THOUGHTS ON ACTION

THOUGHTS ON ACTION

Erle Frayne Argonza y Delago

Actions of a kind

And those of others

Ever demand a plethora of decisions

Whether erroneous to some quarters

Or righteous to the rest.

The mind fulfills the thinking

Balanced with the doing

In a majestic rhythm

Of poetry and calculus,

Tempered by Justice

And the quest of the Will,

Astride the vehicle of Wisdom

Fueled by noble Inspiration,

It measures the outcome

Whether least appealing or best.

[Writ. 02 June 1988, Proj. 8, Quezon City, M.Manila.]

SONGBIRD’S MELODY

SONGBIRD’S MELODY

Erle Frayne Argonza y Delago

Songbird of the country

Please sing your tunes tirelessly

On valleys and hills

Sing afloat your theatre of amusement!

You are forever rewarded

With rice, shelter, care

By humble folks who truly cherish you.

Sing!

Sing for them! – the poor and wretched—

They who were left forlorn

By trusted lords

By false guardians of welfare

By deified magnates;

They who are now casting

New lives for themselves

New hopes toward betterment.

O! Songbird so dear!

Lift them up from slumber!

[Writ. 26 May 1988, Proj. 8, Quezon City, M.Manila.]

ASPIRATION

ASPIRATION

Erle Frayne Argonza y Delago

O! Aspiration!

You majestic road

To where all are brought

To fate’s myriad conclusions,

You are beheld

As a plane in Pythagoras’ universe

Contained in Euclid’s space

A foot away to grasp in an instance.

Yet how come that you,

In each one’ pathway

Seem millions of miles away,

Far beyond anyone’s reach?

O! Aspiration!

Please don’t appear as any

Unconquerable chimera

To willful beings

To the willful.

[Writ. 26 May 1988, Proj.8, Quezon City, M.Manila.]

ABOARD TRICYCLES, JEEPNEYS, FERRIES

ABOARD TRICYCLES, JEEPNEYS, FERRIES

 

Erle Frayne Argonza y Delago

 

Well they do

Carry you

To your travel’s destination

These tricycles

Jeepneys

Ferries

Hallmarks of tropical Filipiniana

Whose travel trails are mixtures

Of well paved avenues

And dusty rugged roads

They do make your tours

Altogether fascinating and crucifying

Even as the good buses

Flashy yatch and jet planes

That cater your travels

Lead your ocular organs to witness

The tapestry of wretchedness

And inertia of blighted villages

That altogether inevitably erases

The shangrilaic imageries about the tropics

That may gather in your mind

Like clouds over the Sierra Madre

That the Pacific wind eagerly dissolves.

[Writ. 09 Oct. 1987, Proj. 8, Quezon City, M.Manila.]

CHEERFULNESS

CHEERFULNESS

Erle Frayne Argonza y Delago

Cheerfulness

Is never allowed to be dormant

Among children

In whose currents it

Freely flows

When it erupts

Like sunbursts

That all other cosmic bodies

Gladly accept

As life blessings.

[Writ. 09 Oct. 1987, Proj. 8, Quezon City, M.Manila.]