DO NOT GO GENTLE INTO THAT WPS AND OTHER POEMS

Abstract

My very first regular reading material was Mad Magazine, the foremost satirical publication in the United States. Known for biting commentary about everything, nothing escaped its ridicule, even its own staff. A regular feature in Mad would be song and poem parodies. I admired how the new lyrics could still fit the meter of the original material. So, I started making my own parodies. Up until today, my predilection for parody has never waned. That is why whenever I would write a collection of poems, a piece or two would be parodies.

I see poems as commentaries about life and making parodies of poems is like having two commentaries in one, commentary about life and commentary about the poem itself. “Do not go gentle into that WPS” was made to criticize government inaction regarding the West Philippine Sea. Knowing how each fishing trip for our fishermen is like courting death, made me decide to use Dylan Thomas’ “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night” as the frame for my piece. Juxtaposing defiance against death and what our fishermen were doing everyday was my intention. I wanted to pay tribute to our brethren who cast their nets every day and also rebuke the government that was supposed to protect them but ends up bending over for Beijing.