![[Marble Green Line]](http://www.chebucto.ns.ca/Heritage/FSCNS/Scots_NS/Photos/grmarble.gif)
A tribute to Fe Leonor, the Poet:
(Rudy Alforque / N.Y., USA)
"when a person with a gift of poetry
finds this world of ours a friendly place to be,
she writes words with carefree generosity,
and gladly gives herself to the world for free!
my! isn't she the star we simply call Fe?"
------------------------------------------------
Fe Leonor's Poems
My Valentine in Cyberspace
Come what may, rain or shine,
He will be my Valentine.
Happy, happy day divine.
When he takes me out to dine,
He will give me roses nine
To show he is my Valentine.
Look how moon and stars combine
To compose our lucky sign:
I am his and he is mine.
All the satellites incline
In Cyberspace to underline
That I have my Valentine.
Internet friends, come fall in line,
For a kiss of Valentine.
Happy, happy Valentine.
(Fe Leonor)
------------------------
MY ANGEL
Take my hand.
Hold it tight.
Walk me through the awsome night.
Lead me, my Angel
past temptation,
past trial and tribulation
To the eternal light.
(Fe Leonor)
------------------------
(another version)
TO MY ANGEL
Take my hand and
hold it tight.
Together we walk
not to the path of salvation
but to where you've waited for me
to heal me of all my aches and tribulation.
(Fe Leonor)
------------------------
MY DEAREST WISHES
I'd love to hold your hands
but you are nowhere near.
I'd love to kiss your lips
but pictured lips are cold, dear.
I'd love to look into your eyes
but all I see is distant stars.
I'd love to feel your embraces
and yield my nights to your caresses.
I'd have you from my nectar sip
that lulls you into dulcet sleep.
And after the Charriot comes for me,
I'd love you through Eternity.
But cruel Distance and the Hand
that reigns stand unmoved
between you and me
and keep my dearest wishes
from turning reality.
(Fe Leonor)
----------------------------
HOPE
From the rays of the sun
that push sleepy darkness --
From tiny buds eager to bloom
into lovely flowers --
From the radiant smiles of
newly-wedded couples --
From the first cries
of newly-born babies --
From the lives of simple people
full of sufferings --
From the wisdom and experience
that wise men possess --
From the priests, ministers, rabbis and imams
in their divine teachings --
From the beauty of mankind
that shows God's reasuring words --
.... there is always HOPE.
(Fe Leonor)
------------------------------
RURAL COMMUNION
What can be more beautiful than --
the flooding of all creation
by the early morning sun.
the birds chirping on a tree
establishing who their leader would be.
the flower buds that try to open
less their beauty is to be forgotten.
the bees that hover around
among flowers that abound.
the ducks that quack
and the hens that cluck.
the little children running
and falling but not crying.
the farmers tending to their fields
as wives busy with their morning dish.
(Fe Leonor)
------------------------------------
SHADES OF FEAR
A tiny bettle out to crawl
the cricket scares him back to his hole.
A moth out flying, trapped
in a spider's web, struggling.
A fledgling bird about to fly
feels the nest is much too high.
A little seed is lodged below
a heavy stone so it can not grow.
(Fe Leonor)
----------------------------------
To catch my fancy
you'll have to be
a man with a heart
as large as the sea;
a Solomon for wisdom,
a Shakespeare for rhyme;
a Mozart for song,
an Apollo divine;
adventurer hero
of Ulysses's mold,
Cyrano for humor
and Midas for gold.
If you should qualify
you'd understand why I
set these provisos.
would burst with jealousy
if they saw you and me
met in love's harmony.
(Fe Leonor)
-------------------------
Winter to pave
my paths with snow
Spring to set blossoms
on the hedge in a row.
Summer to meet me
down by the sea
Autumn to paint
the woods crimson for me
Thus the years pass
in single file,
While I sometimes weep
but more often smile.
(Fe Leonore)
--------------------------
TO YOU MY BELOVED
To catch my fancy
you need not be
a Solomon for wisdom
a Shakespeare for poetry;
no Mozart for music,
no Apollo for beauty;
no adventurer hero
of Ulysses's mold;
no Cyrac for humor,
no Midas for gold.
All I want is love,
a love as true as mine
to delight and sustain me
to the end of my time.
And when I am gone,
I will ask the stars
to light your way;
command Spring and Summer
to give you joy;
I'll ask painter Autumn
to color your days
and beg cruel Winter
to curb his mean ways.
When the angel at last
comes to knock on your door,
fear not, beloved,
I'll be waiting for you
with arms unfolded.
In love reunited
together we'll walk
amid cherub and seraph,
to the Place bathed in light
where true bridals are made.
(Fe Leonor)
--------------------------
Here dawns another day
with you miles away.
You'll be with me again
I can take it all
with a grin.
But
if I knew that
Whatever the reason
There'd never be
you again,
The rest of my season
would be all pain.
(Fe Leonor)
--------------------------
Nova Scotia Backwoods .....
where the deer still have their native haunts
and men their adopted dwelling places
side by side;
where the smell of hay lulls you to sleep;
where the coyote's howls arrest
your day-weary thoughts
on the threshold of dreams
till at last sleep silences all;
where the birds are for faithful alarm clocks;
where the grass is still watered by clouds,
still cut to appease the hunger
of grass-eating creatures instead of
the we-have-the-finest-looking lawn
vanity of city tycoons;
where gas-blooded, piston-pulsed
modern contraptions intrude only sometimes;
where I am going to visit and camp
at least one more year of my life
kitty-corner to the world...
(Fe Leonor)
----------------------------
LEISURE
The other night I lay
drowsy in the sand by the ocean,
at my feet the languid murmur
of wave upon wave
lapping with playful tongues
the patient shore.
Softly, gently the wined
whispered haunting tidings.
(Fe Leonor)
----------------------------
Hark, the wind begins to whisper
Through the forest haunting tidings.
Startled listen summer-weary
Myriads of living creatures
To the silver-tongued enchanter,
Herald of approaching autumn.
