My Poetic Assessment for a Fruitful 2008
January
Birth
Sunflowers blossoming-
smile.
(New Beginning)
February
Scarlet Hearts
Love.
Radical.
Amore.
( Love, Love and more Love)
March
Learning,
Yearning
Learning,
Writing
(Ma'am Jhoan's Subject, Poetry 1 requirements)
April
( Still writing ... Summer Class @ UP Diliman)
May
Home
I was excited
For I will be going home
And for the main reason
that we will be seeing each other again
after a very long summer break
I sorted out some keepsakes,
I thought of giving her
the only ballerina keychain I saw
at a small tiangge at Baguio
(a smiling ballerina given
by one of her melancholy audience)
I was so happy that time,
when I arrived at the airport
I looked for her,
Searching
for nothing
Alone
Decorations everywhere, appliances but
none of which was harmony
I was longing
Like the smiling ballerina I bought
Who’d wish
to make her lonely audience smile
(At least for a while.)
(19th Birthday, Summer Class @ UP Diliman, Baguio Escapade)
June
An Insufficient light
A vanquished endeavor.
(Acad Mode)
July
(Thesis)
August
and squeezing it on your wound-
(a painful countenance)
(War...)
September
Under medication,
working on her verses,
Enduring fragments ,
And unuttered syllables
Unfinished business.
Blank sheets of paper,
Dying pen
A relentless hunger to write a twelve-line poem
Still.
(Pain and War, War and Writing, Writing and Pain)
October
Come and Go
You’re an elusive star
When will I see you again?
Where art thou?
(Semestral Break, Thesis, Longing, Lost)
November
Encountering daily traffic,
Problems and optimism
Just to offer you
the most wonderful gift
You never thought
I was capable of giving--
sealed
with a Kiss
(Gifts, Thoughtfulness, Love and War)
December
It was the summer of May,
my Month,
I thought
I was privileged to win
you wanted a competition,
you played like a God
the master of all things- everything
(as I’ve been telling you)
Two of my knights-
on guard
but
you were such a Genius
a hailed virtuoso
I lost my strongest officials
There were only a few pawns left-
Too gullible to win
I surrendered
like my captured pieces
But I rather gave up
For I knew I was faint enough to fight
in a game I was never accustomed to win.
(War, War, War and Letting Go)
Happy New Year Everyone!