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

The Sciences Sing a Lullabye
Albert Goldbarth
Physics says: go to sleep. Of course
you’re tired. Every atom in you
has been dancing the shimmy in silver shoes
nonstop from mitosis to now.
Quit tapping your feet. They’ll dance
inside themselves without you. Go to sleep.
Geology says: it will be all right. Slow inch
by inch America is giving itself
to the ocean. Go […]

by Mia on 9:38 pm, September 25, 2007 in echoes (4) spoke

Aphrodite’s Identity Crisis
Tenaya Darlington
Love is Greek to me now.
On earth there are only personals,
couples banking on the internet
sans pheromones or fishnets.
High heels click a mouse-click away.
The fastest zip drive beats
fine lingerie. Control, Alt, Delete,
and you Escape without apology.
Dot Com is the girl du jour
just a button away.
Would that I understood how the hard
drive crashed.
Call me […]

by Mia on 10:22 pm, September 20, 2007 in echoes none spoke

I Have News For You
Tony Hoagland
There are people who do not see a broken playground swing
as a symbol of ruined childhood
and there are people who don’t interpret the behavior
of a fly in a motel room as a mocking representation of their thought process.
There are people who don’t walk past an empty swimming pool
and think about […]

by Mia on 10:34 am, September 18, 2007 in echoes none spoke

Get Drunk!
Charles Baudelaire
trans. Michael Hamburger
One should always be drunk. That’s all that matters;
that’s our one imperative need. So as not to feel Time’s horrible
burden that breaks your shoulders and bows you down,
you must get drunk without ceasing.
But what with? With wine, with poetry, or with virtue, as
you choose. But get drunk.
And if, at some time, […]

by Mia on 11:52 pm, September 15, 2007 in echoes none spoke

Soledad
Angela C. Manalang-Gloria
It was a sacrilege, the neighbors cried,
The way she shattered every mullioned pane
To let a firebrand in. They tried in vain
To understand how one so carved from pride
And glassed in dream could have so flung aside
Her graven days, or why she dared profane
The bread and wine of life for one insane
Moment with him. […]

by Mia on 11:30 pm, September 14, 2007 in echoes (1) spoke

1918 - 2007
Instruments (2)
Madeleine L’Engle
Hold me against the dark: I am afraid.
Circle me with your arms. I am made
So tiny and my atoms so unstable
That at any moment I may explode. I am unable
To contain myself in unity. My outlines shiver
With the shock of living. I endeavor
To hold the I as one only for the […]

by Mia on 11:31 pm, September 8, 2007 in echoes (2) spoke

Though she is quick to learn
& admittedly clever,
her natural doubt of herself
should make her so weak
that she dabbles brilliantly
in half a dozen talents
& thus embellishes
but does not change
our life.
Erica Jong, Alcestis on the Poetry Circuit

by Mia on 4:13 am, May 22, 2007 in echoes none spoke

The Ninth Elegy
Rainer Maria Rilke
Why, if this interval of being can be spent serenely
in the form of a laurel, slightly darker than all
other green, with tiny waves on the edges
of every leaf (like the smile of a breeze)–: why then
have to be human–and, escaping from fate,
keep longing for fate? . . .

by Mia on 6:51 pm, March 20, 2007 in echoes none spoke