A Tribute of Tributes (For Alex Remollino)

I cannot remember the last time I wrote about someone's death. And I do not want to be nostalgic about others' deaths in this particular post--though it cannot be helped because you were one in their(our? :L ) struggle until your untimely death. There have been other comrades and friends who passed away--people that I personally knew more than I know you.

I had my personal tribute to them in my Coma200 / creative output "February Fair ng Dis Pater"--and as far as I can remember, I did not mention your name, but I mentioned your group: the Kilometre 64 Poetry Collective. I thought of putting the actual Thesis it! speech here, but I opted to compile elegies. Besides the "tribute" during the said event was not planned as it was not written on my original speech draft, I think this entry would be of more worth.

I cannot name some of the people that taught me things I know because of some reasons you are probably familiar with. It is quite fortunate that I can salute you without having to name you another name. Though names are just names anyway; And all I know about you is what you do, and for whom you dedicate what you do. I had the same "dedication," but I cannot do the service you did. At least for now, while I am facing struggles of my own.

I can only vividly remember two of the times I saw you. Once, during the Artists' Arrest's ARREST Gloria Concert in 2005, when you were relatively healthier. And, during Philippine International PEN's "Literature from the Margins" discussion, in 2007 (?), when it seemed like there was something wrong, but I did not bother to inquire. In contrast to other artists and writers of both events, you never had that "air" or "aura" that art practitioners usually had. And that humility has been consistent, from your facebook page to the articles/poems that you write, which never had a diction or tone similar to that of a preacher.

I can only put more substantial and insightful tributes in this post. The ones from those who knew you on another level, and maybe from different perspectives. During your wake, you had tributes, elegies and testimonials from the people's chorale, from the writer Amang Jun Cruz Reyes, from poet / musician Koyang Jess Santiago, from National Artist for Literature Bienvenido Lumbera, from Bishop Elmer Bolocon, from the MILF peace negotiating panel Chair, from playwright / director Bonifacio Ilagan, from actress / director Bibeth Orteza, from poet / peasant advocate Axel Pinpin, from poet Kislap Alitaptap, from KM64's Stum Casia and from BAYAN's Rita Baua and Renato Reyes, Jr.

From your benefit gig, up until now, poems of tribute have been flooding your page. Many poems were written in your honor and in celebration of your life: Pia Montalban's "Kay Alex, at sa librong ang Aspaltong Gubat" and "Padayon, Alex!," Axel Pinpin's "Nagtangka Kami," Sam Po's "kay Alex," Maria Baleriz Liwanag's "sa pagpanaw ng makata," Arturo Garcia's "Pagtatanim ng Tabako," Melissa Roxas's "Elegy for Alexander Martin Remollino," Prof. Dennis Aguinaldo's "Lament for Alexander Martin Remollino," Rogelio Ordonez's translation of Vera Ibner's poem "Limang Araw at Gabi (Sa Kamatayan ni Lenin)" and poems from Sining para sa Bayan. Saluting to your service to the people are Bagong Alyansang Makabayan, Artists and Journalists and Writers, UP Faculty Regent Judy Taguiwalo, Prof. Danilo Arao, Tonyo Cruz, UP CMC Dean Rolando Tolentino, Ina Alleco, Rom Factolerin, Tine Sabillo, your fellow flippers from shelfari.com, Artists' ARREST, the alternative media Bulatlat.com and former Bayan Muna representative Satur Ocampo, in his Philippine Star column "At Ground Level." (Some links to articles or poems that may be broken or inaccessible due to facebook privacy policies may be read in the km64 wordpress and Bulatlat.com. I am certain that there are elegies that I failed to include here. Feel free to let me know.)

And, I can only quote from Kurt Vonnegut's "Coda to My Career as a Writer for Periodicals" that served as the afterword in his collection of uncollected short fiction "Bagombo Snuff Box" saying "(...) practicing an art isn't a way to earn money. It is a way to make one's soul grow. " Your soul grew as I somehow did while observing how you lived and how you struggled. And your life is a contradiction against what W.B. Yeats once said in "Anima Hominis" as it appeared in Walter Allen's "Writers on Writing", that "We make out of the quarrel with others, rhetoric, but of the quarrel with ourselves, poetry." Your life implied that poetry is political and personal, with the verses that you left.

With all these, I guess the best I can do is to end this post by (re)introducing you to people with your poems, insights, and your legacy, as tribute.

Thank you, Ka Alex.

P.S. I have just remembered that besides the ARREST Gloria concert, I have somehow "worked" with you upon submitting (and fortunately, later, having published) an essay and a komix to km64's Ampatuan Massacre ebook, "Duguang Lupa," one of the chapbooks you edited.