Hark, he talks of merri-making,
celebrating harvest taking...
(Fe Leonor)
-----------------------------
the other day
we lay
drowsy
in the sand by the sea
noisily wave upon wave
shouldered its way
up the warm beach
softly the wind
whispered
words of love
(Fe Leonor)
------------------------
I walked through the forest
yesterday after dinner
thinking nothing, nothing,
forgetfully looking
at leafless skeletons
of trees stretching
their cold limbs.
Now one of them
sleepily groaned
in his dream;
now another
dropped onto a stubborn
not-wanting-to-melt
patch of snow
a dead limb
which the frost
had held till then.
Then I came upon a fallen
giant tree felled by winter storms,
brushed aside the drying needles,
sat me down to rest a while.
Sitting I remembered days when
all this forest was a-stirring:
here the chirping of a squirrel,
there a raven hoarsely croaking;
birds atwitter, insects buzzing,
does with clumsy young ones fussing;
and the wind, unwearied whispering
haunting tales to sleeping leaves.
(Fe Leonor)
------------------
MESSAGE
Go fair flowers
to my dearest
ask him coyly
if he'd like to
go with me awalkin'.
When? Tomorrow.
Or thereafter.
Any time is
ever better
than no time at all.
Tell him too that
forests offer
invitations
for true moonlight
lovers' trysts.
Go fair flowers
Beauty's minions,
listen to what
my dearest one
has to say.
Whisper it to
dusk-robed Evening
who will drop it
in my dreams.
(Fe Leonor)
------------------
Though all the world in slumber lies
one woman cannot close her eyes
till she has writ this little note
to tell her love he's not forgot
He's not forgot by her and she
will dial - - - - - -
soon, hoping he will say
your call has made my day.
(Fe Leonor)
------------------------
Twice did I send the wind
to you with greetings fair;
twice he returned quick-wing'd
to tell me you weren't there.
Twice the doubly redoubling dawn
soul-mate of the willow
swept up to my bed to drop
a note upon my pillow.
(Fe Leonor)
------------------------
When night creeps softly
from under the willows
I hear the rush of
river water.
Rapid river, brimming over
with the flood of life's enchantments,
for one moment halt your rushing
let me snatch one little wave.
(Fe Leonor)
------------------------
The WIND AND I.
Thus we bantered back and forth,
Till I felt my temper stirring.
In a fit of honest wrath,
"Wind," I blurted, "you're abhorring.
Though you know as well as I
That my dearsey love won't belie
What he promised me this morning,
You sow doubt with unfair warning.
Wind, so full of sour grapes,
Go to hell or to the States.
(Fe Leonor)
------------------------
YOU MISSED ME?
You missed me, you say
on the phone and in your letters.
Hadn't you better clarify
so that I
be cured of this tension
resulting from misapprehension?
Might you have missed me
as one misses a train?
No, for such missing
does not cause pain.
Or did you miss me as arrows
tend to miss bull's eyes?
No, for such missing
does not cause the sighs
you heave in your letters.
You had better
be reasonable,
give me a feasible
explanation,
not an oration.
You missed me, you say
as your little bay
misses her oats,
as boats
miss the waves,
or as Indian Braves
miss Brandy
and cotton candy.
(Fe Leonor)
----------------------------
In Case of Visitation by Ghosts.
Some there, the men astute,
who deem it witty to refute
in full-toned dull unanimity
of ghosts the sure ubiquity.
Vile infidels that will decry
Les revenants though history
In every corner richly boast
Beside some spirits several ghosts.
Let their vociferous host
beware, lest some true ghost
exact for their dumb arrogance
a swift and dreadful penitence.
Woe to those who underrate
of ghosts the power or the hate
they bear to pert inconoclasts.
Beware, heretics, ghosts strike fast.
If e'er the ghostly legions --
that spook, there is no doubt,
in land and water all about,
nay haunt all habitable regions --
should come to visit you,
there's nothing you can do
but grab the nearest phone
and dial - - - - - - -....
(Fe Leonor)
----------------------------
TIPSY
Time sits rocking
on the golden mirror
of his ten-and seventh beer.
Nimble shadows, baseless visions
softly come and disappear.
The sharp edges of being
have softened. Thoughts
that were thin and brittle
a few moments ago
have expanded into
mighty phantoms.
A whisper of heart
That lips cannot mold
rises above
the mist of noise
and tiptoes away
to the boundless void
whence it came.
Don't throw glasses at him.
He is sitting before
a pink looking glass
while eternities pass.
(Fe Leonor)
-----------------------
Yarmouth Ferry,
forty-five minutes to wait.
A grey evening descending
on a grey lake.
In the car ahead
a boy and girl
oblivious of
the approaching evening.
All is silent,
only sometimes
a sudden gust
of angry wind blunders
into my dreams.
(Fe Leonor)
-------------------------
One little gin-and-tonic,
and his rhyming grew
fearfully disharmonic ---
" 'tis true, my love, 'tis true.
Roses aren't red my love,
violets aren't blue:
why, they are dead, my love,
each one but you.
Each one but you my love,
died in the fall;
inhuman winter, my love,
murdered them all.
And now they sleep, my love,
under the pall
of silent snow, my love,
till spring them recall.
Unlike the flowers, my love,
always are you --
summer or winter, my love,
sweet, red and blue."
(Fe Leonor)
----------------------
Santiago de Compostela,
distant, solitary
Santiago.
Beyond the mountains
far away,
beneath an amber moon,
a lonely traveler, I,
slowly onward roam.
Well I know the way
through rain and driving wind
yet every break of day
finds further me behind.
Deep night and yellow moon,
Sudden wind or song of rain,
where the distant mountains loom
I stumble on in vain.
Santiago, distant,
solitary Santiago.
(Fe Leonor)
-------------------------
(IF's version)
Santiago de Compostela
distant mountain,
where my roots sprang,
quench my thirst
so I would kneel
to where moss and green,
nourished by vibrant breeze,
kiss.
but I hear the dove's call
and the roar of the ocean
and the sigh of palm tress
how happy I am now,
homeward bound
to a distant island
of my dreams.
