Kagay-anon poet

A. Paulita Roa

DO you know that Toribio Chaves, first elected mayor or municipal presidente of Cagayan de Misamis in 1898 was a poet? That was how the Kagay-anons held their poets in high esteem for they never made any distinction between one who is an artist to one who governs. Through the years, there were many Kagay-anon men and women who composed poems in Bisayan called balaks. During the American colonial era, Filipinos were taught English. And even if the language was new to them, it did not stop many local poets to write beautiful and lyrical poems in English.

Time flies my dears,

And shoots like a meteor in the sky.

In its wake

The evanescent glare…

And then the darkness.

The soul records it

As a flaming picture in one’s memorie

And around it

The golden aura of love

In life’s distresses.

The rose and the jasmine

Both bloomed and withered,

But the breeze that touched them

Ere they fell

Has watted their fragrance far and wide

And the beauty of their essence

Still clings to the air.

The two untitled poems above are composed by Manuel Roa y Chaves. He was born in 1889 in Cagayan de Misamis. His father, Pedro Roa y Racines was an elected official of the Popular Assembly in Cagayan de Misamis, under the Aguinaldo revolutionary government. His mother, Luciana Chaves, belonged to a prominent clan in Cagayan. After finishing his secondary studies, he and his younger brother, Emeterio, became pensionados or scholars of the American colonial government. Both studied at the University of Michigan where they were majored in Mathematics. Emeterio is the first actuary in the Philippines and all of Asia. He is considered the Father of the Social Security System in our country for he was the one who prepared all the tables of conversion for the premiums for all members of SSS. Their younger brother, Antonio is the father of Pedro. the Kagay-anon legendary politician and philanthropist who is popularly known to this day simply as Oloy Roa.

The poem, “Christmas Carol” was composed by Manuel Roa while he was in college. It was among the many poems that were submitted for a critique to the then poet-inesidence of the University of Michigan, Robert Frost. It is said that he liked Roa’s poem and considered it the best. Below are excerpts from the poem, “Christmas Carol.”

My fondest hope is that the joys

That the Christmas season brings,

Will remain in your memory

Like a haunting melody,

And the silent echo of the silent songs

Sung during the holiday,

Will be yours to hold and to cherish

From Christmas to Christmas without end.

Manuel Ch. Roa was the head of the Mathematics Department of the University of the Philippines-Los Banos. Aside from composing poems, he was an accomplished pianist and organist. Even though he was a Protestant, he often played at the Los Banos Catholic Church when there was no organist around. He died in 1940 at the age of 51 and was buried in the Catholic cemetery of Los Banos at the request of the parish priest. He was survived by his wife, the former Francisca Avancena and 10 children. He was to my mind, a very accomplished individual for it is quite rare even to this day, for one to be a poet, a pianist and an organist and a mathematician. A blessed person indeed!