eng7 letter to amina

"Letter to Amina,Who Must Surely Be among Angels"

July 29, 1994Ormoc, three years after the flood

By Merlie M. Alunan

On 4 November 1991, Tropical Storm Uring hit the Eastern Visayas region. The

storm brought a tremendous amount of rainfall, much of which fell in a three-hour

period at around noontime. The province of Leyte suffered widespread flooding.

Whiz !

Worst hit, however, was the city of Ormoc, where more than five thousand residents

were killed by floods and landslides. The tragedy in the already flood-prone area was exacerbated by illegal logging, improper

cultivation of land, and poorly designed structures on riverbanks.

"Letter to Amina,Who Must Surely Be among Angels"

July 29, 1994Ormoc, three years after the flood

By Merlie M. Alunan

Not by your old name I address you, no,Not by the one you went by, living in our midstMamang, name that kept you boundTo cradle, washtub, sink and stoveTill your back bent and your singingCaked into silence, song in your dreamingCrushed like fishbone in the traffic of circadian need.

Your own name then, Amina.Letters etched on stone in Ormoc'sGraveyard hill, syllables all music and goldGliding smooth upon the tongue of memory-Amina. Back here, no news you'd like to hear,Or that you wouldn't know: one day at noon,In a year of war or famine, of volcanoes burstingAnd earthquakes shaking the ground we stood on, Floodwaters broke from the mountains-Drowning our city in an hour's rampage.

You'd gone ahead to this hill three years before,You weren't there to witness what we had to do Among the leavings of the water, the mud,The rubble and debris, the countless bodiesLittering the streets-your husband among them,A son, his wife, their children-howIn the panic of our sudden loss We pried and scraped and shoveled from the ooze

What once had been beloved, crammed them coffinlessWithout ritual without tears into the maw of earthBeside you on that graveyard hill.Amina what have the angels got to say About that gross outrage?

I keep my own name, true, and feel myselfFree to make the words of my singing,But I sing only in my own woman's voice,Cracked with too much laughter, or anger,Or tears. And who's to listen, I don't know,admitting as I do, no traffic with angels.

I remember only your women's beauty fading,And this, what's left for a daughter to touch-Your namestone mute among the grass green singing,Your name I raise to the wind like a prayer.If you hear it whispering in the lift and fallOf angel wings, please send word somehow-

Have they given you back your voice?I'd like to know-lost among the angelsWhat can a woman sing?And what do you remember?

1. Who is the persona, or speaker, in the poem? What details in the poem reveal the identity of the speaker?

Comprehension Questions

1. The persona is one who has survived to tell the horros of the disaster in Ormoc three years before.

Answer:

2. Who is the addressee, or the one being spoken to, in the poem? How is she related

to the speaker?

2. The addressee is Amina. She is a househelp.

Answer:

3. Narrate the chain of events recounted in the poem.

3. One day at noon, there was sudden, severe flooding which drowned so many people in only about an hour. The persona and other people,

perhaps her family, went to find Amina and her family dead on the streets and placed them in an unmarked grave.

Answer:

4. What emotions does the poem convey? Which lines convey these emotions?

4. There certainly is sadness- the persona misses Amina and her singing. There is a certain guilt and self-disgust in what

she has to do: "Amina what have the angels got to say / About that gross outrage?"

Answer:

5. This poem refers to the Ormoc flood in 1991. The poem, particularly line 12-15. also alludes to other disasters which occurred within the same time frame. Research what these

disasters are.

5. They refer to the Pinatubo eruption in 1991, earthquake.

Answer:

Lyric Poem- a type of poem that expresses personal emotions through the

persona, or the speaker

-comes from the Greek word "lyre", the musical instrument that accompanied

the reading of a poem during that period

- meant to be read out loud for it to be appreciated better

- meant to be read out loud for it to be appreciated better

-comes from the Greek word "lyre", the musical instrument that accompanied

the reading of a poem during that period