-----------------------
In a dream I dreamt
the other night
I stumbled, lonely and alone
through a sunless valley
where at the height of noon
the air was mixed, in truth,
with no more light
than lingers upon earth
when that our wandering sun
has sunken out of sight
into the sea of night.
The trees I walked among,
indeed the high-piled mountains
that towered o'er the valley's sides
seemed shadows without substance.
Thus I wandered long and lonely
thirsting for a ray of light
when, lo, the foggy mountains parted
to reveal a wondrous sight --
a pair of walls of misty air,
a sun-lit passage in between,
leading to a purple throne.
Over it a dome of flowers
bathed in incandescent showers
of sunlight, moon beams, twinkling stars.
In the center, on a throne,
sate my dearest love, all alone.
And I looked, and looking knew
why the valley lay in darkness.
Heaven's trusty luminaries --
sun and moon and stars and starlets --
to this pleasant bower had hurried
to render my dearest love what was due.
Having seen him, swift I flew,
as on wings to where he sate.
Alack-alas that I did wake
ere I reached the rendez-vous!
(Fe Leonor)
-------------------------------
You and I
with no more than
a little sun
to keep us warm
till evening.
Birds flying for food
turn suddenly snow.
Even so words
and you and I.
The splendor of
a little light
and then the long long night.
While day yet lingers
be this our meaning:
to love each other.
Already the sun
begins to redden.
In no time at all
It will be evening.
(Fe Leonor)
-----------------------
I travelled many miles, by sea and land
at last I found my one and only love
now smiles my happy heart.
He is like the waves that hug the shore.
Could I resist his tide,
I were not made of blood
or had no beating heart.
Mightier than a sail, than stars more bright,
before him lions quake, him that's my life's delight.
So says my heart.
Till suns shall set at noon,
till yonder hill
shall reach the moon, he will
be in my heart.
(Fe Leonor)
------------------------
The sky wears
in its belt of clouds
a crooked moon...
the sea is dancing
shore-to-shore
to the wind's tune....
In my heart
the surf roars
thund'ring your name... perhaps
my heart is the world
beating only for you
by your song
it knew you
Fe Leonor)
-------------------------
WISH YOU WERE HERE.
When the birds begin to sing
long before the break of dawn
I think of you;
when the sky begins to glow
in sunset fires
I miss you.
In the distant dust cloud rising
behind the camels trotting east
I look for you;
in the lonely hawk that hovers
high in the hot and silent air
I see you.
The sudden rolls of summer thunder
threatening darkly overhead
echo your name;
when night has veiled in silence
our little orb, the earth
I hear your voice.
I am yours for the asking;
wherever you may be
you are mine.
Even now the sun is sinking;
soon the cool stars will appear.
How I wish you were here!
(Fe Leonor)
------------------------------
I dreamt that I had died.
Alone and motionless I lay
By a rushing river.
"Awake! Awake!" the river thundered;
but I did not stir.
The rivers of my blood had frozen:
I could not hear.
Thus I lay for days together
heeding neither beast nor weather
unmoved by the red-robed sun
that sank into a sea of roses.
The silver-footed moon
came and went: I did not notice.
Till, one night, a man so dear
stumbled on his lifeless lover.
How he cried, "My Leonor, hear --
hear, o hear me! Won't you answer!"
And he cried and crying kissed
my unresponding lips.
Nor did his kiss in vain:
I sprang to life again.
(Fe Leonor)
----------------------------
The lake lay dark and still.
I had the moon to lead me on.
As I paddled Home I wished
My dearest love could have come.
Lo, of a sudden
my wish came true
I heard a whisper,
"Leonor, is that you?"
You were right behind me.
And the lights of the city
became long candles
reaching deep into the water;
the drops that fell
when the paddle rose
turned sparks of silver.
All of a sudden,
cause you had come
I was in no more hurry
to canoodle Home.
(Fe Leonor)
------------------------
When Fate first made Adam,
Having some jugs of liquor standing by,
"Let me," says she, "pour in him all I can;
Let him awaken and hung-over cry:
`Liquor is bad for man.'"
So wine first flowed away,
then rum and vodka, rye and seven;
When almost all was gone, Fate made a stay.
Hearing the drunkard drawl, "That's heaven,"
She knew she had spoiled the clay.
"Should I," said a dejected she,
"pour yet more liquor in this senseless creature,
he might end up consid'ring drink, instead of me,
the spring of beauty, wisdom, pleasure:
and I'd disgraced be.
So let me fashion Eve!
Let her sit smiling by him when he wakes;
let her, endowed with all the gifts that I can give
try to undo the error I did make
that he may sober live.
And then she watched, invisible to them.
At last he stirred to see the wondrous bait.
But when he spoke, she knew that all was vain:
for loud he cried, perhaps mistaking Eve for Fate:
"Pour me that drink again."
(Fe Leonor)
-------------------------------
The flowers are gone
and one by one
the little singers of the sky
have flown to warmer climes away.
But we must stay.
Though the sun grow colder,
and though we stumble blind
against the icy breath of winter,
we must stay behind.
Yet, let the weakening sun
daily shorter circles run;
let our aching faces grow
colder when the north winds blow:
while our living hearts still beat,
winter cold or summer heat
cannot work us harm.
(Fe Leonor)
--------------------------
Have you ever.......
... sat beside a stream on a hot summer's day watching the water
rippling over stones which look like bright, shiny gems? Or suddenly
glimpsed a large fish silvery in the sunlights?
... sat in a field of ripe corn watching it sway with the breeze
and experienced the mystical feeling of belonging as your enegies
merge with your surroundings and you sway back and forth for a
magical moment in time?
...sat on top of a mountain breathing the cool air and feeling its
cleanness as your lungs fill with this magic substance?
...sat in a wood watching the rabbits as they run around, heads
popping up from their burrows, careful, watchful, as their babies
take their first tremulous steps, then, finding their feet, start
to hop with joy?
