Ang Babaeng Nasa Balkonahe

Nababahiran na ng dugo ang langit;

Animo’y nakikidalamhati sa akin.

At sa ilang saglit lahat ay didilim,

Lalabas ang mga lampara at bituin.

Ako’y naghihintay habang gumuguni

Sa araw na tila laging lumulubog.

Hindi pa ba ito nasikat sa aking paningin,

Lumiliwanag lang sa aking pagtulog?

Oh Araw, bakit hindi pa sa oras mo

Kumikilos ang lalaking umiibig?

Bagkos sa dilim lang sumesenyas,

Walang kimi ngunit nananalig.

Nakatataba man ng puso

Ang pagsinta sa liham, tula at harana,

Ngunit wala akong mahihinuha

Sa bulag na pag-ibig ng isang makata.

Mga kilos mo ang aking kailangan

At hindi ang mga bulaklak sa iyong bibig.

Kamay, paa, katawan ng lalaki –

Ang kayumanging kaligatan – ang aking iniibig.

Ipakita mo sa akin, gamit ng iyong gawa,

Ang dugong nananalaytay sa pagnanais

Sa pag-ibig at kalayaan ng aking puso

‘Pagkat ang panahon ay mapagmalabis.

Hindi lingid sa isip ko

Karahasan ng aking sasabihin:

Puso’y hindi sa akin para ibigay,

Ngunit sa inyo na angkinin.

Oh Haring Gabi, ‘wag ka pang dumating!

Ninanais ko pa ang araw.

Hintayin pa ang pulang belo na maglaho

Bago ikaw tuluyang dumalaw.

(1:12 PM, 02/26/12, Computer Room of the House)

Hello! I shall post a translation of this soon! :)

(Image Source)

Inspiration: Kundiman

by Jose Rizal

Tunay ngayong umid yaring diwa at puso

Ang bayan palibhasa'y api, lupig at sumuko.

Sa kapabayaan ng nagturong puno

Paglaya'y nawala, ligaya'y naglaho!

Datapuwa't muling sisikat ang maligayang araw

Pilit na maliligtas ang inaping bayan

Magbabalik man din at laging sisikat

Ang ngalang Tagalog sa sandaigdigan!

Ibubuhos namin ang dugo'y ibabaha

Ng matubos lamang ang sa Amang Lupa!

Hanggang 'di sumapit ang panahong tadhana

Sinta ay tatahimik, tutuloy ang nasa!

Sinta ay tatahimik at tutuloy ang nasa!

O Bayan kong mahal

Sintang Filipinas!

(Source)

Cupcake Girl

Blue and white stripes.
A big red sequined heart.
A box of cupcakes to match.
She walks these halls.
She stops to pause
A friend she comes across.

And with her hands,
She opens up
A huge tupperware
Of the little red things
Dolloped with cream cheese
Motioning him to receive.

He then reaches out
Then gives her a smile
Saying to her: "Thank you."
And as she puts
The lid back on
He repeats to her "Thank you."

She then looks up.
A sweet smile on her face.
A sweeter smile on his.
And with a goodbye,
A little red thing In his heart was set ablaze.

(Some time between 2:00 to 2:20, 02/14/12, cubicle or desk in CAS Library)

Happy Valentines Day!

Photo by: Elysse "Cupcake Girl" Salindo

Ethnicity, Lights, Hope

The Lantern, The Dean and the Students. UP Lantern Parade from behind.

So December would not be totally complete without ending school this year with a bang. Hence, the Lantern Parade, a feast for the eyes where Lanterns (or Floats) are paraded to showcase talents for every college, bringing the Christmas spirit to the very academically intoxicated students of the university. See that bright yellow sun? That's ours.

Having an exam beforehand wasn't good for the likes of me, but I guess we need to rock a shirt with that "New Shirt" smell pretty well. Not to mention the amazing headdresses and mini-torches. 

The theme for this year would be Light in the Darkness, I guess. With all these lights against a dark background. Guys get torches while the girls get headbands with glitter-bombarded stars. But the best part of the accessories would be the Dean's. That big headdress of star fountains would surely turn a few heads around.

Photos: Left, Me in the shirt and the Lantern. Below, Headresses worn Boho by a friend, and Like a Queen by the Dean

Now the banner and cheer!

Photos: Above, The banner, cellophane, woven mat and lights. Left: My ugly nails and the wonderful Cheer.

Lastly, see our winning Facade, sad we didn't win the Lantern, which would have been there with the ones in UPD, but none the matter.

What I love about CPH is the ethnicity of their designs and that Filipino feel without a bias. This is what they should see every year.

So not, let's gaze on the Oblation's ass which represent the Filipino spirit.

Of Fading and Abrupt Blacks

Celebrate.

We always celebrate starts, why don't we celebrate ends? Doesn't one entail the other in an endless cycle? Is an end always so wrong that we seem to think that after it no starts come?

We have grown in such a society that an end is a loss - and dead ends, a surrender. We are further simplified into a cycle of despair at the face of this end that would even have it's own end in Acceptance. And if we see it in omniscience, we just see our lives like two wires connected to a loop of sadness that until we find in ourselves a feeling of succumbing to what will become of us, we will never reach that other wire. If that is the case, we are then electrons running our lives through every metal atom until this loop and we forever fall into nothingness.

But that is what we are made to see.

Human life is not just some metaphor of wires and story of electrons that we come to waste everyday for light and pleasure. Think of life as something we do no want to waste but wastes either way, but in waste, we benefit until we are left as shells - remembrances of what we have done and what we used to be. And even in our calcified ends we still become a start for another generation. 

Have you ever wondered why the Oblation is that way? In everyday we just see its form, we never come to actually realize its function. Man, maybe in his 20s or 30s, naked, standing rain or shine, looking above with arms open wide. We never see his face. I never saw his face for he lost all sense of looking down, upon me, us, the people, for he concentrated in his work - his work that is sacrifice. Oblation, from the Latin Oblatio, means offering, a losing of oneself for a cause, a means that any human's shell is never forgotten, a sense of giving up, an acceptance of a dead end that no one else would want to take for another. Oblation is in flight, arms to the sky - to God - him calling out and willing. And now I see his face.

So, what end would we partake? What first-worldly-minuscule problem should we give up so that a community could be happier? I would first give up the hatred on an end, the seeking for a beginning that already happened after the ever afters, to make people feel the sense that lingers when the show goes black: something that causes the end of me to be the celebration of theirs. I want a sense in my life before I end.

Celebrate.