Aberjhani


Star People

Befriended by gypsies of despair
every dawn we dance the sun
out of hiding.

Every howling night
we cry the moon
back to joyful beauty.

This fire that we call Loving
is too strong for human minds.
But just right for human souls.

Everywhere we shine
death and life burn
into something new,

rise up like perfumed nebulae
through the jubilant road
flowing beneath our feet.

(from Elemental)

COMPOSITE: Apollo 17 Moon Pan, and M45 Pleiades Star Cluster by Phillip Jones, from APOD-NASA (Astronomy Picture of the Day), superimposed with University of the Philippines (Diliman) acacia canopy (my photo)

Jose Marte Abueg


Nascent

Under a bit of sky, in a certain absence, there seeps in
a word, a phrase, unspoken

— and you begin to move, with eye on lightning
and the gradual echo.

Hard to explain, hard for a finger to trace and for reason
to find your trail:

by what cloud sown, by what masonry cobbled, what flame
and chemistry distilled.

Entering like a leopard and leaping like a night
dream: trespasser

blowing words on curtains, transforming doors.
Drive away the deserted

hours, the minutes without whispers, daybreaks
with no hint

of myth, tale or symbol, banish all
that are without

breath, or name. Move about, firelight, poem.
Roam, range,

like a roar, like bright tiger's heat,
stop at nothing.