MULTIPLE INTELLIGENCE INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL

Katipunan Avenue, Loyola Heights, Quezon City, Philippines

Upper School Department

A FORMALIST LITERARY CRITICISM OF CERILO F. BAUTISTA ‘S

“TELEX MOON”

Submitted by:

Juan Augusto G. Pineda

11A-Castitas

In Partial Fulfillment of the First Quarter Requirements for the Subject

21st Century Literature from the Philippines and the World

Submitted to

Ms. Jessica Marie A. Castro

September 7, 2018

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THE TRILOGY OF SAINT LAZARUS III: TELEX MOON
by CERILO F. BAUTISTA

Excerpt from Telex Moon

The Trilogy of Saint Lazarus III

In the beginning God was pain in the void,

a cosmic wound pulsing with brilliant blood

like a poem, like the bullets floating in

my flesh after the smoke, the existent who is non-existent.

To say that of man or of any categoric being,

is only to philosophize, as to

conclude that because the motor guards who run over children in the part are doing

their duty, the levies on machineries

ought to be revoked, is only to beg the point.

The sea crawls as it ought to crawl,

dragging the seaweeds and the sea stones with it.

as it should, but to conclude it retards

the growth of hibiscus and ephemera,

or clog the brains of statesmen on rainy days,

is to debase one’s own persona.

To say

of this City that it is the City

of God favored by the cross-sticks and cross-lights

Aramaic, is to dress violence in pied puppetry.

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The caverns of Cana

and the judges of Jerusalem still count

their coins, tied to the Central Bank and Supreme

Court by telex geography.

To begin is to die, die miserably in the flux

the void supports, not like the phoenix who

blooms from the pieces of his myth, who stacks

his library with antiquarian scripts

that advertise his rise, die in the very

syllable of birth, in the very moment

of birth—“To see or to perish is the one

condition laid upon everything that

makes up the universe”—before the names

acquire citizenship to adorn the beard;

Buddha, Jesus, Zoroaster, Mahomet,

Invisible lights in a visible worlds,

visible worlds in an invisible light,

charging with energy the real world

which is not the real world, beating with sheep’s

staff and epistles the unbelievers,

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die with the lotus in their throat. Turning

and turning in the abstract womb, each petal

an epitaph, they wait for the messenger

with their birth certificates, and waiting thus,

do nothing with their hands. It is so with this

world which we inhabit in the argument

for tin roofs and rice wine, a double world

of that which will come in the name of the

unborn now already festooned with angels

and mangers. It is with this City

which is a finger of this world, whose taxes

would intoxicate a yogi with its

numerals and numismatics, a karmic

flotation, the ledger of the islands.

“The assemblage of pious legacies,

temporalities, and other funds and

property placed in the care of several

administrative committees, for pious

purposes as well a charitable,

constitutes the chief capital employed

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in external trade; and notwithstanding

the failures which from time to time occur,

the subsequent accumulations of

the enormous premiums obtained for funds

laid out in maritime speculations,

both in time of peace and war, not only

suffices to make up all losses of

the above kind, but also to secure

the punctual payment of such charitable

pensions and other charges as are to be

deducted from the respective profits

of this species of stock.” As much of this

abundance the pygmies could bury in jars

they buried in jars, having no ice-chests

or bank accounts, worshipping no idols

that would divide their polemics. But their

poor brothers, who lived in cariocas

and brick houses, shuttled between temples

and money minters, could not balance their book,

still cannot balance their book, comic bungling

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artists in trapeze acts. Cum grano salis,

con espiritu santo, the prophets

who squat on City corners waiting for

the glorious birth wait like marionettes

without strings, but still caterwauling over

the revenue. Prophets without honor

in the City, they denounce the City

amidst the hubbub of old pots and kettles,

foot-powered grindstones, cracking belfry, wooden

clappers and levers, their eyes burning red

in madness, thinking of the impending doom,

shouting, “Light the lamps! Light the lamps!” Chattels

in a cosmic household? Lepers in clean

synagogues? Who knows the vision they have

will save this City? Who will wager against

the rob of their faith? A faith draconic

or chordotonal could erect in one breath

the platform for choragus’s, with spices

and balsam sweetening the oil, sweetening

the soil, for the one dramaturgy.

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 A FORMALIST LITERARY CRITICISM OF CERILO F. BAUTISTA ‘S

“TELEX MOON”

The three parts of the poem structures how God created the world and

civilization from humanity many years ago from Filipino perspective. The poem

began with God forming the land as a platform where life can be sustained, and the

sea the surrounds the land. After life was born, civilization began to rise and

relationships with other countries grew strong. In the poem “Telex Moon”, it talks

about how business and trade was brought upon the Philippines. After each stanza,

the Philippines began to change from international influences.

Just like I mentioned earlier, each part of the poem represents the progress

of the Philippines’ change from international relationships. In the first stanza, God

gave birth to humanity by his own hands, so he won’t feel lonely in the empty void he

resides in. Also, he provided them residence and protection by creating the land and

sea. In the next stanzas, some Filipinos began to adapt to new kinds of culture while

there were others who resisted and wanted to keep things the same. Evidences to

prove this point are the words “marionettes”, “citizenship”, “City” and “double world”.

The narrator, Cerilo Bautista, is the one who’s narrating what’s happening in

the poem itself. However, the poet didn’t mention himself in his work since the poem

he wrote indirectly narrates the history of the Philippines during the Spanish Era to

the reader. In the poem, the major characters in the story are the citizens of the City

and the foreigners who traveled from a distant land. The citizens represent the

Filipinos while the foreigners represent the Spaniards who travelled to the

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Philippines during the early 16th till the late 19th century. Their era began to slowly

influence the Philippines over the next years.

The main setting was the Philippine Islands around the early 16th century.

Since the timeline was set during the Spanish Era, several events occurred in our

country, such as galleon trade being the primary source of income, Christianity being

introduced and adaptation of Spanish Literature. A few of these events were

symbolically defined the modern adaptation of what the Philippines has become

today. Since symbolisms primarily appear in the poem, the use of symbols defines

what’s going on in the proceeding stanzas. The stanzas’ main function was to

represent the foreign influence slowing making an impact to the main setting.

Bibliography:

- Bautista, C. F. (1981). Telex moon: (being the second book in the trilogy of

Saint Lazarus). Retrieved September 3, 2018, from

http://cfbautista.tripod.com/poem8.htm#lex