Destiny's Winter

Too precious for these eyes to behold
Too fragile for these hands to hold

Only from a distance can I have you
Only in my thoughts you are for real

When getting close means holding back
When taking chances means letting go

How in every vain attempt I redefine reality
How in another lifetime I could journey
to the stars with you.

Of life and donut holes

You fascinate me
with the same fascination
you have for donut holes

I never really cared
but you insisted ...

The metaphors kept on coming
once, twice ... 'til I lost count

Today, like all other yesterdays
You peered through another

You are telling me something,
yet you speak not with words

You keep trying to see
the world outside, and
life takes on meaning

Now, I understand.

In Oblivion

Cunning were you ways
Endearing were your words

She remained cold and distant
As you tried to cast your spell

Have you drained your efforts?
Have you conquered her soul?

Look at the time you've wasted
Look even farther from here

You will nurse your pain in anger
You will never look back again.

Immortalized

You who patiently weed
out shameless cliche;

You who relentlessly tame
the words that run amok;

You who skillfully polish
the rawness of ideas;

You -- the celebrated poet
whose love affair with the pen
trancends every mortal's
dream of perfection.

Love's Adversary

You claimed that he was
the unchronicled history ...
a figment of the imagination ...

Feign no more
It was only yesterday
when you spoke of love.

Moments

Years of friendship --

of heady conversations
beyond the mundane;

of life stories and
self-defining moments;

of randomly verbalized
sentiments punctuated by

giggles ... sighs ...

A kaleidoscope of
hopes,
plans,
dreams ...

... of Harry Potter
and Peter Pan

and a reality check
of intoxicating
apprehensions ...
uncertainties ...

of simply catching
up with the world,

of being there.

In This Lifetime

Life
makes
me
human.

Faith
is
my
eternal
sunshine.

A Rebirth

Mental dialogues drummed into my head
Creating conniving illusions out of the blue,
patiently sketching a vague portrait of you
Gingerly drawing those sharp angles clean,
neither with overused watercolor tubes
nor with that blunt charcoal pencil
Just these frenzied cerebral hemispheres

Always caught up in poignant excuses
Whether to embrace such jarred reality
or get wrapped in fleeting daydreams
Do I have to wrestle against fate
and plead with the gods of chance?
For what remains are memories of you

I would care less even if the distant horizon
steals the shadows of the night with dreams
Straining these eyes yet pushing the pen
Groping for words, forgetting the rhyme
Only minding this drifting train of thought

Sketches or words? Whichever...I never know
As this sanity tunnels through the depths,
Wrap me with the night's eternal embrace
Let me ponder; let my thoughts co-exist

Watch the daybreak as it harbors unspoken hopes
As it carries away memories of a distant pain
As it whispers promises of a new beginning

If yesterday I woke up missing the sunshine
Today, I vow to embrace its light

This would be more than one fine day.

Surreal

You may be
the Aurora Borealis
Majestic
Glowing

I may be
the deserted ravine
Barren
Unyielding

Yet we are
nothing but
unbridled
mortals

in
timeless
wandering.

Beyond Wakefulness

You
appealed
to these
cloistered senses

Twilight and
brewed coffee
left me battling
a gnawing insomnia

Your fading presence
made me forget
the wisdom
of sages

Immense void
only remained
between
us.

In Nature's Symphony

Like an oil painter's dream
A cryptic mastery of endless arcs
At every scale that saturates my mind
I long to conquer this wilderness.

Twisting threads in a rich carpet
Of yellows, browns, and greens
Luxuriant in the warmth
that touches these feet.

I lay my canvass in nature's glory
With a tireless, unifying purpose
Bridging the gaps, defying the odds
Living a dream for another tomorrow.

An Endless Renewal

Lingered in this quiet isolation
The noise mystifies to crescendo
As it continues to subdue the silence
A sense of belonging escapes me.

With every hustle and bustle
I scan through their harried faces
And amidst the age-old drudgery
I find myself in deep recollection.

