Home Going Or Being Away From Home Essay

Poetry has the capacity to function as a catch basin for writers’ product of expression as well as an avenue for a person’s various experiences; as humans have an innate need to explain their lives, to tell their stories and to do so in a creative way. These poems were chosen as they exhibit the theme of the Home as well as Journeys and other things that relate which revolve around those two main words. Covering four parts that include Home, Going or Being away from home, The Journey, and The Return. They do not connect directly but all revolve around any of the four categories.

The home is a sanctuary of love and peace. It is the place where one feels rooted upon. We do not talk of a structure which holds the living room, garage and bedroom;
Being a highly family-oriented country, Family is of utmost importance within our society. Our values, our upbringing and even culture is centered around family. Family is used loosely as it is not uncommon for Filipinos treat every loved one as blood relatives.

In relation to home, it is quite unusual in the Philippines to journey far from home. Being a tight knit Asian family we are prone to have big families with extended relatives living under one roof. We are unlike the westerners who encourage and expect independence of its members upon reaching a certain age. A number of factors page in as one leave, which include the people involved and affected by such movement.

The first poem is Hometown by Luis Cabalquinto. Cabalquinto often writes Diasporic poems as he lives abroad but his poems speak of his home country. This particular poem is an imagery of experience at home. It is set in the late evening with the protagonist lounging after a what seems to have been a long day. It shows how being home can relax a person, bring the person into a state of comfort and
Estonanto, the Poet revisits each long remembered scene as he returns to his hometown. His journey has taken time and he witnesses the effects of it as he passes by his aged friends. “...I dream / Of other scenes and days no more to be; / My spirit rushes with the hurrying stream” (91)

He daydreams of the things he wishes to do or see or experience but he concede to the fact that his time is running out. He feels a little bit of panic at the prospect and the walk through this town seems to serve a reminder. The time he has spent away had continued on without him. There would naturally be some changes when one returns.

The last poem is Return Gelacio Y. Guillermo. This is different from the poem before it because our protagonist wishes not to return. From the very first line “I lack the joy of a returning son.”(437) We see that he is openly reluctant to be returning home. -438)
Guillermo write poems that are conscious interventions in a class society divided by contradicting social and political interests. They are exemplary as works that stand in unison with the great struggle of the Filipino people for social justice, national liberation, and genuine