... spent time watching birds making their nests and waiting
patiently for their babies to hatch out until -- probably while
you are not looking -- the chicks leave the nest for the first
time?
... sat with your back to an old oak tree to absorb the energy of the
tree and become one with it, listening to the unspoken yet powerful
vibrations that are continually emanating from it? Tree talk.
... lain on the grass, listened to it and heard it growing?
... talked to your flowers/plants?
... swum in the sea with the dolphins or talked to the seals? or
sunbathed on a deserted beach listening to the cry of the seagulls
overhead and the calming sound of the sea as it washed the shore?
... lain down on the lawn and stared at the sky on abright summer's
day, watching globules of energy exploding like bright, minute pin-heads?
... wake up early in the morning to watch the world come alive.
... been out late at night when the moon is out to put its fairy-tale
hue of silver over all things?
... met someone like Fe leonor before?
(Fe Leonor /BS)
-------------------------------------------
I asked God for strenght, that I may achieve....
I was made weak, that I might learn humbly to obey.
I asked for health, that I might do great things,
I was given infirmity, that I might do better things.
I asked for riches, that I might be happy,
I was given poverty, that I might be wise.
I asked for power, that I might have the praise of men,
I was given weakness, that I might feel the need of God.
I asked for all things, that I might enjoy life,
I was given life, that I might enjoy all things.
I got nothing that I asked for, but everything I had hoped for.
Almost despite myself, my unspoken prayers were answered.
I am among all men, most richly blessed!
(Rev. Father Donatus Orkar Ugema/Ontario, Canada)
-------------------------------------------------------------
- ON VALENTINE'S DAY
Under a blanket of full moon,
Silhouettes of green shadows danced...
under a coconut tree that first kiss bloomed
cavorting with the breaking wavelets...
Then, the silence.
The afterthought brought me home.
(Ish Fabicon / USA)
------------------------------------------
Because of the Love of Fe Leonor
Though I be in the depths of hell,
abandoned in the darkest well,
my suffering pain she does dispell,
because of the love of Fe Leonor.
My glimmering hope in the darkest night,
a beautiful flower in a land of blight
a world that's wrong, she's what's right,
because of the love of Fe Leonor.
A pure cold spring in a hot desert dry,
a warm spring breeze in mountain high,
my certain truth in a question why,
because of the love of Fe Leonor.
A spirited song in the dead still calm,
my wounded spirit a soothing balm,
in times of despair a joyful psalm,
because of the love of Fe Leonor.
All that is wonderfully precious to me,
despite all the pain and suffering I see,
life is worth living I must agree,
because of the love of Fe.
Happy Valentine's!!!
Evan S. (USA)
--------------------------------------------
The gentle flutter of the butterfly,
The utterance of a lover's sigh,
The beautiful crimson of a sunset sky,
All remind me of you.
The soft, soft, down of a baby fawn,
The clear, blue sky of a morning dawn,
A lion cub's sleepy yawn,
All remind me of you.
The shining winkle of a star so bright,
The beautiful moon in the black of night,
The stunning view of a mountain height,
All remind me of you.
A lovely ballad sung from the heart,
The gentle prick of cupid's dart,
The longing I feel when we are apart,
All remind me of you.
The splendor of an autumn day,
The smell of spring in the month of May,
The laughter of children hard at play,
All remind me of you.
Things that are beautiful, wonderful, and true
And cheer me up when I am feeling blue,
A sense of joy that goes through and through,
All remind me of you.
(Joseph Moyer /USA)
-----------------------------------
Why Must You Be So Far Away
How can I bear the suffering pain
That dwells in my heart and in my brain
and threatens to drive me forever insane?
Why must you be so far away?
The love of my life, my love so true,
that makes everyday so special and new,
and my heart full of joy, through and through,
Why must you so far away?
How I long for your loving embrace,
to caress and stroke your beautiful face
two hearts as one in angelic grace
Why must you be so far away?
I missed the passion that shines in your eyes
the sound of desire in your sighs,
Promise of heaven within you lies,
Why must you be so far away?
Though far from me, I feel you still
and I will be patient and wait until
You're here forever our dreams to fulfill
Why must you be so far away?
Evan S. (USA)
--------------------
Rest your head
Fe my dear
Let night take
you away
close your eyes
and concentrate
You'll be amazed
Sleep will come
sooner or later
dream of love
and laughter dear
till you smile
and say "I'm better."
(Dean Ebisuya / USA)
----------------------------
High winds from the Red Sea tonight,
dust sandbagging the sky, the sun
still roseate on high thunderclouds
and the alien trees, trembling seem
uncommon as day in this wilderness
and one promising winter rain. The air,
charged with expectation, reeds of earth
and chlorox and exotic flowers here.
The wind reels with the sensation,
of memories lost, regained of hours lost,
never regained. Lightning licks
and clouds are lit, low and black and elegant;
distant, too distant. Dry lightning, dry wind,
dry rain falling upward to darkness again.
(Steve Morris /Saudi Arabia)
---------------------------------------
A SEED
born out of wedlock
i sprout when you least expect
to grow wild in domains
of so many owners,
their yards landscaped
with no fences and no bushes
i am free!
i dance unafraid of the howling wind
and the onrush of raging water
I breathe in airless nooks,
I surf naked riding high on
waves oflight!
no stone nor mountain
can trample me on heavy feet
nor clawed by bird in flight unfettered,
i smile and I roar when you cajole,
debate, and ridicule...
i am no ordinary seed...
i am a thread seed,
hovering wild in cyberspace!
(Ish Fabicon / USA)
-----------------------------------------
WHY DO I NEED THEE?
I need thee to share all my hopes and dreams
and happiness and suffering with.
I need thee to share my soul and my innermost
and deepest thoughts and desires.
I need thee to support me when I am weak and
to rejoice with me when I triumph.
I need thee to allow you to love you
with my total mind, heart, soul and body
for the rest of the lifes.