Seconds, minutes and hours freeze
In a rustic, forgotten time capsule
How can I stop to gather thoughts
when time tirelessly hovers to flight?

How can I create mental dialogues
with inescapable nuisance of voices?
How can I rightfully dream in color
when there are shades of gray?

How can I begin to string a few lines
if I could only scribble silly inkblots?
Even in my most unguarded space
A fragment tries to renew itself.

A Sojourn to Serenity

In the stillness of silence when not even
the gentlest whispers are heard ...
that solitude when thoughts
create the best melodies ...
It shall have its place even amidst
the blaring noises and the glaring lights ...
in every nook and cranny
A matter of searching, of knowing to get by
it shall be in the dying embers that
keep its light,
in the stars that silently unfold
their magic ...
Every reason to look back and linger,
unperturbed with the trappings of life
... just to breathe free every minute
That serenity from within ...
a moment to take hold and cherish
with every dream shall take flight
with every tomorrow, a new day ...

My Little Angel

In memory of my brother Jose

I shall paint a picture of you in my mind
With those wings you shall flutter,
with that halo you shall shine.
Stand by me, my little angel
Watch over me 'til the night falls
Funny though we have never met,
still you're a heartbeat away.
You're my little angel,
my playful angel
I shall build sandcastles for you,
sandcastles so beautiful and strong
Not even the fiercest waves can topple,
for it shall be yours forever.
I shall call out to you, my little angel
Reach out to me and hear
With love, I shall hold you near
... forever

A Release

The rain pours hard drowning the silence
as lightning sweeps the pitch black sky

Here I sit all alone at one corner
waiting for the daybreak to come

Oblivious … unperturbed …
I close my eyes as my mind wanders off

Time stands still for what seemed eternity
Thoughts race as if light years are split second

I flow …. I drift …

This mind, I set free.

Ambivalence

You caught me unaware like a thief
stealing through the night
Gazing forth as if your shadows were
meant to be shrouded
I knew not of ways to unravel
your enigmatic existence
That which unconsciously insinuates
the very depths of my being
Fancy me as if the day ceases
to succumb to twilight
As my fingers unconsciously tap
away, unshaken by discord
In this virtual world where I choose
to remain a cynical soul
You redefined the ennui of this respite
yet left me with a querulous gaze
across the skies.

Perplexed

Your voice trailed off breaking
the deafening silence
For once I stopped quantifying
decibels in my head
I took hold of the newspaper
lying still on your table
Turning the pages, trying to absorb,
hoping for deliverance
What futile attempt to ease
such paralyzing gravitation!
I wearily dragged my feet out
of the lair that was yours
Gasping for air with held for a minute
that seemed like eternity
I stood there transfixed, stupefied
I was lost in space again.

Estranghero

Madalas ikinukwento mo ang Disneyland o di kaya’y snow sa Amerika
Sabi nila malaki na ang pinagbago mo ngunit di ako naniwala

Ngayon, nandito ka na sa Pilipinas, sa pinanggalingan mo
Kay tagal ka naming hinintay, ilang taon na ang lumipas

Nakahain na ang paborito mong kare-kare at inihaw na bangus
Kinaumagahan na tila nandyan pa rin sa hapag kainan

Hindi ko lubos maintindihan
Nagbago ka na nga.

No Ordinary Day

You walked past her a couple of times
That little girl on tattered clothes
with smudges on her face
So young yet so frail and ashen

Today, you came up to her,
dug a few coins from your pocket
as they heavily fell on her shriveled hands
Her face lit up as you smile and go your way.

Deliverance

Blind alleys, gaping holes, cobweb dreams
Aimless motion in incessant crescendo
Freezing time with ironies of a preternatural world
Left with a gnawing torment seeping through the veins
Seething like tumultuous pulses of adrenaline rush
Notwithstanding every echoing silence of emptiness
And a stark reality that never ceases to wax and wane
Slowly subdue the forces and savor the bliss.