Gunita (poem)

Like a nameless seaborne storm,
this nameless tale took name and form:
the moments, weeks, and months that groan
under the weight of a life that isn’t their own.

Like the rush before Valentine’s
I charged in, heedless of all the signs
and found, beyond the smiles and laughter,
nothing—no tears, just silence after.

#

Gunita – Tagalog, “memory” or “recollection.” Yeah, the title’s in a different language than the poem. People can do that 😀

(Full description on DeviantArt)

Creative Commons Atrribution-Non-Commercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License

Be careful out there 🙂

-A.O.

Hoping (poem)

Fairy tales we told ourselves
from old books on dusty shelves
glow wisp-like on distant shores:
Come, let’s reach for them once more!

#

(Insert description longer than the actual poem here 😀 )

The substance of things to be hoped for, the evidence of things unseen.

As a body without a spirit is dead, so is faith without deeds.

(full description on DeviantArt)

Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License

Be careful out there 🙂

-A.O.

Unfinished Revolution (poem)

We heard the song faintly on the King of Spain’s road:
the army and the nation, bound by multiplex of code,
marching forward, fast, followed by the unseen hallowed dead,
to the noonday sun, bright and hot and revolution red—
a shrill, discordant harmony, fraying at the seams,
’til stumbling, and faltering, and losing its steam
it died down to embers flinging their gripes
and grudges at the eagle and the stars and stripes.

I heard the song more clearly on the busy avenue,
dusty and dirty and all brand new.
A tale cut into place like an old record’s grooves:
the people, together, again on the move
to a hymn both ancient and never out of style
twinkling and flashing like Our Lady’s smile—
and the song was there, so long ago, an apparition fair,
but when I turned to look for it, it wasn’t anywhere.

#

In the Philippines, the anniversary of the 1986 People Power Revolution (a.k.a. the EDSA Revolution or EDSA 1) is commemorated on 25 February. Those heady, tense days when the people, clutching rosaries, fragrant garlands, and food for the exhausted government troops, held Epifanio de los Santos Avenue (EDSA) and peacefully toppled the dictator Marcos . . . (Full description on DeviantArt)

Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License

Be careful out there! 🙂

-A.O.

Foreign Affairs (poem)

Narrower, narrower grow the bars
of red and blue, while the moment’s stars
and their cohorts counting digits hour by hour
to name and number and measure their powers
just as they’ve done since yesterday
now flicker, and fade, and drift away.

Then I’ll turn off to a dimmer screen
in search of a smile and a friendly scene
here, in my dear, familiar clime,
in another place, in another time,
silent, and dark, and untouched as yet
by my faraway friend whom I’ve never met.

-4:18 a.m. Philippine Standard Time

#

Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License

Description from DeviantArt:

Our relationship with the U.S. began with us sorta getting stabbed in the back. It’s fine now, though. Mostly 😀

Dear U.S.A, God send you well to keep.

-A.O.