The poet laureate of the Philippines, Amado V Hernandez (1903-1970) was also a journalist and labour activist who suffered long years of incarceration on account of his fight for social justice.

Amado V Hernandez

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A poem on poetry

Amado V Hernandez

Like God:

there is a poem in all things -

the dawn as fragrant as a chosen bride,

the beauty of night where darkness gleams;

in the fields, life; in cities, music.

Like God:

those who can recognise a poem are rare,

diamond is often taken for carbon,

the sky is seen as reflected in ditch-water,

the outlaw's a patriot and the patriot a fraud.

Like Man:

a poem is created by one who is also a god;

the mind of the poet often performs miracles -

a few coarse-grained words, apprehended,

become bullets and roses.

Like Man:

a poem bears its own measure, melody, rhythm,

the three elements of its loveliness;

and freedom is the wing of a poem

that makes it soar.

Like God:

a poem is a unique riddle whose answer

lies in the throb of each sentient heart,

it is riches in poverty, brilliant light in darkness,

and pure honey in the bitter poison.

Like Man:

it is a rocky mountain and a nugget of gold,

a camel that passes through the needle's eye.

the true poem is an arrow

that pierces the target it chooses point-blank!

Translated by E San Juan, Jr

*Third World Resurgence No. 290/291, October/November 2014, p 56