.

Comments

[acelightning73]

My father was stationed in the Philippines during World War 2. He was an engine mechanic assigned to a mobile kitchen - all their machinery ran on gasoline engines (like the industrial mixers for the bread) and the stoves burned gasoline for heat. His job was to keep the machinery mixing and slicing and cooking, and he got friendly with many of the cooks, who would occasionally trade him things like canned fruit in exchange for a tricky repair. His recipe for bread was "For a 100-lb sack of flour, add five pounds of yeast, five pounds of salt, and a pound of sugar, and enough water to make a dough." I've never made a batch of bread that big - my home mixer isn't big enough. But the proportions fit everything I know about bread dough.

He said that the native Pilipinos were all different tribes, with a lot of different customs, and often they didn't even speak Pilipina (the native language, formerly referred to as Tagalog, , pronounced TAG -a- LOG, to the rhythm of the English phrase "tag-along". I think being in the Philippines was the most fun my dad ever had.

Thoughts

[ysabetwordsmith]

>> But the proportions fit everything I know about bread dough.<<

LOL yes.

>> He said that the native Pilipinos were all different tribes, with a lot of different customs, and often they didn't even speak Pilipina (the native language, formerly referred to as Tagalog, , pronounced TAG -a- LOG, to the rhythm of the English phrase "tag-along".<<

True.

>> I think being in the Philippines was the most fun my dad ever had.<<

It can be quite an adventure.

Re: Thoughts

[acelightning73]

I observed during my youth the fact that most of the Americans who were in World War 2 thought of the war as "the most fun we've ever had". They got taken from their American home towns (many of them had never been further than 50 miles from where they were born; sent to someplace where the scenery was unfamiliar, and they didn't know the language. They tasted foods they'd never heard of, and they got to flirt with "exotic" women. Very few of them went into combat - my father never did. The Korean war wasn't an adventure, and neither was Vietnam, and my generation learned that "war is hell".