I need thee as I need to breathe the air around us.
I need thee for all that is good and to help me
bear all that is not good.
I love you Leonor.
I need thee to live.
(Joseph Moyer /U.S.A.)
-------------------------------------------
I long for the taste of your lips ---
the sweetest of wine, the finest nectar of the gods.
I long to lose myself
in the depths of your beautiful brown eyes ---
that put me in trance of passion,
from which I hope I never
have to awaken from.
(Evan S. / USA)
--------------------------------
Where is there a name for you?
No mortal art exists, which could
express the wonder of you!
There is no rhyme for you!
A song? What more can song do
than report too late of you!
If the heart could only be
heard, its every emotion would
be a great hymn for you!
All the charm of your life,
the image so pure and holy,
is secretly locked in my heart.
I can only love you.
To tell how you were beloved,
eternity alone will know.
(VZ/Russia)
-----------------------------
On Valentine's....
When my heart seeks joy
I think of my twinkling star
and though her lips
are untouched by mine,
I feel her passion seeping
through my soul.
How soon -again- will my star
whisper to my ears
our love song?
Take heart, my love
you are always here in me,
though distance glooms my days
and silence shrills the trobbing heart
we can make it through dark nights
despite the raging storms,
we'll seek refuge
in this impregnable fortress
called LOVE.
Will you be my Valentine?
(An Islander / Philippines)
-----------------------------------
How does one string words into lovely bead
when the laughing minstrel weep?
oh the beauty of a poem so silent in its grave
and sighing still, transforms itself into a trance
never ending -- forever pursuing that ever slippery dreams of peace.
You must be awake now from a night of sleep
and here I am now singing so gallantly
despite the agony that runs so deep.
Yet, in these moments I hear the words
so sweet: the flowers are spring-like now
how they bloom despite the omens of doom.
Please do not cry, I said....
and the answer was all silence
yet, nonchalantly did I forgive.
Come home to me now where the green
and the blue skies are cannopies of joy
and the birds' songs
are the masterpieves of my homeward thoughts.
(An Islander // Philippines)
-------------------------------------
On Fe Leonor's Birthday. (April 5)
I'll be there (in RP)
When you'll hear the laughter
of a brown child
soaked in rain
running wild in the streets.
I'll be there
In the clouds
watching the sun
bury its face
as the evening breeze
caresses the bamboo groves
clustered in the hill.
I'll be there
When you step on ground
kissed by morning dew
when you cup in your hands
moonbeams dancing like fireflies...
When the village church
peals its ancient bells
anouncing the birth
of a new day
I will be there with you!
(Ish Fabicon /USA)
---------------------------------
FROM MY HEART
Yes I missed you
like my letters do state,
I'm gonna try and clarify
and test my poor fate.
Trains and Bull's eyes,
how simple, how cute.
But your way off from my feelings,
and that's telling the truth.
I missed you like flowers
need the rain and the sun,
I missed you like bullets
need the hand and the gun.
I felt so alone like a
child without parents,
I felt as empty as an
apartment without tenants.
This longing for you
I can not explain,
But all that matters
is if you'd feel the same.
I want to be with you
and hold you tight,
I want to see your eyes sparkle
in the heat of the night.
All my hopes and dreams
will come true tonight,
when I see that special
gleam in your eyes so bright ---
are they black, brown,
blue or green.... I want to
look into your eyes and see.
Is love there?
Or is it just me.
I want to look into your eyes
and see.
(Dean Ebisuya /USA)
----------------------------------
you'll face the sun
and bloom again
for yonder in the hill,
a flower grows
its petals red
yet fresh
with morning dew
its stems as firm as steel!
the wild wind howls
and the cold breeze bites -
no more!
for yonder in the hill
a flower grows
its petals clasping
tight
the hands of God!
you will,
yes, you will
bloom again
and face the sun! #
(Ish Fabicon /USA)
-------------------------------
(We look up every night for a twinkling star
that never cease to inspire. Thus a poem is born.
we seek each other
through a maze of sunlit cobwebs
and fleeting moonbeams;
we look at each other
in a daze yet laughing
wild in our dreams;
we tiptoe on rippling white waters;
pluck fresh flowers in the village green;
we dance with the sighing winds
we tear into smithereens our nagging pains
and cast it away to die with the passing breeze.
we whisper words of love
in the sanctity of cyperspace.
how thoughtful is the oriole
to chirp a serenade -
how each sweet moment
of a bygone day,
becomes a priceless masterpiece.
then, we fling ourselves
in a tight and warm embrace
because we have learned
to face the arrogance of Death.
(Santi Ago/ USA)
------------------------------------
Oh juvenile cupid!
I beg thee
be not reckless with thine arrows
Countless hearts hast though pierced.
Spare this love-sick damsel
from love's infirmities
Lest she relapses in delirious coma.
Awake Fe Leonor and dream no more!
Harken... can you hear?
A tappin' on the door
who may it be?
Oh can it be ...
" ----, is that you my love?"
..... silence.
(Adrimar Alfafara /Philippines)
-----------------------------------
in virtual space they met
and sinned.
whispered words of love
bedded their desire
in hairline rooms of fiber optics
their moans travelling in megaspeeds
their offsprings confirmed
with stroke of keys....
what cyberpersons pretending like mortals!
what if their hands are held
and their eyes meet?
(Ish Fabicon /USA)
-----------------------
NIGHTMARE.
Throngs of people --
a cosmic crowd --
but none so loud
as to drown the pain
of my liebling gone.
I feel all alone
with my liebling gone.
A note on my pillow
said,"Do not follow.
I'll be gone long."
Though she took small note
Almost all I wrote
In our year together
Was for her somehow.
When the hand on the clock
Says it's time to take stock
How in that final balance
Will I continue to file
All the missed chances
To make my liebling smile?
( B.P./Canada)
--------------------------------
How could I cure the nagging pain
that wound your loving heart?
Tell me please tell me
and better still give it all to me
that i may see the happy day
when love in its innocence blooms.
