The Golden Years Anthology (Article in Progress)

The Golden Years Anthology

Dr Abe V Rotor

1. Re-creating Heaven-on-Earth on the Wall

"The pure perfect truth of life is that we are here to create heaven on earth, to bring the perfection of what is above down to us, and in doing so to become transformed as human being into something great and beautiful." - Kathleen McGowan

Author and artist poses with friends before a huge wall mural complex

he painted for St Paul University QC in 2000

Blood stain on my shirt, my friends were concerned;

     “Go to the clinic,” they urged, pleaded;

My wound was healing then, its stitches stretched

     to the limit. “I’ll be OK, “I said.

Frantic, catching up in the final hour it seemed

     to the last breathe - the ultimate test;

What more in life can you do before its flame

      goes out?  I didn’t care at all to rest.

I saw dark clouds like curtain parting into view

     a landscape so beautiful, so pristine;

I wondered where heaven is - isn’t it on earth?

     this scene in my whole life I hadn’t seen.

Only when the inner you sees beyond the wall;

     “What’s essential is invisible to the eye,”

Exupery’ wrote in The Little Prince, the pilot

      lost in the desert and about to die.

Frankl’s Search for Meaning, Handel’s Hallelujah,

     Hugo’s novels, Rizal’s Last Farewell  

Behind their footsteps least trodden I followed,   

a heaven-on-earth I’m humbled to tell. ~   

2. Can art guide man out from greed and folly?

"There is no fire like passion, there is no shark like hatred, there is no snare like folly, there is no torrent like greed." - Gautama Buddha 

2A. Global Warming and Forest Fire

Global Warming and Forest Fire in acrylic by AV Rotor

There's irony in art: one said, it's beautiful;

     I like the bright color, said another;

It is as if it were real, a critic commented;

     but what's the message, brother?

One asked if I painted it right on-the-spot;

     a child thought it was by imagination;

a man was furious: who burned the forest? 

     blaming one and the whole nation. 

Calmly I said, it's an effect of global warming,

      and man's folly plus the phenomenon; 

 art takes the lead, to break man's indifference,

      to guide him out of the unknown. ~  

 2B. A New Beginning After

Nature comes back to life in acrylic by AV Rotor

A corner of Eden rises from the ashes,

left by her guardian long ago;

the birds return, clouds form into rain,

a miracle, man will never know.

And nature in silence keeps working,

forests, fields across the valley,

 resurrect best in the absence of man, 

 not in his art in greed and folly. ~

3. Rainbow on a Wall Mural 

"Today's teardrops are tomorrow's rainbows." - Ricky Nelson 

                                   . Rainbow on a Wall Mural by the author, Lagro QC

I painted a wall and brought a rainbow down;

it fell on the grass, over my head its crown;

what my painting lacked, it gloriously filled,

and I, the artist humbled, my pride stilled.

Now I understand how a masterpiece is made,

the Sistine chapel, Berlin wall, Roman pallisade,

these classical works, their secrets long sought -

it's the Creator's expression in man's thought. ~

4.  Childhood Reflection of Time Past

Childhood Reflection of Time Past in oil on canvas

by AV Rotor, circa 1980

It is on pristine still water

On the face of a wide blue sky,

Climbing on trees and rocks up high

That we see ourselves in the hands of time;

Through the mist we see children

Of many years back with Mark Twain's

Huckleberry Finn and company

On a meandering river to the sea.

Who is fishing there? Ahoy!

Only the tingling chime answers;

The childhood in us throbs, throbs

With the sweet music of time past. ~

 

Move over computer games,

Move over shopping mall,

Move over cinema, TV shows,

Move over behind the Wall.

 

Welcome the green grass lawn,

Welcome the murmuring stream,

Welcome the singing of birds,

Welcome Nature in day dream.

Echoes on the wall of lilting children,

Echoes on the wall of rustling trees,

Echoes on the wall of distant thunder,

Echoes on the wall of passing breeze.

 

At peace with the world in happy childhood,

At peace with the world in air castle and dream,

At peace with the world in solace and quiet,

At peace with the world beside a running stream. ~

5. Clay

Fr Miguel de Benavides, founder of UST 1611

Knead and mold, knead and mold,

Time may tarry with its demand;

Let not the clay sit still, I am told,

and wait for the child to be man.

