Our conversation this month of June takes us to the poetry by daughter Kerima Lorena Tariman and mother Merlita Lorena-Tariman. The poems are from their books, Sa Aking Henerasyon: Mga Tula at Saling-Tula by Kerima Lorena Tariman (2022) and Rainbow Chronicles and Other Poems, works in English, Bikol, and Filipino by Merlita Lorena-Tariman (2024), published by Gantala Press, a Filipina feminist small press based in Quezon City.
Kerima Lorena Tariman
From her book, Sa Aking Henerasyon: Mga Tula at Saling-Tula (2022)
HUNYO 12, SA KULUNGAN
I
ang paroo't parito.
ay wala pang limang metro.
maswerte na ri't medyo
malaki ang bintana.
mula rito,
napagmamasdan ko
kung gaano kabilis
tumubo ang sitaw
kapag merong abono.
ang buong maghapon
ay isang kahang sigarilyo.
sa pagitan ng mga buga,
may mga salitang binubuno.
kailangan kong magbasa
kailangan kong magsulat
kailangan kong makinig
sa mga salita, salita,
salitang hindi maubos,
hindi masaid.
II
kailangan kong alisin
ang aking utak
mula sa aking ulo.
kailangan kong hanapin
ang mga salita
at tirisin sila,
parang kuto.
kailan titigil ang mga salita
sa pagsipsip
ng aking dugo?
huwag na sana.
kahit kailan.
hahayaan ko pa nga
na ito'y tumulo, tumulo:
masaganang dugo
masaganang dugo
mula sa aking bungo
mula sa aking bungo.
III
narito ba ako
para matikman ang sitaw?
masarap siguro ito
lalo't kung inadobo.
bukas, nilagang itlog ulit
ang almusal.
kaya nga kailangan,
kailangan kong magbasa
kailangan kong magsulat
kailangan kong makinig
sa mga salita, salita
salitang humihinga
sa loob (at sa labas!)
ng kinakalawang na rehas.
IV
ang paroo't parito
ay walang hanggahan
para sa mga salita,
salita, salitang lumilikha
salita, salita,
salita, salita,
salita, SALITA!
samantala,
tinataktak ko ang maghapon
sa isang lata.
dinurugtungan
ng munting baga
ang aking hininga.
[2000]
Merlita Lorena-Tariman
Here’s her poem June in English, Filipino and Bikol. From her book, Rainbow Chronicles and Other Poems (2024)
JUNE
This is the June
Of lightning's passion,
Season that provokes the thunder
To rip up sheets of sky
And unroll layers of the sea.
This is the June
Of monsoon's invasion,
Season that compels the river,
Slow in its journey,
To make haste,
And roar through forests and fields,
To marry the ocean.
This is the face of June
That the pod remembers
Its glorious past as seed,
The seed that she birthed
To let happen the leaf
With the river's spirit.
In full freedom.
[2021]
HUNYO
Ito ang Hunyo
Ng mapusok na hagkis ng kidlat
Panahong nanunukso sa kulog
Na agad gahakin ang laylayan ng langit
At kapagdaka'y iladlad ang balumbon ng laot.
Ito ang Hunyo
Ng paglusob ng habagat
Panahong nagtutulak sa makupad na ilog
Upang bilisan ang paglalakbay
At kapagdaka'y humangos mula sa gubat at parang
Upang agad nang makasiping ang irog na dagat.
Ito ang anyo ng Hunyo
Sa alaala ng sinapupunan ng buto
Ang maalamat nitong pagiging butil
At ng buhay na isinilang nito
Upang magsupling ng dahong
Nagtataglay ng diwa ng ilog
Buo ang pagiging malaya.
HUNIO
Ini an Hunio
Kan malaad na pisik ning kikilat
Panahon na nagbubusol sa daguldol
Na girision su gayad kan langit
Dangan burukladon su lulon kan okol.
Ini an Hunio
Kan pagsakyada ning habagat
Panahon na minasadol nu bontol na salog
Na maghidali sa saiyang pagbulos
Dali-dalian ang ragusnos sa kadlagan asin uma
Tanganing tolos nang makugos su agom sa lawod.
Ini an imahe kan Hunio
Sa giromdom nu pisog
Su gayon kan pagiging semilya
Sinda na saiyang ipinangidam
Tanganing magsublak ning dahon
Kusog su hinangos ning sapa
Bilog an pagiging talingkas.
The header image features the art by Vianca Domdom, visual artist and founder of Sigya PH, a creative hub and enterprise based in Sorsogon (credit: Gantala Press)
About the featured poets
Kerima Lorena Tariman
Kerima, a Bikolano poet and creative writing scholar, graduated salutatorian from the Philippine High School for the Arts (PHSA) in 1996. Her early works won in university poetry competitions and appeared in national publications such as the Sunday Inquirer Magazine, Manila Chronicle, and Diyaryo Filipino. As a poetry fellow of the UP National Writers Workshop, her stories and poems were included in anthologies of the UP Creative Writing Center. She later served as Managing Editor of the UP Collegian.
At UP Diliman she met fellow writer Ericson Acosta, who would become her husband. The two joined the underground movement in 2000 and later worked among peasant communities in Negros. Kerima was detained in 2000 for alleged illegal possession of firearms, a case dismissed the following year. She was killed in an encounter in Silay City, Negros Occidental on 20 August 2021. Their son was 18 at the time of her death. Ericson was killed in Kabankalan City in 2022. Kerima was the daughter of Pablo A. Tariman, writer and poet, and Merlita Lorena Tariman, a trilingual Bikol-Filipino-English poet, journalist, and NGO advocate from Daraga, Albay.
Merlita Lorena‑Tariman
Merlita, a trilingual poet writing in English, Filipino, and Bikol, has built a distinguished body of work over five decades. Her poems have appeared in major periodicals—including Focus, Sunday Times Magazine, Inquirer Magazine, Woman Today, Filmag, Diyaryo Filipino, and Philippine Free Press—as well as in key anthologies such as Ang Silid na Mahiwaga (1994), Hagkus (2003), and Sagurong (2011).
Her first Bikol‑Filipino collection, Pinatubo At Iba Pang Tula (2014), was published through an NCCA grant, marking her formal entry into the region’s contemporary poetic canon. Her newest book, Rainbow Chronicles and Other Poems (Gantala Press, 2024), showcases her mastery of metaphor and her ability to shape everyday language into luminous, reflective art. As literary critic Doods Santos notes in the foreword, the poems—spanning more than fifty years—capture “the voice of a generation now in its twilight, ever searching for home,” offering a prism through which readers can trace both continuity and change in the life and imagination of a Bikol poet, wife, and mother.