Virginia Moreno's Batik Maker: My View

Filipino students are mystified, often stupefied by poems.

The easiest possible way to a poem is to know who is speaking. No, it’s not always the author who is speaking.

There is a persona or a character that the poet uses, just like a character in a short story.

Who is the speaker (persona)?

The “ I” in the poem is the speaker. As in " I cannot touch him".

What is the speaker talking about?

The batik maker is in the speaker’s dream. The batik maker is weaving or making a design on a cloth.

(This gets a little complicated). The image that the batik maker weaves is like a surreal painting. Dreamlike. I see a man, a huntsman who is pale, (why?).  He is ensnared and he cannot move (he cannot move because he’s ...dead?)

The speaker said,  I cannot touch him.  Why? 1. Because it is a dream.  2.The speaker is in denial.  3. maybe because she or he is afraid.

Lengths of the dumb and widths of the deaf are his hair...so here we can surmise that the dead cannot speak or hear anymore...dumb, deaf (get it?).

Wild orchids thumb ...  we can imagine that wild orchids are crawling on the hair of the dead huntsman, whose mouth is open and looks like screaming. But of course the speaker hears only some birds screaming sadly (elegiac) as though mourning for the dead.

And I cannot wake him...this part is heartwrenching. Imagine a woman who mourns for a lost loved one, trying to waken somebody who cannot come back anymore.

What panthom panther sleeps in the cage of his skin and immobile hands...  a panther is a strong animal, and the huntsman, being what he was, must have been strong and fearless when he was alive. But now, the feline sleeps forever.

And I cannot bury him...

This line is self explanatory...

Well, understanding the poem is just part of the process. A poem has images, and like a painting, the poet must convey his feelings through images. If the poet just said,  “The speaker is sad beyond words,”

That wouldn’t really be a poem, would it?

Someone would say, but a batik maker doesn’t weave? Which can spark a debate, which can lengthen the discussion etc.

Poems have meanings. Some poems are really puzzles. Mortals like us can only guess at the  hidden agenda of the poet. Take heart. Usually, the simplest explanation is the best.

View the complete poem here.

Virginia Moreno's Batik Maker

Batik Maker

Tissue of no seam and skin

Of no scale she weaves this;

Dream of a huntsman pale

That in his antlered 

Mangrove waits

Ensnared;

And I cannot touch him.

Lengths of the dumb and widths

Of the deaf are his hair

Where wild orchids thumb

Or his parted throat surprise

To elegiac screaming

Only birds of

Paradise;

And I cannot wake him.

Shades of light and shapes

Of the rain on his palanquin

Stain what phantom panther

Sleeps in the cage of

His skin and immobile

Hands;

And I cannot bury him.

Virginia Moreno
(Photo from Aliww)

         Virginia Moreno’s poem, Batik Maker instantly became my fave when the haunting lyrics installed itself into my being after we read it in college (PNU where I took up AB/BSE English). My college professor, Dr. Venancio Mendiola would do his stance, his silhouette ( I say silhouette because we see his profile) while looking at something distant and obscure, and say our names randomly, usually to recount a story we were assigned days earlier.

          That day, our topic was the immortal Batik Maker.

          Dr. Mendiola asked what imagery we see from the poem, I raised like my hand like an enthusiastic child about to show her new toy.
I could see an image in my mind and I drew a canvas of what I hoped were the poet's thoughts.

What I drew was something like this:

I interpreted the lines:

Shades of light and shapes

Of the rain on his palanquin

I was so proud of that image. My professor didn't utter a comment (perhaps he was thinking I should take up Digital Arts or Fine Arts instead).

Time went on. It was years later when I found the poem again and mulling over the " lengths and depths" of  the pain that echoed in those words, I can only surmise from where they come.

No wonder she's called the High Priestess of Philippine Poetry.

For my view on Batik Maker, please see here.