Manila Madness

i.

the dirt, the dust

the diesel in the air

the dodging crowds

the gaudy jeepneys;

the daring clashes

the space claiming

the street crossings

the suspension of fears;

the dance of wants and musts

the "have to's of dogs and men

of poor and upper class:

this is Manila Madness

its struggle to be

its laughter and pain

of being without 

and getting by

in the zany liveliness.

ii.

i wonder about 

the happiness we wear:

our vulgar wants

our slow suicides

our premature deaths

our money madness

our lives being scrubbed

antiseptically clean! 

*As the stories of our lives unfold, conflict is inevitable and even essential in the attempt to achieve balance. Countless plots are possible.  We move from narrative to poetry, from farce to tragedy, where according to Aristotle, there must be a purging if one is to be purified and prepared to accept the hero's fate.  We move from equanimity to despair in search of an elusive wholeness, knowing it is not possible to chart one's own course with assurance.  As obstacles confront us, we are called on to find our way.

-Editors(Parabola)

*The bridging action of healing appears to be not an isolated act but an ongoing process.  Another way of envisioning this process is as call and response: the Divine, the ultimate expression of wholeness, emits a call or a pull towards itself.  The sufferer, the one who is ill  or incomplete, yearns to respond to that call.  We are all such sufferers, and we are all heroes when we admit that we are incomplete and at the same time accept the pain of being drawn out, through healing, toward the Divine.  We see that healing is not passive; on the contrary, it demands the most active participation and a willingness to suffer.

-Editors(Parabola)