Untying the Knot

My Poetic Assessment for a Fruitful 2008

January
Birth

A blissful hope,
Sunflowers blossoming-
smile.
(New Beginning)

February
Scarlet Hearts

Love.
A more radical love.
Love.
Radical.
Amore.
( Love, Love and more Love)

March
Reversible

Writing,
Learning,
Yearning
Yearning,
Learning,
Writing
(Ma'am Jhoan's Subject, Poetry 1 requirements)

April
Enduring the pain…
( Still writing ... Summer Class @ UP Diliman)

May
Home

I told her to fetch me at the airport,
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

The night before I left Manila
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)

It was a total euphoria-
I was so happy that time,
when I arrived at the airport
I looked for her,
Searching
for nothing
She’s always like that
Absent-
But still, I went home-
Alone

“The same Old house,” I told myself
Decorations everywhere, appliances but
none of which was harmony
for Solitude was a perfect company.

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
Dusk

It was dusk-
An Insufficient light
A vanquished endeavor.
(Acad Mode)

July
Persistent enough to Write.
(Thesis)


August
Peridot Blues

It was like getting a lemon
and squeezing it on your wound-
(a painful countenance)
(War...)

September
Sick

still
Under medication,
working on her verses,
Enduring fragments ,
And unuttered syllables
Still
Unfinished business.
Blank sheets of paper,
Dying pen
A relentless hunger to write a twelve-line poem
Ending the only couplet with the word
Still.
(Pain and War, War and Writing, Writing and Pain)

October
Shooting Star

Come and Go
Come and Go
Far away and distant,
You’re an elusive star
Vanishing before my wistful eyes
When will I see you again?
Will you ever come back?
Where art thou?
Where art thou?
(Semestral Break, Thesis, Longing, Lost)

November
Present

Working like a busy ant-
Encountering daily traffic,
Problems and optimism
Just to offer you
the most wonderful gift
You never thought
I was capable of giving--
My basted verses
sealed
with a Kiss
(Gifts, Thoughtfulness, Love and War)

December
Chess

I scheduled the game,
It was the summer of May,
my Month,

I thought
I was privileged to win
(You always want the best for me)
You were very unlikely that time
you wanted a competition,
you played like a God
the master of all things- everything
(as I’ve been telling you)

I breathed to open a Sicilian move
Two of my knights-
on guard
but
you were such a Genius
a hailed virtuoso
you were too clever-

I lost my strongest officials
There were only a few pawns left-
Too gullible to win
I was losing that time

I surrendered
like my captured pieces

I knew I was capable to fight
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!