Knead and mold, knead and mold,

Again and again, and trying still;

Godly and oblate, lovely to behold,

For Heaven's sake, don't move the keel. ~

 6.  Goodbye Saint Paul Museum, Goodbye

 

                             Ruins of Colonialism mural (8 ft x 8 ft) by Dr AV Rotor 1995                            

Faithful you've been for fifteen years to guests and spirits,

the dead in their memory and honor, in their resting place;

their sanctuary to mingle with the living and community,

reliving events of history, art, culture - pride of our race.

Good bye, Saint Paul museum, you have done your part,

For I shall walk to where the sun sets, to a common end,

Farewell to the beauty, ephemeral to a hard and cold heart 

where art is a passing glance and light fading at the bend.

How little can we bid our patrons and friends with gratitude,

young and old, their gentle ways, whispers, and wide eyes,

the place sacred, sanctuary of tradition, keyhole of history,

telling to the world nowhere else exists beyond any price?  

I miss the grass owl, the lemur, the violins, the murals exiled,

the scriptures I saved from fire, trophies I picked from the bin;

broken jars I mended, shells and wares I cleaned into artifacts,   

dioramas by small hands I guided, each depicting a scene. 

Where is Michelangelo now, Rembrandt, stories in the bible?

paintings and writings made by the young in joy and pain?

amateurs - I never called those less in the art but full in heart,

I must bid them too, wishing their work shall not die in vain.

Under your roof I found stories to write, poems to compose,

canvas to paint, guiding hands I lent to the young and old;

under the eyes of my greatest apostle – these I’m blessed,

opening the gate of wisdom and humbling me from bold.~   

Parting isn't easy but time heals. But lo! I found my saint  

in the dark, on bare wall, where day and night are unkind,

deep moan and sigh I hear, I can shed but a drop of tear;    

what mystery should history repeat itself with time in bind?  

Let me cloak you as I did when I painted you years ago,

return the glow in your eyes, freshen the red in your breast;

together with murals of your kind – in your travel and trial,

as my strength drains with the sunset, before my final rest.

Goodbye St Paul; one candle you light, you light the world,

where air is thin, footsteps heavy, ignorance and silence one;

where for a decade and half, you and I together stood

in a museum we built, and I your humble disciple and son. ~   

  7. Fish Incognito 

(Pointillism Art)

A School of Grouper Fish (38" x 26"), AVR. Pointillism is an art style of Impressionism in the later part of the 19th century in Europe, a distinct style that characterize in the paintings of French artist Georges Seurat, leader of this neo-impressionist movement. 

Fish, tell me where you live, your home;

    The ocean is so huge to be your own;

Fish answers: I am a fugitive in pursuit,

    Hunted or hunter whichever may suit.    

Fish, tell me of your kin and your shoal;

    How you live together as a school;

Fish answers: I live by the rules of the sea,

    By number and luck, and by being free.  

Fish, tell me if I am friend to you, or a foe;

    I gave you a name, regard you with awe;

Fish answers: Neither, I'd rather be unseen,

    Far from the dreadful fate of your cuisine. ~ 

8. Two Balls of Fire 

“The blazing fire makes flames and brightness out 

of everything thrown into it.”— Marcus Aurelius

Forest on Fire by the author 2015

Two balls of fire the forest bears: 

      life-giving sun and a curse.

 What one builds, the other destroys 

     the beauty of the first.~

9.Talisay at Sunset in Amihan

Talisay (Terminalia catappa) UST campus, Manila

Don't shed off your golden crown in the night

and lose your beauty alone in the dark;

let the sun bring back my sense of awe through sight

with the cold wind bringing the happy lark,

to break the silence before the new light;

cast, cast in the blue sky your final arch

that makes a carpet in the waning light. 

        10. Sail Boats Forever 

Sailboats in acrylic, AVR c. 2004

What a crude game, you may say, 

Of my ancestors’ sailboats catching 

The breeze, docking the gusts, 

Edging the rocks, sans compass 

Or sextant, map and telescope.

What prize is at stake? Not a trophy. 

Yet the instinct craves for a prize 

Like in The Old Man and the Sea; 

A prize he found, mindless of people. 

Who saw nothing of his adventure.

Let the sailboats play in the wind

And water, let alone an old boat 

At rest, sitting on rock like an old man,

Standing guard over the young, who too, 

Shall someday play the same old game. ~ 

11. Living Prism in the Deep

Living Prism in the Deep in acrylic (24” x 43”) 2017

Sunlight splits into colors, the rainbow,

     through droplets hanging in the sky,

the deep among seaweeds where fish play,

     letting time and the world go by.

