The Last Hymn
Marianne Farningham
The Sabbath day was ending in a village by the sea,
The uttered benediction touched the people tenderly,
And they rose to face the sunset in the glowing, lighted west,
And then hastened to their dwellings for God’s blessed boon of rest.
But they looked across the waters, and a storm was raging there;
A fierce spirit […]

by Mia on 2:08 pm, November 4, 2007 in echoes none spoke

Pagninilay
John Enrico C. Torralba
May mga panahon at tagpuang
Wala tayong maipangalan
Na kahit anong salita o tibok
O mailarawang kulay o tunog.
Sapagkat naghahawan kita ng liblib
Sa sulok ng mga dibdib
At nag-iiwan ng init ng hininga
Sa mga hamog sa sapot ng gagamba.
Binabagtas din natin ang lahat
Ng bakas at landas ng ulirat
Upang muling magkaroon ng sindi
Ang mitsang matagal na nakubli
Sa […]

by Mia on 12:44 am, October 31, 2007 in echoes none spoke

Between Going and Staying
Octavio Paz
translated by Eliot Weinberger
Between going and staying the day wavers,
in love with its own transparency.
The circular afternoon is now a bay
where the world in stillness rocks.
All is visible and all elusive,
all is near and can’t be touched.
Paper, book, pencil, glass,
rest in the shade of their names.
Time throbbing in […]

by Mia on 10:38 pm, October 18, 2007 in echoes none spoke

Air for Mercury
Brenda Hillman
I.
After the double party
for the poorly loved
when the gleam in the hound’s eye
fell like glass rain on the south
lawn of the countergarden, when
the image of false flags sank
in the mirrored plaques,
when the mirrored plaques
had been passed in, they took
your days and gave them back,
before you unsnapped first
the crenellated shoulder wings
then the fumbling […]

by Mia on 7:00 pm, October 15, 2007 in echoes none spoke

Oh, he was a beautiful fiction
I invented to keep out the cold
And now my blue, blue caravan
I can feel my heart growing old.
–Vienna Teng, Blue Caravan

by Mia on 7:14 pm, October 12, 2007 in echoes none spoke

To Posterity
Louis MacNeice
When books have all seized up like the books in graveyards
And reading and even speaking have been replaced
By other, less difficult, media, we wonder if you
Will find in flowers and fruit the same colour and taste
They held for us for whom they were framed in words,
And will your grass be green, your sky […]

by Mia on 11:56 am, October 8, 2007 in echoes (1) spoke

What Teachers Make, or
Objection Overruled, or
If things don’t work out, you can always go to law school
by Taylor Mali
He says the problem with teachers is, “What’s a kid going to learn
from someone who decided his best option in life was to become a teacher?”
He reminds the other dinner guests that it’s true what they say […]

by Mia on 11:03 am, October 6, 2007 in echoes (4) spoke

Excerpt From Book Three: Sunlight on Broken Stones, The Trilogy of Saint Lazarus
Cirilo F. Bautista
A country of many names, asleep with one
eye open, counting the strokes of sunlegs in
her chest. As the banana boats from Bicol
slice her intestines, as the fierce horsemen of
Ifugao trample her liver, their captain
scattering obscenities in the air, as
the well-fed politicians […]

by Mia on 11:20 am, October 2, 2007 in echoes (5) spoke

Wandering Around an Albuquerque Airport Terminal
Naomi Shihab Nye
After learning my flight was detained 4 hours,
I heard the announcement:
If anyone in the vicinity of gate 4-A understands any Arabic,
Please come to the gate immediately.
Well — one pauses these days. Gate 4-A was my own gate. I went there.
An older woman in full traditional Palestinian dress,
Just like […]

by Mia on 12:18 pm, October 1, 2007 in echoes (1) spoke

Puedo Escribir
Pablo Neruda
Translated into Filipino by Virgilo Almario
Maisusulat ko ang pinakamalungkot na berso ngayong gabi.
Maisusulat ko, halimbawa: “Mabituin ang gabi
at nanginginig, bughaw ang mga tala sa malayo.”
Lumiligid sa langit ang simoy-gabi at umaawit.
Maisusulat ko ang pinakamalungkot na berso ngayong gabi.
Minahal ko siya, at minahal din niya ako paminsan-minsan.
Sa mga gabing ganito, ibinilanggo ko siya sa […]

by Mia on 10:04 pm, September 26, 2007 in echoes (2) spoke