Moonlight on Manila Bay First, A Poem Must Be Magical

Hernando Maramag Jose Garcia Villa

A light serene, ethereal glory, rests First, a poem must be magical,

Its beams effulgent on each cresting wave;
The silver touches of the moonlight lave
The deep's bare bosom that the breeze molests;
While lingering whispers deepen as the wavy crests
Roll with weird rhythm, now gay, now gently grave;
And floods of lambent light appear the sea to pave
All cast a spell that heeds not time's behests.
Not always such the scene: The din of fight
Has swelled the murmur of the Peaceful air;
Here east and west have oft displayed their might;
Dark battle clouds have dimmed this scene so fair;
Here bold Olympia, one historic night,
Presaging freedom, claimed a people's care.
Then musical as a seagull.
It must be a brightness moving
And hold secret a bird’s flowering
It must be slender as a bell,
And it must hold fire as well.
It must have the wisdom of bows
And it must kneel like a rose.
It must be able to hear
The luminance of dove and deer.
It must be able to hide
What it seeks, like a bride.
And over all I would like to hover
God, smiling from the poem’s cover.

Cactus Carabao: Impressionistic

Tita Lacambra-Ayala Conrado V. Pedroche

Excuse the cactus This is a Carabao, horns, hide and hoofs,

thirsting on the sill a huge hemispherical belly well-filled and pampered;
excuse it's quills a long tapering tail ending in a tuft of hair
stuck out : heavy with caked mud whipping the sides
they're only an attempt right and left, right and left;
at self-defense. tongue sticky licking wet
fly-infested nostrils in and out, in and out;
See how it bleeds eyes wide and hairy,
to fossils the old sand neck furrowed and rough,
itself looking to be such the chant of chewing jaws,
a fussy fossil. the slow unvarying motion of grinding teeth, the
quiet of shifting cud;
Not quite futile. a bird poised for flight upon the back – suspended
grace of wings, unuttered loveliness song:
It should require this –this a marvelous statue in live bronze strong,
some sort of guile majestic and more wonderful far
some genius than all the ways of Gods and fools.
to subsist on suns
ome lake of sand
(have both for free!)
and come out looking
freshly green,
(juicy even)

as if in spite of
as if in fun.