Be not afraid my love.
Give it all to me.
(Santi Ago /USA)
---------------------------------
(Spring)
I chanced to pass by
and kissed the budding bloom
and smelled instead, gloom.
Yet, a few feet away
are stirrings of fresh green
shooting its petals against
the canopy of sogging earth.
It was a poem I found again
dancing in the spring rain.
Thank you, my love.
The thought heartens
a bleeding heart.
(Santi Ago /USA)
----------------------------
The Promise Of A Summer
spring bade goodbye
how could she?
there was not enough of her
--- her fragrance and voices
somehow are vague memories,
lost in the pouring rain.
yet even in pain
you sang songs my love.
you persevered and the lyrics
become soothing words of grit.
summer's door is open
you must sing again
and cup into your hands
sweet memories
of a lovely spring day.
then, hand it all to me
a bouquet ---
the gift of a summer dream!
(Ish Fabicon/ USA)
-----------------------------------------
Look, she is there! White from the portico
and in green fields, who flies to where we are
in woods, through grain as if in water: see her go
who shines from peaks --- the morning star!
(Adam Mickiewicz / Poland)
-----------------------------------------
MY DISTANT VALENTINE
We gaze at the moon in the summer sky
and meet through the stars as clouds race by
I hear your voice in the wind's soft sigh
My distant Valentine.
We touch as the winter touches spring
and speak through notes the songbirds sing
and join in the dance the seasons bring
My distant Valentine.
Your love is a love of words and dreams
that fill my world, or so it seems,
and bathe my days in hope's soft beams
My distant Valentine.
Dave K.(USA))
------------------------------------------
i'm surfing through a sea of poems
and wave on wave I soar
hissed by whiffs of breeze,
i cupped the flames of love
and poured it into my soul.
and what a heave of hope
that oozes from the brain!
how could i tell my love
that I'm leaving in the morn
that I could no longer surf
when bells ring and morn?
it's all over now, I say
the distant train comes
chugging in
and I hear the engine
whistle
whistle
the songs of fe leonor.
(Fireball Eater/ USA)
-------------------------------------
A Modified Version of an E.D. theme
"If you were coming this March,
I'd brush February by
If I could see you in a year,
I'd wind the months in balls,
Until their time befalls.
If only centuries delayed,
I'd count them on my hand,
Subtracting till my fingers dropped
Into Van Diemen's land.
If certain, when this life was out,
That yours and mine should be,
I'd toss it yonder like a rind,
And taste eternity.
But now, all ignorant of the length
Of time's uncertain wing,
It goads me, like the goblin bee,
That will not state its sting."
----------------------------------
Mother's Day (For Fe Leonor's Mom)
you smiled when your child,
wrapped in a mantle of inocence,
you cringed when your daughter,
pregnant with life's exuberance,
crossed unchartered rivers; braved the storms.
yet, steadfast on the steering wheel,
you have been mother and father
to your daughter's dream.
mortals we are all, we wait for the sitting sun
lurking behind the clouds.
fear not. your daughter has mastered
the language of love.
(Ish Fabicon /USA)
------------------------------------
Christmas Poem
I would have said again how much I LOVE YOU
but you cry.
I would have kept mum about my feelings towards you
but you think I don't care.
I would have said in silence the meaning of love
but you cry.
Why then oh why can't you say that you love me too
and make me smile?
(SB/ USA)
-----------------------------------
The Language Of Love
It's love this early morning
that beckons my thoughts
to distant heights --
how soon I'll reach it,
one never knows
the impossibility of all....
yet there is hope when the sun rises
as it smiles behind the clouds...
and the voice of a distant lover
come whispering....
the language of love. (SB/ USA)
----------------------------------
Welcome Back
i hear it across the days, yet it cannot wake
the thousand songs i lost, to uninspiring words
heard it, gladly beyond the familiar hours
inside of the breathing, somewhere far from home.
echoing, but silence now, as i strike the lyre,
melodies drifting, catching some old known places
of which i cannot hide, even in blind man's eyes
like the minutes, swirling time to a distant past.
will i find home again, in its promises and rhymes
while the endless wish, with which the rains and stars stay,
are carried into meanings, farther than the miles stretch
into letters, into words, then to a forgotten love.
passing there, walking, bare-footed glances to the sun
i live it, and i see again how proud the wind
could pass the day, running into oblivion
and eagerly, and quietly, i think of the sea.
i have been falling now, down, to its colors, to its art
the lyre starts to sound, sweet music descending
silence endures still, and i think of the summer
moving into me, and mysteriously, unfolding her.
(Ronaldo Geneblazo / Japan )
--------------------------------------------
Welcome back....
Oh those sweet thoughts that come by
I welcome them -- they are sweet lullabies
Of my dear love from afar.
How they settle in -- in my deepest moments
When only me and the shining star
Keep on talking through the night
Unafraid of tomorrows that may beguile the mind.
Come to me now my sweet love
We are alone now while the creeping paws of night
So softly tickle us to give more meaning to our love.
(Santi Ago/ USA)
-------------------------------------
I will break God's seamles skull
And I will break His kissless mouth,
Oh I will break out of His faultless shell
And fall me upon Eve's gold mouth.
-------------------------------------
There was a door to which I found no key
There was a veil past which I could not see.
Some little talk awhile of me and thee
there seem'd ---
and then no more of thee and me.
(Omar Khayyam "The Rubaiyat"/ Persian)
-------------------------------------
Here with a Loaf of Bread beneath the Bough,
A Flask of Wine, a Book of Verse --- and Thou
Beside me singing in the Wilderness ---
And Wilderness is Paradise enow.
(O.K /Persian)
-----------------------------------------------------------
From out thy tresses' night, O love, the sun may rise on me,
if true indeed the ancient saying 'night is pregnant' be.
(---/ Turkey)
-----------------------------------------------------------
Come, my love, fill the goblet up,
Reach round the rosy wine,
Think not that we will take the cup
From any hand but thine.
