YOU CAN CHOOSE YOUR AFTERLIFE

Report by: Nikki Nina Barcinas

MARIO ERIC GAMALINDA

The Author

Profile
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Name: Mario Eric Gamalinda Age: 54 Birthday: Oct. 14, 1956 Birthplace: Manila School: UST and UP

Occupation: Poet, fictionist, essayist Currently lives in: New York City, USA
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Currently works at: Center for Investigative Journalism

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local fellow for poetry of the UP ICW in 1983. went to Great Britain to represent the Philippines in the Cambridge International Writers Conference in 1990. attended the Hawthornden International Writers Retreat in Scotland, 1991. got a Rockefeller Foundation residency in Bellagio, Italy. participated in the Japan International Cooperation Agencys Programme for the 21st century.

Other Works & Achievements

Fire Poem/Rain Poem (1976) Lyrics From A Dead Language (1991)

Zero Gravity (1999) Asian American Literary Award

Peripheral Vision (1992) Planet Waves (1989) National Book Award Confessions of a Volcano (1990) The Empire of Memory (1992)

My Sad Republic (1998) Centennial Literary Prize Anatomy of a Passionate Derangement (One-act play, 1980) -1st prize, Gawad Palanca Award Ara Vos Prec (1985) Gawad Palanca Award Patria Y Muerte (1988) Gawad Palanca Award

Mourning and Weeping in this Valley of Tears (1988) Gawad Palanca Award The Unbreakable Lightness of EDSA (1990) Gawad Palanca Award Muerte del Anghel (1992) Free Press Literary Awards

The Poem
"You Can Choose Your Afterlife," is found in Gamalindas book, Zero Gravity.

according to the strange customs of the T'boli who believe we are not judged by good or evil but by the kind of death we meet:

Tboli - an old indigenous people living in South Cotabato in Southern Mindanao The author cited Tboli beliefs about death. The Tboli afterlife has several destinations.

to die by the sword is to enter the kingdom where everything even the sound of water is red They welcome you there with the tintinnabulation of copper bells and the lamentation of bamboo violins and all night long a wounded sun hovers over your place of

The souls of murder victims and warriors slain in battle will be celebrated in a bloodthirsty kingdom. To die by the sword also entails the people you left behind to mourn for your tragic death

And those who drown return to the navel of the sea (that's what they call it) where they become subjects of Fon Muhin, god of all creatures who breathe water

According to the Tboli beliefs, victims of drowning become citizens of the sea. They will be under the rule of Fon Muhin, a god they believe in.

And those who die of sickness go to Mogul where they receive everything they've always desired but are not free of suffering

If you die due to sickness, you will get what you wish for, which is to be free from pain, however, they will sorely miss the people they have left behind.

And those who kill themselves go to a place exactly like earth but where everything sways even in sleep

For people who commit suicide, their souls will never truly leave earth because they still have unresolved problems.

They will always wonder what the people they left behind think of them for committing suicide.

Arne you didn't tell us why you wanted to go we can only imagine you in a world where you can't keep a cup of coffee still and people keep changing the rules for soccer because the ball keeps rolling away You won't miss us everything moves in the same direction You were always one step ahead

The speaker addresses a friend, real or created, who decided to take his own life. He doesn't know why Arne took his own life, but he's not going to spend the rest of his life trying to figure it out. These people will always wonder what the people they left behind think of them for committing suicide.

Figures of Speech

Onomatopoeia
They

welcome you there with the tintinnabulation of copper bells You didnt tell us why you wanted to

Apostrophe
Arne,

go

Personification:
and

the lamentation of bamboo violins and all night long a wounded sun hovers over your place of business

If we can choose our afterlife, what

References

http://nothingmorethanapoet.blogspot.c om/2007/12/you-can-choose-yourafterlife.html http://litera1no4.tripod.com/tboli_frame. html

http://panitikan.com.ph/authors/g/eg amalinda.htm