Oh, how the seasons come and go at ease,

     ephemeral in our lifetime,

yet fullest in awe and wonder and joy,

     in the living prism in our prime.

In the golden years as the sun sets down,

     and into the deep its last rays soon die,

lingers, flickers the light saved by the day

     into beautiful dreams to live by. ~

                     12. Nesting Swallow in a Museum

Swallows build mud nests, often attaching them to buildings or structures. Both male and female swallows collect mud and other materials, often mixed with grass stems, to build the nest which is semicircular or full cup in shape.

Museum of Natural History, UPLB, Laguna. Photo taken by the author.

It's alive, this elusive bird called swallow or swift, 

     Golondrina in Mexican folklore;

I thought it was just one of the stuffed specimens; 

     but here a nest she sits on and nothing more.

 

What message does this bird convey, why of all places 

     the museum? Did it come from a foreign shore? 

I wonder if she has kin from where she came, and where; 

     and here a nest she sits on and nothing more. ~

*The common swallow (Hirundo rustica) belongs to the swallow family Hirundinidae with other passerine species. Swifts on the other hand, though superficially similar to swallows, are not closely related. Swifts are placed in the order Apodiformes along with hummingbirds.

13. Convergence in Nature Meditation

                             Convergence in Nature, (30" x 70") AVR 2012

One may find where land, water and sky meet:

• peace and turbulence,
• light and darkness,
• order and chaos,
• love and hate,
• joy and sorrow,
• hope and despair,
• life and death.

       Another may find where land, water and heaven meet:

• turbulence and peace,
• darkness and light
• chaos and order,
• hate and love,
• sorrow and joy,
• despair and hope,
• death and new life. ~

Painting: Courtesy of the author's nephews and nieces, Dr Rene and Marilyn Makilan, USA, on the occasion of their visit with Shekinah, and Ronnie Rotor, to the Philippines, 2012.

14. MEDITATION:

Reflection and Relaxation

"When the sun is in its zenith, half the day is gone, half of the work done, half of life's stirrings over, yet the joy of living, its challenges and rewards are whole and forever." avr 

A Paulinian student takes time out to meditate over a landscape mural painted by the author for St Paul College of Ilocos Sur, February 26, 2018. 

When things seem to be overwhelming, the road long and rough, the horizon far and dim, and you feel powerless under this situation, give yourself time to meditate;

When the wind stops to blow, the treetops still, birds no longer fly, the fields lay bare after harvest time, summer creeps in, and you feel the false calm of doldrums, meditate;

When the first rain is but a shower, shy and naive over the parched landscape and the dry riverbed, listen to the distant thunder, watch the gathering cloud, meditate;

When the mountains are blue in the distance, as blue as the azure sky and the sea resting after tempest, the valley deep and green, be part of the scenery, meditate;

When the birds migrate to the south before winter sets in and return in springtime, imagine the magnificence of the view from above, the adventure of travel, meditate;

When the trees proudly stand together to form a living fort, bastion against the vagaries of nature, abode and domicile of creation to which you are a part, meditate;

When the habagat is in its peak with days and days of rain, the fields now a huge lake, joining the rivers and lakes, it's nature's process of dynamic balance, meditate;

When the amihan sets in, cold wind from the north sweeps over the ripening grains, golden in the sun, undulating, lilting with kids flying kites - you're with them, meditate;

When the world seems to be moving too fast, on a chartless path, you feel you are adrift and part of a bandwagon, move out before it's too late, meditate;

When the trees come alive with music at dawn, mists settle into dewdrops, sparkling like diamonds as the sun rises, the curtain opens a new day - awake, meditate; 

When the sun is in its zenith, half the day is gone, half of the work done, half of life's stirrings over, yet the joy of living, its challenges and rewards are whole, meditate;

When the sun sets, dusk the prelude to rest, Angelus prayer itself in silence, peace and harmony set in, be at the center of Home, Family and Creator, meditate. ~

Poetry reading is an art. In fact, poetry is intended to be read before an audience to fully appreciate it, its theme and message, its rhyme and rhythm, style and meter cum expression of the reader. For this particular piece, the author suggests as a background music, Meditation, a symphonic intermezzo from the opera Thaïs by French composer Jules Massenet. The piece is written for solo violin and orchestra. The opera premiered at the Opéra Garnier in Paris on March 16, 1894.

