Haltingly I undo the knots
around your parcel that came this morning.
A small boox should require little labor,
but you’ve always been thorough,
tying things tight and well.
the twine lengthens,
curls beside the box.
I see your fingers bind and pull,
snapping the knots into place
(once your belt slapped sharply against my skin)
You hoped the package would hold its shape
across 10,000 miles of ocean.
It’s not a bride’s superstition
that leaves the scissors in the drawer.
Unravelling what you’ve done with love
I practice more than patience
a kind of thoroughness
I couldn’t see before.
I shall not let it pass.
My father, this undoing is
what binds us.
how do parents instill in you the lessons in life that they want you to keep? there maybe a lot of ways, some of them we may draw inspiration from, some of them we may hate until we get old but all of them are just ways of letting us know that they care so much about us and how we would grow up to be. this poem speaks so much of how a father kept his distant ways of dealing with his daughter. The poem may reflect a cold relationship between a father and her daughter but it also shows how much a father wants to be a part of his daughter’s life. the physical distance that separates them is yet bound by lessons that the father has taught her.
the image of untying a parcel is very good for it is a good way of showing how strict the father was when she was still young and even up to the day that she is about to start her own family, the father has kept that firmness. And yet there is that lovefor her daughter that is represented by the parcel he had sent over 10,000 miles of ocean.
It is just about the time lost, the distance and the longing of a loving father.
Also, it is about a daughter whose gratitude is shown by how much she valued the lessons about life her father has instilled in her.
June 24th, 2007 at 8:56 am
BREAKING THROUGH is a nice poem, i wonder where the author based the idea of writing the poem… Filipino families can relate in this poem.
June 24th, 2007 at 6:44 pm
I like the poem… being a daddy’s girl, I really could relate to this father-daughter relationship. Though our biological father died when I was only four, though I could barely remember anything about him, I had felt the love he has for me in that short time… Fortunately, God has given us another father who also love us as if we were his own children… we never ran out of a father’s love…
June 24th, 2007 at 7:50 pm
Being the youngest of the family, I admit and I am very proud to be a father’s girl.In fact, I am a spoiled brat to my dad because he gives me everything. I liked what the poem was trying to tell, that no distance can separate the love that they feel for each other. No matter what happens between the two of them, the love and comfort that they feel for each other will never fade away…
June 24th, 2007 at 8:57 pm
I am the only girl and comes as the third child of five.
My father is a pure Waray,known for bravery and strictness.Being the only rose among the thorns really affects my life. My father seldom let me go with my brothers whenever there’s a party or even hangout with friends. Sometimes I really hate him for that.But now that I’m away from home,I missed the thing of having a father.
Like in the poem, there may be a times when there’s a cold relationship between the two of us. But I do understand that he just doing it for the sake of his “only angel”.Thanks to his teachings I became a girl full of dreams and desires.
>The poem makes me remember my papang.
June 24th, 2007 at 9:03 pm
I am the only girl and comes as the third child of five.
My father is a pure Waray,known for bravery and strictness.Being the only rose among the thorns really affects my life. My father seldom let me go with my brothers whenever there’s a party or even hangout with friends. Sometimes I really hate him for that.But now that I’m away from home,I missed the thing of having a father.
Like in the poem, there may be a times when there’s a cold relationship between the two of us. But I do understand that he just doing it for the sake of his “only angel”.Thanks to his teachings I became a girl full of dreams and desires.
>The poem made me remember my papang.
June 26th, 2007 at 1:43 am
I definetely love this poem… Reading it makes me remember my dad… Hope to read more poems like this.
June 29th, 2007 at 4:39 am
i wonder what my future wife will be if we will be living very far from her father, who’ll be sending her gifts. And me, i’ll be remembering the day i read this poem then saying to her that its so good having a good father like hers.
