WHAT OUGHT I WRITE AGAIN?

WHAT OUGHT I WRITE AGAIN?

Erle Frayne Argonza y Delago


What ought I write again
On this blank page in front of me?
Blank is my mind as a clear
Tabularasa: empty is the world, a dot
On its circumscribed face

Without an iota of an image
On its being.
Fertile is the night.
Cockroaches dance gaily to proclaim
So. What now would preoccupy
The mind?

Frigid is the pen. It cannot roll on
To herald the hymns and notes
Fervently brewing deep in the vats
Of my inner space: thoughts have receded
Without the usual romance with the pen.


[Writ. 27 May 91, Cubao, Quezon City, M.Manila]

BREAK! BREAK THROUGH TIME AND SPACE!

BREAK! BREAK THROUGH TIME AND SPACE!

Erle Frayne Argonza y Delago

Break, break through the barrier
Betwixt time and timelessness!
Descend upon Terra’s mortal face!
Nestle in the minds of knowers
Who’ll catch you a-glide!
As to your catchers who know not
One another, perfect strangers
Illuminate them with your radiance!
A holy fire you are and ever
To all men you’re passed a-glow.

That you land on different mortal
Baskets at one time and only one
Is cause enough for bafflement
For both simpleton and erudite.

But your stately arrival exudes greater kingliness
Then the wondrous enigma you’ve aroused
Risen have you from beneath time’s antechambers
To exterminate the nebulae of ignorance.


[Writ. 27 May 91, Cubao, Quezon City, M.Manila]

(UNTITLED)

(UNTITLED)

Erle Frayne Argonza y Delago


Shall we again rendezvous
As the rains and leaves do
To the month of June?

Of what romance are we to partake
When neither of us sees at all
The shadow
Nor hears news and whereabouts
Of one another?

Behold! Walls of time have been built
Between us. The chance of communicating
With one another
Had been buried
In catacombs
Complete with dirges.


[Writ. 27 May 91, Cubao, Quezon City, M.Manila]