15. Ode to the Umbrella Tree

Talisay or Lugo' (Terminalia catappa)

"How beautifully leaves grow old. How full of light and

color are their last days." - John Burrows

Herbarium Art and Verse by Dr Abe V Rotor

Herbarium Art: Mounted leaves of talisay (Terminalia catappa)

  

Details: Imprint on acrylic, cured fallen leaves 

You bring the autumn where there is none;

only monsoon have we, wet and dry;

you lose your crown before the rains come;

and at harvest time, you weep and cry.

Your ancestors left home eons ago

as the continents drifted apart;

divided by the cold and warm sea

surviving them here in this part.

You carry their genes of four seasons,

deciduous without winter snow;

emerging with new crown in summer,

and amihan* is your greatest show.~         

                              Gem in the Setting Sun

  Autumnal equinox sun through a reddening leaf,

  measure of three quarters of the year gone;
  so too, the calendar of man's life swift and brief, 

  golden like precious gem in the setting sun

Talisay (Lugo Ilk) Terminalia catappa is a large tropical tree in the leadwood tree family, Combretaceae, that grows mainly in the tropical regions of Asia, Africa, and Australia. Common names in English include country almond, Indian almond, Malabar almond, sea almond, tropical almond, beach almond  and false kamani. 

16.        Enigmatic, Ephemeral Mayfly (Ephemera vulgata)

 Living Rainbow in the Night

Dr Abe V Rotor 

Highly magnified Mayfly (Order Ephemeroptera). 

 Acknowledgement: Internet photo by Melvyn Yeo 2015

On a dreary night comes a friendly guest cloaked with rainbow, circles my table lamp and alights on a book I am reading;

It seems to tell me of many things in life I don't know or haven't experienced, things more that the book can tell, questions reasons alone cannot answer;

On its two pairs of wings I read some pages of natural history and mythology, see them as cyber screen of strange scenery;

How beautiful you are. And she looks sad. Compliment and flatter I know have each a place. I repeat my praise. She is silent;

Beauty - real beauty doesn't last, I know. It is ephemeral - it's but for a day. That's what she gets her name and order - Ephemeroptera;

Then beauty is abandon else it will go to waste. Swarming for a mate, egg laying in a flash, displaying a kaleidoscopic dress her last;

Then she dies, and the night once more is dark but no longer dreary, the book closes.The rainbow joins the stars in sweet silence. ~

17. "Nature is a world of reality and fantasy."- avr

Details of Mural by Dr Abe V Rotor

"There is something infinitely healing in the repeated refrains of nature — the assurance that dawn comes after night, and spring after the winter." - Rachel Carson

Wish the animals are alive and tame.

 

They never saw the animals in the wild;

no, not in the concrete jungle of the city;

save a visit to the zoo, images on TV,

it's a world of reality and fantasy.

"I firmly believe that nature brings solace in all troubles." 

- Anne Frank

White Doves Meet the Sun - a Forest Scene.

Morning comes late in the forest,

and evening comes early;

So with creatures at play or rest

 in their leisure and play. 

"My wish is to stay always like this, living quietly in a corner of nature."

 - Claude Monet

18.    Early Sunset of a Landscape

"Landscape - but whose landscape?

robbed from people, robbed from Nature..."

View from a hill in Antipolo, Rizal, June 1, 2013

Afternoon and it's already sunset,

behind gray clouds the sun's shining,

wearing a red veil over the horizon,

with dust stirred into the air floating.

Beauty in birth and death - and life,

in between - clinging to final fate

in man's hand - and oh! how lonely,

how sad, nil of hope and losing faith.

Landscape - but whose landscape?

robbed from people, robbed from nature,

from beauty sublime, to one's design

for gain and power, not for the future. 

And he speaks on behalf of progress,

measured by concrete and steel,

by the amenities of the Good Life,

in unending want, incessant fill. ~    

19. The Last Sentinel

"Once upon a time there was a Paradise

abandoned by man in search for glory."

Mahogany (Swietenia macrophylla), stands virtually alone 

on Tagaytay Ridge. Photo taken by the author on March 24, 2013 

I braved the wind and storm, drought and rain,

     vandals and lovers carving their pledge, 

the beetle and caterpillar, all that has to gain

     from me standing on this ridge at its edge.

I was as proud as a king, tallest among my kin,

     home of countless tenants and refugees;

by height and place I was keen at touching the sky,

     though so little I felt on Babel's knees.

