A basket of love
In colors of brilliant hues
Is what you bring
You are like home-
A soft warm bed,
A loaf of bread
Someone who lights
Up a room
With the words you speak
And your smile
That lingers long
After first it was seen...

This is who you are
Devoid of masquerade
You are as real
As a sunlit sky
Or a  moon’s
shadow on the sea
For it is hope
That you bring
To those whom
Hope has never seen
You are joy, personified
An angel with invisible wings...

I could say that the Lord
Could not have sent
A better messenger
To spread His words and sprinkle
His love all over...

Stand up and dance...
And make us laugh
For in this world today
There’s so much misery combined
But for one moment
All is well and as
It should be
When you are near
We lose all fears

Give us your basket of love
And let us shine with you
Stand up and dance
And we shall all dance with you...

calmly....
ascending and descending
through fame, fortune and death...
such is your dignity

you fill my heart
with so much nostalgia
that sometimes I think
we have met before, in time...
through ripples in time....

the moment I knew of you.,.
I have loved you...
It's as if I knew you
long before I truly existed

and in this very special occasion
of your solemn birth...
one hundred fifty four years ago...

I wish to thank you....
for gracing us with your presence
for teaching us of life and love...
for making us proud as a nation
despite our failures, faults and
insecurities...

you gave us your name...
your intelligence and your love
in the purest form and sense

so now I say to you...
happy may this day be
for us all
as Filipinos, we must never forget
for it is a sin not to remember
a beautiful man such as yourself
that gave rise. meaning and relevance
to the word "Filipino"

I chant your name like a mantra
Rizal- my hero, my icon, my poet
and the love of my life....

out of the blue
I think of you
and everything is
as it should...

having you in my mind
is a preoccupation
unequaled in the
depths of my emotions...

why do you come to me,
in all hours of the day
or night?
but I welcome the thoughts of you..
with a glee
that makes all sorrows flee
to set me free

sometimes I wonder
if you know,
but I know that you
feel something too
there is this unspoken
thing between us
or am I overstepping
my boundaries?
with you, I can not take liberties
much as I would want to
and the gulf of year between us
reminds me that I must
keep my dignity intact

ah, but what I would give
just to make you look at me
with amorous desire
and see me in a beautiful light
the way I see you.....

For now I am content
knowing that our friendship
grows in leaps and bounds....
I am happy just to look at you
from afar-
in your small corner
of inter playing time and shadows
beside the main thoroughfare
that is heaven to my eyes...

I relish in the thought
that you lie gently in my heart
like the quiet fragrance of roses
in their magnificent poses
bathed in the sunlight of my
undying love...

For: R.F.
19 June, 2015

If I am not beautiful,
Am I not bountiful?
...........The problem with beauty is
that it gets old
after that, it can not be sold
it is a fleeting commodity
it will never, never last

If I am not successful
am I not relevant?
If I am not rich,
am I not important?
does money really talk?
and can fame
equal true , unspoiled
happiness
or peace of mind?

If I am not powerful
am I merely anonymous?
do I contribute anything at all
and do I matter?

We are living in a world
that does not tolerate mediocrity
it dwells in mores of hypocrisy
and so it breeds profanity
it encourages deception
and if you want to have your
name remembered,
take a few lives in your
gun powdered hands
they will splash your face
all over the papers
and you can hide behind
the curtains of insanity

how sad to be lonely
but these are the
scenes that we condone
plastic caricatures we are
living in lies and
false smiles
we have died while
we are still alive
inhaling the polluted air
that we so happily create

Oh those glorious summers
of years long past...
bring me back to the splendid
days of our youth
dearest sister, life of my heart,
with your soulful brown eyes
and dark flowing hair,
how beautiful that face,
such delightful grace, you are
a standout among us, like no other
yours is character that never fades
creating a bliss that never fails
I must say, I am the lucky one
I have you as my sister, bright as the sun...

Morning is in the eyes of
Those who seek
The waves that lap
To meet the cheek
Death that calls us
Soon and all
Evening bends the will
That has to fall….

Enter life, in essence
Naked to the world
Exit life, as naked as the
Day of our births
Sleep that we have no choice
But to partake
Must in time and place
Break up things
We must forsake

Moving now
As moving we create
Swaying with the breeze
That will never cease
How moments treasured
Just go by,
In a wink,
In a flash,
And forever flying high

Think in my mind
Of you
When you were here
Silently, the tears have fallen
With the fears
Friends we were and
Friends we’ll always stay
In clouds of smoke
I do begin to pray

I see you as a bird
I see you as a flower
No longer man
Your spirit blooms
In splendor
Where you are
Is where God dwells
And where we’ll all be
Someday……

I take your hand
You view my soul
And you take off
On the clouds
In the skies
As morning blends
With the coming evening
I say
Goodnight my friend

Sweet are the thoughts
That you have left me
While you lived
We’ll meet there somehow
And somewhere
We’ll take off together
Soaring the blue and endless heavens….
You were there first
And I’ll be there next……..

My fearless general
Full-blooded son of our nation
I call you
In these uncertain times….
I need your courage
And extreme nationalism
For I am surrounded by
Anemic Filipinos,
Merely like myself,
Unable to act and speak
No dynamism-
A lack of principles

Where could you be, my general?
Surely a man like you will never hide
No wound, no bullet, no threat
Can ever make you bend your knees
I hear no cried nor pleas
From your revered lips
My strength is failing me
I need your blood
Alone, I cry
Believing myself to be incomplete
Embrace me, for you are magnificent
And there can be no other

Through the years
I still remember
How I leafed the pages
Of history just to place your name…
Maybe time ran so fast
But to me you were never last
Because you last….

Tell your brothers what you
Could do for love of country
I know and I have felt
You are my first
And  foremost general
And I shall carry you
Upon my shoulders
And stroke your head
While you sleep on my lap
Because you make me want
To tell the entire world
That my general is a Filipino
And I am proud to be his comrade!