New Year, New Column

By: Victoria Smith

 

Before everything else, dear readers, I’d like to announce some signifi cant changes to this column in the coming year. Our always-supportive publisher and Editor-in-Chief, Veronica Leighton, has kindly agreed to my suggestions for innovations to this column. When Veronica approached me in 2011to offer me my own VIA Times column, the idea was to give me a platform to feature my poetry. I was grateful for it, and enjoyed a great run all these years based on this concept. It gave me an opportunity not only to share my poetry with a larger monthly reading public, but also enabled me to use my poems as a jumping board for reflection and discussion of relevant current events— whether on the personal, social, or political sphere.

It’s been almost six years hence, and I am ready for some changes. Everything, even good things, must come to an end, especially when one sees the opportunity of making what’s good better. To begin with, I write so much more than poetry. I’m also published in, and competitively recognized in fiction and creative non-fi ction as well. Why then should my column be limited to poetry? And why only limit my column to my literary works—when other authors sometimes do a better job expressing the same thoughts or sentiments? Thus, it occurred to me to enlarge the scope and framework of this column—to include not only my and possibly other writers’ poetry (while complying with copyright law), but also other forms of literature written by me and other authors, as staging grounds to refl ect upon and discuss the current human condition. Secondly, in connection with expanding the premise and scope of this column, its name will change from “Warrior Heart, Pilgrim Soul” (an offshoot of the title of my fi rst poetry collection) to “Notes From the Sound”— the latter inspired by my recent move to the beautiful Puget Sound area. Think of this monthly column then, dear readers, as my monthly love letter to you.

Now, on with the culminating poem of this year:

Stepmother en Filipinas, Circa 1948

I. Long before the clop-clopping of hooves echo from the sun-baked road, and the calesa drops off its passenger and her groom, there will have been a thousand chores completed.

The bride will arrive at her new home and regally ascend to her forerunner’s legacy on narra steps and fl oors polished to ebony shine, mirroring her long virginal skirt like lover’s eyes lurid with desire.

And the dining table will not betray one speck of dust—she could lick off her dinner straight from its top. And her dinner will be served by an army of young servants, sneaking peeks for signs of approval or—Dios mio!— displeasure, as they learn to address her, Ima— mother.

II. Typhoid had robbed them of their blood mother during the war that taught them their sculptor father was useless when art served no purpose but vain hope, and beauty only attracted unwanted attention, and it was more important to learn how to bow low to the Hapon and say Hai! like you meant it, unless you craved a lusty beating, and how to carve out a living selling poor man’s meals from the bodega of their house.

Everyone says how lucky they are for a young lady to want to marry a man with seven children already.

III. The fourteen-year old eldest daughter resents the woman not much older than she usurping her place as mistress of the house, can’t think of what more a man could want beyond a brood of obedient children catering to his needs. Doesn’t grasp this until that night when he orders everyone to bed early, and the house— thought to be dead all that time, rises and sleepwalks.

The daughter knows, for she heard it straight from the loose lips of the heaving and groaning floors.

Poet’s Notes. This poem was fi rst published in the March 2016 issue of Voices Journal, and was inspired by stories I heard from elderly family members about events and conditions in our small Philippine hometown during World War II. I chose to feature this poem during this holiday month, in view of our nation’s annual commemoration on December 7 of the anniversary of the Japanese Imperial Forces’ attack on Pearl Harbor. You might say it’s an odd choice for what should be a joyous season. But I believe that joy should and could exist while living amidst harsh realities—indeed, we must persist in joyful living without becoming Pollyannas by paying attention to and addressing co-existent truths, no matter how inconvenient or difficult. This is the challenge of our times: not to lose our humanity in the face of the inhumanity of others.

That the United States and Japan are now allies, when they were fierce and bitter enemies in the last world war witnesses to the truth of the politically expedient principle that there are no permanent enemies, only permanent interests. In the face of threats from North Korea and the ever-present geopolitical Game of Thrones being played by China against the United States not only in the Pacific Rim region but also around the world, Japan has never been a more valuable partner with America in protecting common interests in the Southeast Asian region.

Common interests. Let’s focus on this term. If it’s true there are no permanent enemies, merely permanent interests, then it behooves us all, not only for the radical improvement of the human condition, but for our very survival as a species, to determine and understand what those common human interests are. And if elusive, as they do appear to be so at this stage of human history, we must purposefully—that is, with a mission—identify, declare, define, and shape them in favor of the greater good of all human kind and our planet. Decades ago, we began this mission with the International Declaration of Human Rights—which, incidentally is being annually celebrated on December 10. However, we now see its utter disregard worldwide not only by lawless elements, but more so by our leaders who are supposed to uphold our laws and protect our rights. What then is to be done? Do we sink in despair, holding our hands up and washing them of blame, or do we fi ght back? On this, what the Filipinos did successfully to fight the Japanese in World War II could be instructive.

Guerilla warfare. That’s it. When the Allied Forces under General Douglas MacArthur retreated from the Pacific to regroup and rally war resources in the United States, Filipinos did not stop fighting. They did not merely wait for the Americans to return but proactively employed a highly effective method of sustained warfare that did not require huge resources and advanced weapons technology but capitalized on the efficient dual tactics of persistent underground grassroots resistance and strategic combat attacks and ambushes on the enemy. Some historians opine that the continued resistance, fighting, and intelligence gathering of Filipino guerillas were critical to making the Americans’ return to the Philippines possible, including the saving of thousands of American POW lives and individual battle victories, eventually leading to Japan’s final defeat, albeit with the ultimate help of superior technology provided by the atom bomb.

The key ingredient to fighting against big odds is persistence. Never giving up. Most fights are an endurance test. Absent superior immediate material or skills advantage, the victor is almost always the one who could at least outlast the other fighter. Sporadic yet sustained guerilla fighting is effective because it does not require a lot of resources, only perseverance in the fight. Equally important is strategy—which means staying focused on a common goal (such as defeating the resurgent forces of fascism and bigotry) through intelligent planning and disciplined execution. And grassroots resistance. Which means none other than you and I, working tirelessly together through what we each do best for the community, with determination and hope that, by all our individual and community voices and actions, we could turn the tide of history and redirect our political and military energies toward recognizing and protecting those interests that unite us as human beings more than what divide us.

When we examine how the enemy (the neo-Nazi and fascist movement) has defeated us, wresting power away from us—the people, we realize that they accomplished this through their own guerilla tactics, using the very tools of our institutional democracy against us. Thus, we need to learn from our enemy—to effectively use similar strategies, while striving to keep the essential difference between them and us —that is, staying faithful to the principled integrity of our actions (i.e., the end does not justify the means). By falling into the same brazen or clandestine corrupt tactics of our enemy in order to achieve a goal, we thereby lose our own fight, since a big part of our cause is the preservation of the principles of truth, freedom, and due process.

I will discuss the specific guerilla tactics we could adopt in our grassroots fi ght against the corrupt forces governing our nation in next month’s column—indeed, a great way to start the new year, don’t you think? Meantime, remember: Be tireless, fearless, and smarter than the enemy. And patient. Very patient. Good things indeed happen to those who (proactively, not passively) wait.

(All rights reserved. Copyright ©2017 by Victoria G. Smith. For updates on her author events & publications, go to VictoriaGSmith. com. “Like” her on Facebook at Author Victoria G. Smith. “Follow” her on Twitter @ AuthorVGSmith)