A modification of the poem Trees of Joyce Kilmer, by renowned poet Kristina Lim:
I think that I shall never see
A ghost.
Or maybe I should leave it at:
I think that I shall never see.
Also, Joyce Kilmer is male! I had no idea.
Posts Tagged: poetry
31
May 07
Trees, by Joyce Kilmer
29
Jan 07
Entablado
Everybody who knows me well knows that I was really terrible with Filipino before college here in Metro Manila. I was among the worst in my classes during both grade school and high school. But this Filipino poem here, written by myself during senior year high school, won second place in a school-wide poetry-writing competition:
Entablado
Bumagsak ang telon
Hinatak niya ang kanyang kurbata
Tapos na ang palabas
Wala na…
Buntong-hininga ang pinakawalan
Nag-iisa na naman siya
Nanginginig and kanyang mga kamay…Masigabong palakpakan.
Bumukas ang telon
Humalakhak ang mga manonood
Magaling, maganda
Tumayo siya
Nakipagkamay sa direktor
Bumalik siya sa kotse, sa bahay
Walang kasama.
Tumulo ang luha…Palakpaka’y nasa’n na?
I realized I wanted to write an entry only an hour before the deadline of submissions for the contest. This is shallow: I actually flipped through the pages of a Filipino-English dictionary, looking for a word that sounded poetic and from which I could build a poem, and the word telon (Filipino for “stage curtain”) caught my attention because it reminded me of the word “teflon“. I then right away knew what I wanted to write about, but it was a struggle expressing myself in Filipino. I still made it to the deadline though.
I joined the poetry-writing competition because I wanted to somehow work on the Filipino aspect of myself. The poem was symbolic of my working for the better, overcoming my weaknesses. It is especially for this reason that the poem is close to my heart.
The poem itself? It is supposed to be very deep and dramatic. I — still refuse to know what to think of it, so I won’t comment on how it turned out.
29
Dec 06
I like to fly
I like to fly.
Low…
Just two inches above the surface of the ocean.
I like to play and draw circles on my ground.
I like my sea calm.
I hear the gentle gushing of the waves:
It soothes me.
I never have to run away from my sea.
And, of course, there’d be the moon overlooking me.
I like my moon full…
It shines a friendly yellow in the sky,
and paints a magnificent portrait of me on my ocean floor.
And then there are the fisherman and their boats…
(But tonight, they are not here)
They create ripples on my sea as they slowly row away.
They, too, like to fly.
This is my world,
And in my world, I fly…
22
Dec 06
Holiday blues
The cool breeze of the holidays
turn into a nightmare of mirrors:
I am inside a polyhedron of mirrors.
They are all around,
and I am all they see.
They surround me –
I am all I see.
And I realize I am alone.
The cool breeze of the holidays
turn into a nightmare of prisms:
I see myself break up into me.
I break up,
then break up into me.
I go on, but it’s the same.
I realize I am alone;
I realize I am lonely.
24
Nov 06
Studying?
touch -a philo-readings
while read clause
do
# Do nothing ... successfully.
true
done < philo-readings