ART OF POTTERY MAKING
Melvin Banggollay
Out of clay pounded into wet mud
With great passion and artistry
born an ethnic craft of ingenuity
portraying great creative ability
Of people who can mold the mud
Into various fine products with quality
like pots, jars and bricks industry
decorative items and other utility
That can be made out of mud.
With some processing of the clay
with the aid of a water theraphy
after pounding them so patiently
to make them so fine and dusty
with a mortar and pestle's fury,
Gentle hands of great artisty
then now mold them with creativity
into fine products of pottery
or any stuff out of clay with utiliy
then dried them with air's serenity
before letting them kiss sun's beauty.
After that, they burn them with fire
with grasses and million rice hulls
that by their flames of great desire
heated them with all devouring fire
to harden them so hard enough
to make them really strong stuff.
Written during my visit to a pottery center
at Iguig, Cagayan Province
This poem has not been translated into any other language yet.
I would like to translate this poem