This column celebrates the vibrant literary culture and heritage of Dumaguete City, in anticipation of its bid to be designated as UNESCO City of Literature under the Creative Cities Network. It is produced by the Buglas Writers Guild, a network of literary artists from Negros Oriental, Negros Occidental, and Siquijor. Each week, we will focus on the work of one local writer. For this month, the guest editor is Dumaguete fictionist Ian Rosales Casocot.
If there is one poet from Negros Oriental whose book I am most eager to get my hands on, it will be the Siaton poet Grace R. Monte de Ramos—a resolutely feminist writer who has her pulse on the issues that continue to bedevil the Filipino woman, and renders these concerns in acutely observed verses that not only take these issues with bravery and humor, but also conflates them with the nuances of the female body and the female experiences.
In other words, she has always been political, but centers that with a wry female gaze.
In 2003, for example, her poem Brave Woman was chosen for inclusion in the book Poets against the War, edited by Sam Hamill for Nations Books—a pathreaking collection of anti-war poems by international writers opposed to the American war in Iraq. Alas, while she has been published widely—in Caracoa, in Ani, in Sands & Coral, in Likhaan, in Philippine Studies, etc.—and is much-anthologized, she has yet to gather her poems together in one volume. Someday, we hope to persuade her with some finality.
Ms. Monte de Ramos, who is married to the poet Juaniyo Arcellana [son of the National Artist for Literature Francisco Arcellana] and now lives in Mandaluyong, earned her degree in Creative Writing at Silliman University, where she studied under the guidance of Edilberto K. Tiempo and Edith L. Tiempo, one of the country’s most distinguished literary couples. She first taught literature at Silliman after graduation, then worked at the Cultural Center of the Philippines before deciding to be a full-time mother and caretaker of cats. But she persists in her literary inclinations by writing, reading, editing other writers’ manuscripts, and translating works into Binisaya [she has translated Alice McLerran’s beloved children’s book The Mountain that Loved a Bird into Ang Bukid nga Nahigugma sa Langgam], while also spending time solving Sudoku puzzles.
In the middle of the pandemic, she wrote this poem for a national publication that eventually chose not to publish it—in fear of the powers that be:
Filipina Nude in Quarantine
I need a Brazilian wax
for this horsehair
growing rampant
around my crotch
but the salons are all closed,
damn this lockdown, and my lover
anyway can’t go to where we used
to meet, bookstore, bar,
even church, where briefly
we rehearsed postures
of body-worship. Why did Harry
have to be gleefully
triumphant about it?
He might not have
kulasisi like Duterte, but I
am secretly one,
a very horny one
whenever my period is done.
I bought two panties
to please my married man,
one red, one black, and now they
have to wait until it’s safe to traverse
EDSA to get to the next tryst.
My groin needs whitening,
my nipples are shriveling from lack
of licking and sucking. Even
phone sex is out, as my husband
is working from home, dispensing
legal advice on Zoom,
and my mewling and moaning
would surely reach him through
these thin walls.
O I miss the windowless rooms
where I could be imperious
like a queen or as slavish
as a bitch in heat.
But I am prisoner
instead. Tell me, generals of checkpoints
and protocols, what do I do
with all this hair?
Of this poem, Grace has this to say: “When Duterte became president many people wrote angry poems about him. I did not, as I was not in the mood for rage-filled or anguish-laced poetry. Indeed, Krip Yuson had to ask me if he could include ‘Brave Woman’ in the anthology, Bloodlust. I hadn’t sent anything. ‘Been there, done that,’ is what I said to him. I wanted to move on from anger to satire, I wanted my poems to laugh in their faces, make them look ridiculous. This poem was obviously written during the Covid lockdown, when we were subjected to many ridiculous rules.”