A draught like this 'twere vain to seek,
No grape can such supply;
It steals its tint from my love's cheek,
Its brightness from her eye.
(Ragban /Arabia)
-----------------------------------------
How Fair is thy love my sister, my bride!
How much better is thy love than wine!
(Hebrew Poetry/ The Song of Songs)
Before I saw you, you were light.
Before Love came, you were love.
When my kiss overcame you:
a woman!
(--/ Greece)
-------------------------------------------
The earth will fool the farmer with bounty,
The sun be drawn by horses of darkness,
Rivers will flow backward to their source
And fish dry up in an arid sea
Before I grieve for another woman.
I shall be hers in life and in death.
(Sextus Propretius /Rome)
-------------------------------------------
If there is a love pure and exempt
from mingling with our other passions,
it is that which is hidden in the
depths of our hearts and of which
we ourselves are unaware.
(Francois de la Rochefoucauld /France)
If you knew all the tears we shed,
We who must live alone, alas,
Some night before you go to bed
You'd surely pass.
If you knew how the heart can leapt
At but one single tender glance,
Into my window you would peep
As if by chance.
If you knew how a soul's dismay
Another dear soul can require,
You'd sit outside my door the way
A sister might.
If you knew I lov'd you, and more,
If you knew just how much I do,
Then you would knock upon my door
Without ado.
(Armand Sully-Prudhomme / France)
------------------------------------
And what is life but frenzy?
And what is it but fancy?
A shadow, mere fiction,
for its greatest good is small
and life itself a dream,
and dreams are only dreams.
(Pedro Calderon De La Barca/ Spain)
-----------------------------------
Sweetly, softly, through my soul
Steals a song of yearning;
Ring out, little song of spring,
Ring out hope returning.
Ring out in my loved one's bower
Buds in prayer before her;
If you find a rose in flower
Tell her I adore her.
(Heinrich Heine / Germany)
------------------------------------
Life of my life, You.
Life of my life, you
look to me like the sallow
olive or the yellowing rose;
not without a certain beauty,
but in nay guise you please me:
whether promising or coy;
whether you run from me or follow,
softly you diminish and destroy me.
(T.T. / Italy)
-------------------------------------
A Portuguese Poem
(courtesy of Dulce Barbosa)
Oh Sandade que vives me enganando
Fazendo-me ouvir sua voz,
Ouvindo o barulho das folhasem que vou pisando.
(Carlos D. de Andrade / Brazil)
Love is life's end: an end but never ending:
All joys, all sweets, all happiness awarding;
Love is life's reward, rewarded in rewarding:
Then from thy wretched heart fond care remove.
Ah! shouldst thou live but once love's sweets to prove,
Thou wilt not love to live, unless thou live to love.
(Edmund Spencer /England)
---------------------------------------
If I shoudn't be alive
When the robins come,
Give the one red cravat
A memorial crumb.
If I couldn't thank you,
Being fast asleep,
you will know I'm trying
with my granite lip. ED
Anoche, cuando dormia,
Sone, bendeta ilusion,
Que una colmena tenia
Dentro de mi corazon.
Y las doradas abejas hacian en el
Blanda cera y dulce miel...
A.T. (Argentina)
---------------------------
Even the harvest
Of earth can be exhausted -
Of that in this world
Which is inexhaustible,
Is there anything but love?
Longing for my love,
Unable to sleep -- at dawn
Two mandarin ducks
Wing their way across the sky.
Are they couriers from my love?
I wish you, my love,
Were a bracelet I might wear
On my left arm, and then,
fastened to my wrist,
We could set out together.
(---/ Japan)
--------------------------------------------------
At the western chamber the peaceful moon was rising,
And a breeze glided in,living the door ajar.
Stirrings of flower-shadows kept me surmising:
Has my love come, with the brightness of a star?
(---/ China)
--------------------------------------------------
Let me lay aside a slice
Of the long winter night.
I will treasure it till spring
Tucked under the bedspread,
And use it when you come
to extend the sweet but too brief a night.
(Jimmy Wang / Korea)
--------------------------------------------
Rhodora! if the sages ask thee why
This charm is wasted on the earth and sky,
Tell them, dear, that if eyes were made for seeing,
Then Beauty is its own excuse for being....
--------------------------------------------
There's a certain slant of light,
Winter afternoons,
That oppresses like the heft
Of cathedral tunes.
Heavenly hurt it gives us.
We can find no scar
But internal difference
Where the meanings are.
None may teach it anything
'Tis the seal, despair,---
An imperial affliction
Sent us of the air.
When it comes the landscape listens
Shadows hold their breath.
When it goes 'tis like the distance
On the look of death.(ED)
-----------------------------------
The soul selects her own society,
Then shuts the door.
On her divine majority
Otrude no more.
To her divine majority
Present no more.
Unmoved, she notes the chariot's pausing
At her low gate;
Unmoved, an emperor is kneeling
Upon her mat.
I've known her from an ample nation
Choose one;
Then close the vives of her attention
Like stone. (ED)
----------------------------------
I died for beauty, but was scarce
Adjusted in the tomb
When one who died for truth was lain
In an adjioning room.
He questioned sofly why I failed,
"For beauty," I replied.
"And I for truth. Themself are one.
We brethren are, "he said.
And so, as kinsmen met a night,
We talked between the rooms,
Until the moss had reached our lips
And covered up our names.
-----------------------------------
Because I could not stop for Death,
He kindly stopped for me;
The carriage held but just ourselves
And Immortality.
We slowly drove, he knew no haste,
And I had put away
My labor, and my leisure too,
For his civility.
We passed the school where children played
At wrestling in a ring;
We passed the fields of gazing grain,
We passed the setting sun.
We paused before a house that seemed
A swelling of the ground;
The roof was scarcely visible,
The cornice but a mound.
Since then 'tis centuries; but each
Feels shorter than the day
I first surmised the horses' heads
Were toward eternity.
-------------------------------
I had been hungry all the years.
My noon had come to dine.
I trembling drew the table near
And touched the curious wine.