June 29th, 2007 at 11:33 pm
the love of a father is umcomparable, they may not always show it thru their gestures because they are shy since they feel it is a sign of being a soft man. but i know deep in their heart they may not show it they love us more then their lives.
the love connecting to us from our dearest father is always their no matter how thousand miles away he may be.
let’s not feel that when we are scolded or strked by our father they don’t love us, they just want us to change for the better.
let us love our father and obey them because we will never know that their lessons they had told us is very useful someday.
July 1st, 2007 at 3:04 am
Nice poem. While reading this entry, I remembered my father. He died last year but the pain was still on me, especially that I’m so close to my father. He is my hero. he always protect me but now he’s gone, nobody where i could run to. He never hurt us physically. He taught me lessons in life by his own words. no one could ever replaced my father, he was the best father in the whole world and i really missed him so much.
July 1st, 2007 at 6:11 pm
This poem is about a father-daughter relationship. I know that fathers have their own way of disciplining their child or children. I have also experienced this kind of disciplining. This shows that our fathers are only concerned and not want us to be in danger. In the poem, even though her father is distant he never left his responsibility of being a father. He still continued that responsibility until his daughter married.
July 1st, 2007 at 6:47 pm
the poem speaks a truth about a traditional filipino parenting concept which requires the father to be strict. i know its been burden for some of my fellow teenagers having a strict father for they always feel like they are been bound in a four-cornered room. but my question to them is (gladly i can say that my father is not that strict unlike the father in the poem), do you know what they really mean with those kinds of discipline? do you think they want us to be hurt? do you know how painful in their part every time they saw us neglecting the lessons they want us to learn? remember, fathers are also humans, they have feelings, they have already experienced what we are experiencing now, what they want to point out with those disciplines is that, they don’t want us to commit mistakes that we might regret in the future or might hurt us. our father loves us and nothing can surpass the love that a father can give to his children.
July 2nd, 2007 at 10:41 pm
A child might not understand the strictness and the roughness of his or her parents especially his or her dad when he/she is still young. Fathers tend to be tighter when it deals with their daughters.
I have grown up with a strict dad. It came to a point when I became rebelious for more than a year. I didn’t understand the reason of his roughness. I hated him and wished that I had anither father. But then, with one pf the darkest incidents in my life, he was the only one who supported me and understood me. And he was right, I shouldn’t have done it in the first place.
Quantity time is not the variable for a good and lasting father-child relationship. Quality time should be spent with each other because on that span of time, the memories, lessons and morals are etched in the minds of the father and the child.
July 4th, 2007 at 11:23 pm
Many people could really relate to this poem. Different children have different views about their father’s expression of love. I really appreciate the lessons my father has instilled to me. He is just different with the father in the poem because my father is not too strict. But nevertheless, whatever the father’s attitude to his daughter is, for sure, love is still there.
July 10th, 2007 at 3:30 am
I appreciate the message of the poem..maybe because I can relate to it. Sometimes we may see our fathers to be strict to us. Before, I questioned why my father is so strict to us especially with regards to our studies. But now I do realize that all those things he did were just for our own sake. I am very grateful to have a very supportive and caring father. Now that I’m away with my family, he is the one who never forgets to ask about my situation here. He always reminds me to be determined in my studies and that he is always there for me. I also appreciate his trust and his love for me. I know he expects a lot from me especially because I am the eldest. I am proud of him as my father. No matter what, he will always be a father I’ve known from the start.
July 20th, 2007 at 11:01 pm
I appreciate my father more because of this poem. My father may not be that expressive in showing his love for me and for my brother still I know that he loves and cares for us… Even though he has a lot of lapses and even became the source of my heartaches still I can’t erase the fact that he is my father. I know that I coudn’t live my life the way it must be without him.
July 25th, 2007 at 9:16 pm
i love this poem!!..i can relate with the daughter in the poem because my father is so strict also and not expressive in showing his love to us but i am sure that my father is just doing this because he loves us and he wants the best for us. now that i am away with my family, i appreciate my father more after reading this poem for he is so hardworking and patient.he is very supportive in all the things that i want to pursue in my life and he always reminds me that i must study hard for my own sake.i am grateful to have a father like him and for me, he is the best father in the whole wide world!i really miss my father right now.