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This document analyzes two poems by Melchor Cichon: "Sunday Morning in Lezo" and "Limog It Sangka Ati". "Sunday Morning in Lezo" describes the typical Sunday routines in Cichon's hometown of Lezo, Aklan, with mothers attending church while fathers gamble at cockfights. "Limog It Sangka Ati" addresses discrimination faced by the Ati people and how their way of life changed after outsiders took control of their land. The analysis discusses how Cichon uses his poetry for social commentary and to raise awareness of issues in his community.

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2K views3 pages

SHDHFSDH

This document analyzes two poems by Melchor Cichon: "Sunday Morning in Lezo" and "Limog It Sangka Ati". "Sunday Morning in Lezo" describes the typical Sunday routines in Cichon's hometown of Lezo, Aklan, with mothers attending church while fathers gamble at cockfights. "Limog It Sangka Ati" addresses discrimination faced by the Ati people and how their way of life changed after outsiders took control of their land. The analysis discusses how Cichon uses his poetry for social commentary and to raise awareness of issues in his community.

Uploaded by

reginohibaler
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Andrea Faye A.

Ingeniero Lit 153 (Literature in the Regional Languages)

October 10, 2013

Sunday Morning in Lezo and Limog It Sangka Ati: An Analysis of the poems of Melchor Cichon

Melchor F. Cichon is a poet and librarian at the Great Saviour College Library in Iloilo City after he retired from College of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences Library, U.P. in the Visayas. He is a native of Sta. Cruz, Lezo, Aklan and educated at the University of the Philippines where he obtained his Certificate in Fisheries, Certificate in Governmental Management, Master in Management, and Master in Library Science. Some of his works are Ham-at Madueom Ro Gabii (Bakit Madilim ang Gabi?), Philippine Oddities (on CD), Love Can Find a Way and Other Proverbs on Love, and Sobriquets. He is also a recipient of Gawad Pambansang Alagad ni Balagtas and of the 2006 Fray Luis de Leon Creative Writing Institue (FLDCWI), Coordinating Center for Research and Publications of the University of San Agustin. Among Cichon poetry, Ive chosen Sunday Morning in Lezo and Limog It Sangka Ati to analyze. Sunday Morning in Lezo talks about the usual morning in Lezo (Cichons hometown) wherein mothers and their daughters go to church with just tahu or coffee in their tummy. While on the other hand the fathers would be too busy blowing their tobaccos while exercising and conditioning their fighting cocks that they would forget to fetch water or chap fire woods. They believe that their wage for a week would double up if they will be fortunate enough to win the cock fight. In Lezo, there was this cockpit before wherein a lot of sabungeros would go, expecting to win and acquire a huge amount of money from the cock fight. I used to see a lot of people there

when I was a child and I would ask my father what's with the large crowd and a lot of vehicles and cars parked outside the arena. Every Sunday you would actually see the bulk of people inside the cockpit arena. We can observe that the focus of this poem is basically the ordinary life of certain people and how they spend each they of their lives. With this poem, Mel Cichon somehow gives us a picture on how a simple family lives. Of course it is expected for the women to be in the church during Sundays. But as for the fathers, they usually stay in the house or go outside to work. For a low-earning family, going to cockpit arenas to gamble during cock fights is maybe one thing that they believe to earn bigger amount of money. But its kind of ironic that they would spend their money on gambling rather than look for a more productive thing to do like planting crops or set up a business. This poem somehow shows a social commentary on the lifestyle of Aklanon people specifically in Lezo where the poem was set. Cock fights are very precious to some people and they would spend a lot of money for it. Responsibilities of the fathers are in a way being neglected because of this obsession. Maybe the purpose of Cichon in writing this poem is to tell its readers that not all luck can be found inside the cockpit. There are other ways to do if what we just want is to make money. Money is not limited inside the cockpit, and we should not think that there are lot of possibilities outside. Another poem of Melchor Cichon which is entitled Limog It Sangka Ati talks about the sentiments of the Ati which are the indigenous people who inhabits the mountain areas of Panay and Negros and are also called Negrito, Ituman, and Negros. The poem talks about the life of the Ati people before the invasion of the whites or outlanders who took control over their place. Life

of the Ati people has changed after the intruders came to their place. The intruders forbade the Ati's to do what they used to do before. They were denied of their rights to their own land and they could no longer do kaingin and other things which they are used to do. Aside from being outcast to their on homeland, the Ati's are also victims of discrimination in the society. Because of their oily dark chocolate-brown to almost black skin complexion and kinky hair, they are often the subject of discrimination. They are also of low-regard in the society because most of them are illiterate. It's ironic because there are people who speaks about laws and justice but then again they couldn't give it to the Ati people. The speak of equality, convenience etc and yet until now Ati people are being treated the same. Melchor Cichon's poem Limog It Sangka Ati is a satire which gives its readers a message regarding the discrimination among Ati's. With the rampant issues regarding these matters, Cichon tried to reflect these social issues in his works. Cichon's work is basically shaped by the everyday life and social issues in his community. Based on the other works of Cichon, his main goal is to raise awareness among people of the different social issues present in the society. Through his literary works, he was able to address some of the issues which are left unsaid.

References:

Aklanon Literature Archive: Poems by Melchor F. Cichon


(http://aklanonlitarchive.blogspot.com/2007/04/poems-by-melchor-f-cichon.html)

Dawn To Dawn: A collection of Melchor F. Cichon's short poems: Haiku, Luwa,


Cinquain, Tanka, and Bakod (http://anahawleaf.blogspot.com/)

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