'Twas this on tables I had seen
When turning hungry home
I looked in windows for the wealth
I could not hope for mine.
I did not know the ample bread.
'Twas so unlike the crumb
The birds and I had often shared
In nature's dining room.
The plenty hurt me, 'twas so new.
Myself felt ill and odd.
As berry of a mountain bush
Transplanted to the road.
Nor was I hungry, so I found
That hunger was a way
Of persons outside windows
The entering takes away.
The sky is low, the clouds are mean.
A traveling flake of snow
Across a barn or through a rut
Debates if it will go.
A narrow wind complains all day
How someone treated him.
Nature, like us, is sometimes caught
Without her diadem.
----------------------------------
You were born together, and together you
shall be forevermore.
You shall be together when the white
wings of death scatter your days.
Ay, you shall be together even in the
silent memory of God.
But let there be spaces in your togetherness,
And let the winds of the heavens dance
between you
Love one another, but make not a bond
of love:
Let it rather be a moving sea between
the shores of your souls.
Fill each other's cup but drink not from
one cup.
Give one another of your bread but eat
not from the same loaf.
Sing and dance together and be joyous,
but let each one of you be alone,
Even as the strings of a lute are alone
though they quiver with the same music.
Give your hearts, but not into each
other's keeping.
For only the hand of Life can contain
your hearts.
And stand together yet not too near
together:
For the pillars of the temple stand apart,
And the oak tree and the cypress grow
not in each other's shadow."
-----------------------------------------
Song
When I am gone, my dearest,
Sing no sad songs for me;
Plant thou no roses at my head,
Nor shady cypress tree;
Be the green grass above me
With showers and dewdrops wet:
And if thou wilt, remember,
And if thou wilt, forget.
I shall not see the shadows,
I shall not feel the rain;
I shall not hear the nightingale
Sing on as if in pain:
And dreaming through the twilight
That doth not rise nor set,
Haply I may remember,
And haply I may forget.
(Christina Rosetti/ England)
------------------------------------
Remember Me
Remember me when I am gone away,
Gone far away into the silent land;
When you can no more hold me by the hand,
Nor I half turn to go yet turning stay.
Remember me when no more day by day
You tell me of our future that you planned:
Only remember me: you understand
It will be late to counsel then or pray.
Yet if you should forget me for a while
And afterwards remember, do not grieve:
For if the darkness and corruption leave
A vestige of the thoughts that once I had,
Better by far you should forget and smile
Than that thou shouldst remember and be sad.
--------------------------------------------
Kubla Khan
In Xanadu did Kubla Khan
A stately pleasure dome decree:
Where Alph, the sacred river, ran
Through caverns measureless to man
Down to a distant sea.
So twice five miles of fertile ground
With walls and towers were girdled round:
And there were gardens bright with sinuous rills
Where blossomed many an incense-bearing tree:
And here were forests ancient as the hills,
Enfolding sunny spots of greenery.
But oh! that deep romantic chasm which slanted
Down the green hill athwart a cedarn cover!
A savage place! as holy and enchanted
As e'er beneath a waning moon was haunted
By woman wailing for her demon-lover!
And from this chasm, with ceaseless turmoil seething,
As if this earth in fast thick pants were breathing,
A mighty fountain momently was forced;
Amid whose swift half-intermitted burst
Huge fragments vaulted like rebounding hail,
Or chaffy grain beneath the thresher's flail:
And 'mid those dancing rocks at once and ever
It flung up momently the sacred river.
Five miles meandering with a mazy motion
Through wood and dale the sacred river ran,
Then reached the caverns measureless to man,
And sank in tumult to a lifeless ocean:
And 'mid this tumult Kubla heard from far
Ancestral voices prophesying war!
------------------------------------------
The Road not Taken
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood and, sorry
I could not travel both and be one traveller,
long I stood and looked down one as far as I
could to where it bent in the underwood.
Then took the other as just as fair and
having perhaps the better claim for being
grassy and wanting wear. Yet, as for that,
the passing there had really worn them about
the same.
And both that morning equally lay in leaves
no steps had trodden black.
O, I left that one for another day,
yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I would ever be back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh,
somewhere ages and ages hence:
two roads diverged in a wood and
I, I took the one less travelled by.
And that has made all the difference.
Robert Frost
------------------------------------
To the Virgins...
Old
time is still a-flying;
And this same flower that smiles today,
Tomorrow will be dying.
The glorious lamp of heaven, the sun,
The higher he's a-getting,
The sooner will he race be run,
And nearer he's to setting.
That age is best which is the first,
When youth and blood are warmer,
But being spent, the worse and worst
Times still succeed the former.
Then be not coy, but use your time,
[B And while ye may, go merry:
For having lost but once your prime,
You may forever tarry.
------------------------------------
A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning
As virtuous men pass mildly away,
And whisper to their souls to go,
Whilst some of their sad friends do say
The breath goes now, and some say, No;
So let us melt, and make no noise,
Nor tear-flood, nor sigh-tempest move,
'Twere profanation of our joys
To tell the laity our love.
Moving of th' earth brings harms and fears,
Men reckon what it did and meant;
But trepidation of the spheres
Though greater far, is innocent.
Dull sublunary lovers' love
(Whose soul is sense) cannot admit
Absence, because it doth remove
Those things which elemented it.
But we by a love so much refined
That our selves know not what it is,
Inter-assured of the mind,
Care less eyes, lips and hands to miss.
Our two souls therefore, which are one,
Though I must go, endure not yet
A breach, but an expansion,
Like gold to airy thinness beat.
If they be two, they are two so
As stiff twin compasses are two;
Thy sould, the fixed foot, makes no show
To move, but doth, if th' other do.
And though it in the center sit,
Yet when the other far doth raom,
It leans and hearkens after it,
And grows erect, as that comes home.
Such wilt thou be to me, who must
Like th'other foot obliquely run;
They firmness makes my circle just,
And makes me end where I begun.
(John Donne)
-----------------------------------
2