The view around was lush and green, verdant 

     in the sun as mist and fog would unfold;

a woodland was my world, I was once a part,

     until humans came to replace the old.

My neighbors are gone, I lost track of my lineage, 

     I've no one to talk to, though humans can 

in queer sound far from the gentleness of breeze

     all day long and after the sun is down. 

I lost sight overlooking the famed volcano, 

     its lake within a lake shining in the sun;

my vantage is blocked by roofs and walls and smog,

     an orphan I became by progress of man. 

I no longer hear plaintive and joyful songs,

     recitation of verses under my wing; 

weary travelers no longer stop to take a nap,

     nor birds nest in my branches and sing.

I live in fear for the woodsman, the engineer,

     but I've lived with fear enough to understand

the world of man: fear akin to his existence

     hidden in want - guideless, boundless in band. 

Man's era shall reign over nature, but for how long?

     I can only tell from my ancestors' story:

once upon a time there was a Paradise 

     abandoned by man in search for glory. ~ 

20. Reflection and Meditation about Life

1. We do not have the time, indeed an alibi

to indolence and loafing, letting time pass by.

Sun on a hazy day

2. As we undervalue ourselves, so do others
undervalue us. Lo, to us all little brothers.

3. Self-doubt at the start is often necessary
to seek perfection of the trade we carry.

4. What is more mean than envy or indolence
but the two themselves riding on insolence.

5. The worst kind of persecution occurs in the mind,
that of the body we can often undermine.

6. How seldom, if at all, do we weigh our neighbors
the way we weigh ourselves with the same favors?

7. Friendship that we share to others multiplies
our compassion and love where happiness lies.

8. Evil is evil indeed - so with its mirror,
while goodness builds on goodness in store.

Morning rainbow, Bamban, Tarlac

9. That others may learn and soon trust you,
show them you're trustworthy, kind and true.

10. Kindness and gladness, these however small
are never, never put to waste at all. 

11. We do not have the time, indeed an alibi
to indolence and loafing, letting time pass by.

12. As we undervalue ourselves, so do others
undervalue us. Lo, to us all little brothers.

13. Self-doubt at the start is often necessary
to seek perfection of the trade we carry.

14. What is more mean than envy or indolence
but the two themselves riding on insolence.

Morning rainbow, Bamban, Tarlac

15. The worst kind of persecution occurs in the mind,

that of the body we can often undermine.

16. How seldom, if at all, do we weigh our neighbors
the way we weigh ourselves with the same favors?

17. Friendship that we share to others multiplies
our compassion and love where happiness lies.

18. Evil is evil indeed - so with its mirror,
while goodness builds on goodness in store.

19. That others may learn and soon trust you,
show them you're trustworthy, kind and true.

20. Kindness and gladness, these however small
are never, never put to waste at all. ~

21. Dewdrops of Meditation

1. When the skies cry and tears fall,
The grass is greener, so with the soul.

2. The rain pelts on the faces of children
Turned heavenward. Look my brethren.

3. Walks he alone in the rain singing,
Whether the wind's cool or the sun peeping.

4. If I'm responsible for what I tame,
Would I have a choice of only the lame?

5. A gentle breeze came through a lid;
Where's the window when the wall's solid?

6. Pray, but if Thor holds back the lightning bolts,
We may not have mushroom and the jolts.

7. Hush! Suddenly the world became still;
Gone is the lark or the raven on the sill.

8. Saxon wall, each turret a guard-
Now empty, lonely is war afterward.

9. Radial symmetry starts from the center,
That balances an outside force to enter.

10. What good is a lamp at the ledge?
Wait 'til the day reaches its edge.

11. In seeing our past we find little to share,
If the past is the present we're living in.

12. In abstract art you lose reality;
How then can I paint truth and beauty?

13. Brick wall, brick roof, brick stair,
Glisten in the rain, dull in summer air.

14.What's essential can't be seen by the eye
Like the faith of Keller and Captain Bligh.

15. Similar is rainbow and moth in flight
When you see them against the light.

16. From respite in summer fallow,
The fields start a season anew.

17. From green to gold the grains become
As they store the power of the sun.

18. Not all sand dunes for sure
Ends up on empty shore.

19. One little smoke tells the difference,
Like a faint pulse is life's reference.

20. It's collective memory that I'm a part
To write my life's story when I depart.

22. Cryptobiology

SOS call of Planet Earth, our only ship in space.

