literature

Word Without End

Cesar Ruiz Aquino

 

East, the horizons and all the learning

Lost. Sick for Siquijor or Avalon

O I could for the sheer sight of her throw

Verses away! Let the Virgins carry

 

Virgule widdershins upon the fairy

Earth, the same that on the world’s first morning

Left her traces, her face an eidolon

Of whiteness for the chilled blood to know

 

Or for one word and one word only go

Void as days all misspent for the starry

Echo of a night come without warning

Like a thousand thieves stealing on and on

 

Love, tongue-tied, is my Tetragrammaton

Opening no door, giving leave to no

Vendaval that, priceless, she might tarry

Even as the sands and there’s no turning

sky wrote me black birds

by: Jose Garcia Villa

sky wrote me blackbirds

 

that were gold (perhaps God

laughing, strolling upside down)

I replied,

                             Impossible

                                             even for

a miracle! Then God

strolling upside down (perhaps

roses skiing)

                             said,

                                             Possible

We (Love and I) saw dwarfs

in Mars, and a marriage

of lemons

                             in the house

of peace…

                                             And forthwith

I believed and with God I

went laughing, arm in arm

strolling upside down.

 

 

Pusang Itim

ni: Rio Alma

Sino ka ba, Pusang Itim?

                Ano’ng pakay? Saan galing?

                Lalang ka ba sa paningin

                O babala ng darating

                At meridang sakdal-lagim?

 

Ikaw nga ba ay alaga ng ‘sang banal na diwata

Upang kami’y maimulat kapag sumpa’y sinisira?

O supling ka ng alamat at ubaning paniwala

Kapag walang maisagot sa kaharap na hiwaga?

Patayin mang makawalo’y siyam pa raw ang hininga,

Itaboy ka’t parang multong bumabalik sa tuwina;

Kambal-waring bolang apoy ang ningas ng iyong mata

Na pagdaka’y nagbubunga ng sang-angaw na pangamba.

 

                Ilang tuwa ang pinaram,

                Ilang tapang ang ginutay?

                Kahit hari’t dugong mahal

                O bayani ng digmaan,

                Sa titig mo’y nalulusaw.

 

                Kapag gabing hininga na’y

                Giyagis pa ng balisa,

                Sa bintana’y bubuglaw ka,

                At ang lihim ko sa iba’y

                Di nalingid sa ‘yong mata.

 

Paglitaw mong luksang-luksa sa landas na tutugpain

Nagbabalik sa gunita ang lagpas na mga ngipin,

Pinggang basag, labintatlo’y paruparong bagwis-dilim,

At dibdib ko’y nagkakarga ng kandila at patalim.

Budhi ka ba o aninong katugma ng aking buhay,

Dili kaya’y mensahero ng taning sa kapalaran?

Ngunit kapag ang misyon mo’y baogin ang aking tadyang,

Pusang Itim, lumayo ka’t sa mithi ko’y isang hadlang.

 

                Kapag ako’y nagsusulat

                H’wag lulundag sa ‘king hapag;

                Ang malisik na paghudyat

                H’wag itakot sa ulirat

                Na may layong magsiwalat. 

The Spouse

by: Luis Dato

Rose in her hand and moist eyes young with weeping,

She stands upon the threshold of her house,

Fragrant with scent that wakens love from sleeping,

She looks far down to where her husband plows.

 

Her hair disheveled in the night of passion,

Her warm limbs humid with the sacred strife,

What may she know what man and woman fashion

Out of the day of ire and sorrow – Life?

 

She holds no joys behind the day’s tomorrow,

She finds no worlds beyond her love’s embrace,

She looks upon the form behind the furrow,

Who is her Mind, her Motion, Time and Space.

 

O sombre mystery of eyes unspeaking,

O dark enigma of life’s love forlorn;

The Sphinx beside the river smiles with seeking

The sacred answer since the world was born.

And What Are Words?

by: Gemino Abad

What keeps us together? – Words.

And what are words? Initials of my soul

 

Transmitted through our inhuman air,

But driving root again in your speech,

 

As finding there hospitable dwelling,

Or ample illusion, since in your voice

 

I am again transformed and again,

Even as in the words I speak

 

I come again upon you and again,

In utricles of the innermost ear,

 

Singing silences, those pauses that 

For itself the imagination requires.

 

That you and I, again identified,

May continue to send rarest signals

 

Across our in human air,

Continue to conjecture in that void,

 

And conjure images of ourselves

To inhabit that inhabitable air,

 

Or images of the world,

Swinging comet-like through fiery speech,

 

Or notions of the sun, once worshipped

When his orbit strayed through the heart,

 

Or ideas of the moon, cold, august,

Lying hid in our youthful loves,

 

Toward that possibility of the imagination,

Casting fictive nest for mind’s heraldry.

Sabi Ko Na Nga Ba!

ni: Inigo Ed. Regalado

Sabi ko na nga ba!

Walang kadiliman na di nagliwanag

                at walang panata

na hindi gumitaw sa bunton ng hirap.

                Ang luha at dusa

kung mapagtiisan ay nagiging lunas

                sa isang pag-asa

na pinaglaruan ng madlang bagabag.

 

                Hindi nagkamali!

Nasabi ko na nga na may kahulugan

                ang sulyap mo’t ngiti.

Nasabi ko na ring iyong lulunasan

                ang aking pighati.

At nasabi ko pang di mo babayaang

                ako’y mamalagi

sa tinitiis kong mga kahirapan.

 

                Talagang ang puso

ay laruan lamang ng lungkot at tuwa.

                Sa gawang pagsuyo

bago magtagumpay, kailanga’y luha.

                Sa pamimintuho

kung wala kang hirap ay walang biyaya.

                Lahat ng siphayo

ay natiis ko na bago ka naawa.

And If The Heart Can Not Love

by: Jose Garcia Villa

And if the hear can not love

death can not cure it nor sleep

no splendor of wound the heart

had no sound.

 

Bloom has escaped it and

birth the miraculous flower

and music and speech leave

it unbewitched

 

God it can not spell nor sun

nor lover the beautiful word

and it has no sound no sound

nor wound