18

1. "Letter to Amina,
Who Must Surely Be among Angels"
July 29, 1994
Ormoc, three years after the flood
By Merlie M. Alunan

2. 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 !

3. 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.

4. "Letter to Amina,
Who Must Surely Be among Angels"
July 29, 1994
Ormoc, three years after the flood
By Merlie M. Alunan

5. Not by your old name I address you, no,
Not by the one you went by, living in our midst
Mamang, name that kept you bound
To cradle, washtub, sink and stove
Till your back bent and your singing
Caked into silence, song in your dreaming
Crushed like fishbone in the traffic of circadian need.

6. Your own name then, Amina.
Letters etched on stone in Ormoc's
Graveyard hill, syllables all music and gold
Gliding 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 bursting
And earthquakes shaking the ground we stood on,
Floodwaters broke from the mountains-
Drowning our city in an hour's rampage.

7. 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 bodies
Littering the streets-your husband among them,
A son, his wife, their children-how
In the panic of our sudden loss
We pried and scraped and shoveled from the ooze

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

9. I keep my own name, true, and feel myself
Free 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.

10. 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 fall
Of angel wings, please send word somehow-

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

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

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

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

15. 2. The addressee is Amina. She
is a househelp.
Answer:

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

17. 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:

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

19. 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:

20. 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.

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

22. 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

23. - 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