PINATUBO MOUNT OF TRIUMPH

Erle Frayne Argonza y Delago

Petrified is our inglorious state as people

Crystallized, our hopelessness and shame

We are but loathsome slaves on Planet Earth

Unfit as subject of a stately epic.

A nation of sleepwalkers we are, unblessed

An utterly coveted and sick people of Asia

Wantonly plundered by gluttonous alien Titans

And so too by local lords of similar mold.

Need we rise up from the mortified doldrums

To get back to the folds of Rizal’s grand era

To regain the trust in self built by Bonifacio

To foster again the sublimest nationhood.

Come forth, Pinatubo!

Thunder our valleys and hills

With your majestic voice

On the day of our national freedom!

You are the longed for herald of Apocalypse

Of our dim and stinking state.

Burn down the Sodoms and Gomorrahs of ours!

Demonic icons of imperial lust.

Bury the putrid old world with pyroclastics!

We shall regale the burial with wondrous dirges.

Why ought we wish you with infinite praises?

Why not indeed when you sprinkled vast lands

With ashes: mark of holiness a la Ash Wednesday?

O! majestic mount! You’ve heralded

Soon shall arise a glorious nation in our midst.

The holocaustal tapestry you’ve evoked

‘Tis but the birth pangs of greatness.

This nation, a Sun that others seek for Light

Undying—of justices, wisdom, compassion.

Hail! Sacred Pinatubo Mount of Triumph!

[Writ. 21 June 91, Cubao,Quezon City, M.Manila]

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HERALD MY LADY COMING O! MORNING SUN!

Erle Frayne Argonza y Delago

Tell me O! morning Sun, tell me
What destiny has providenced for every man?
What meaning too behind the arching mills
Of fate whose noble architect humans are?
What more fate in store?
What more treks to traverse?
What further joys to delight in?
What further sorrows to bear?

When knocks again Eros upon my heart
Is this the ultimate hour for the waiting
For her the lovely woman
Foretold a myriad times in dreams?
Foretold too by well-meaning seers?
She, the sporter of the long flowing hair
A-flashed her sight is beneath my mental screens?
She a wondrous damsel though in pains
Conceiver of my first born scion?

So let it be O! Sun! So be it
I wait no more for this foretold of old
Fulfilled shall be my being in her
Fulfilled more as mount of Light I am
With life a-nurtured as will
She be with me.

[Writ. 25 June 1991, Cubao, Quezon City, M.Manila]

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JUSTICE

Erle Frayne Argonza y Delago

Everyday is a mortal tablet
upon which is inscribed the expectation
of all
that kings and princes
must exude
wisdom and justice

But justice is facilely broken off
It is a cheap jar bought from
an obscure bazaar
on planet Earth
broken
by kings and princes

[Writ. 04 June 1991, Cubao, Quezon City, M.Manila]

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TWILIGHT

Erle Frayne Argonza y Delago

I fathom not what twilight brings
Beneath the last vestiges of the sun beams
Beneath is the labyrinthine sky
The cosmic basket of all emotions

Twilight is the crucible of moods
Of all sorts, a puzzle it is
To presage which one is first a-floated
Within one’s self,
But to the poet

Only one mood is certain
Only one, the knowledge of which
The poet possesses alone as private estate
‘tis the estate that commands pen again
To fill up blank pages with sensical words
And words even beyond the sensical

Beyond
Twilight’s brimmed expectations

[Writ. 04 June 1991, Cubao, Quezon City, M.Manila]

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ON MUSIC

Erle Frayne Argonza y Delago 

That I sing and make music

Brings joy and solitude to the psyche

Praise be to my wise grandfather

Of mathematical and musical genius made

From whom my bard’s mind was crafted.

Music is the holiest mover

It combines all powers of gods

From Olympus and all heavens

It shakes and rattles souls the most.

Music is certainly mathematics

Of metrics and calculus built

For which its maker anticipates

Astride rhythm and rhyme

The sonic bursts from orals and instruments.

Calculated is the world too

In music, a most moved audience

By booming sonics of its trade. 

[Writ. 04 June 1991, Cubao, Quezon City, M.Manila]

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