Driftwood resembling a beast with "living and pleading eye". 

Collection of the Living with Nature 

The eye, the eye!

Hauntingly it stares

at whoever cut this tree

to repent and cry. - avr

 

Kissing trees - counterpart of the mythical kissing rocks.

Old tree lying on its own tombstone.

"Kiss in a lifetime seals love even in the afterlife." - avr

 "A happy life is never senile.  Trees grow old with grace." - avr

 

Tree figures resembling human passion.  Trees also have feelings.

"When, in disgrace with fortune and men’s eyes,

      I all alone beweep my outcast state,

 And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries,

      And look upon myself and curse my fate."

        

       - William Shakespeare, Sonnet 29 

  

 

Trees may be weird looking, but actually tame and kind.

"Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?"* 

Trees have stories to tell.  

They also sing, laugh and cry,

  and often leave us a spell. - avr

*1933 Disney cartoon "Three Little Pigs". The pigs sing the song to taunt the wolf, suggesting they are not scared of him. However, the wolf is still a threat as he tries to enter their houses, highlighting the fear the pigs initially feel. The song's popularity during the Great Depression is also notable, as it became a symbol of defiance against hard times, Wikipedia.

 

Evolution and extinction - periodicity beyond our senses.

"Darwinian and Lamarckian:

evolution through adaptation,

it's counterpart, law of disuse,

taking place at the same time

         beyond, in sweet chime." - avr 

  

 

 

These trees resemble appendages or limbs reminiscent of transience, 

unity, and agility of living things as key to their survival and well-being. 

"Limbs are tools for peace, security, 

access and mobility, 

limbs of the law, limbs of the sea*, 

   and limbs of the tree."- avr

*  Limbs of the sea refer to rivers and bays.

  

Endangered Rhinoceros; extinct Dodo bird*

"Extinct, in past and future tenses,

fossils, artefacts, archives,

the dead and the living, the latter

facing doom altogether." - avr

* The Dodo is a lesson about extinction. Found by Dutch soldiers around 1600 on an island in the Indian Ocean, the Dodo became extinct less than 80 years later because of deforestation, hunting, and destruction of their nests by animals brought to the island by the Dutch. 
Cryptobiology - Cryptids are creatures whose existence is debated or unproven, often found in folklore and popular culture. They are the subject of fascination and speculation, and quotes about them often reflect themes of mystery, the unknown, and the allure of the unexplained.  AI Overview

Acknowledgement with gratitude to various sources - Facebook, Living with Nature Center, Internet.

23.  Trees at Peace

A. Tree that Wears a Veil

                     

Acacia tree in its deciduous stage, is loaded with epiphytes,

 Ateneo de Manila University QC campus

                 

A veil to shield the sun,

A veil to keep from rain,

A veil to buffer the wind,

A veil to hide the view around,

A veil to muffle sweet sound,

When you wear your crown.

A veil to let the sunshine in,

A veil to welcome the rain,

A veil to dance in the wind,

A veil to view far beyond,

A veil to free those in bond,

When you lose your crown.

A veil to clothe the naked,

A veil to comfort the lonely,

A veil to feed the hungry,

A veil to house the lost.

A veil to welcome the dawn,

When you gain back your crown.

                                            B. Leafless Tree by the Window

                                 Sacred Heart Novitiate, Novaliches QC

      

I am a passing wind, I knock on the window pane,

     The door is closed, the wall in deathly pallor;

The roof of rusting crimson, eaten by sun and rain.

     I knock again - only silence returns my call.

I must have missed summer when everything here -

     A single tree, a patch of grass - is a garden;

Long was my way fighting the dark heavy sky,

     And autumn lulling all into deep slumber.

Fall is beautiful, but where are the good poets now?

     Sleep and the flowers will come one by one;

But I am just a passing wind and soon I'll be gone.

     I knock again - only silence returns my call.

                      C. Deciduous Trees

                                                                       ciduous Trees in Acrylic AVR   

You lose your crown that you may gain

Freedom to reach out for the sky;

For the sun to bathe your whole being,

To raise the lowly where they lie.

The sky and ground now become one,

Renewing faith in new life to beam;

Rises the sun the prime mover all,

To flow through the living stream.

You litter the floor, keep in the rain,

Feed the microbes, the brute you tame,

Breaking the carbon back to its form,

And the genie for the next game.

Seasons may come and go, obedient

And humble are your ways untold;

Your old gene, it’s the key to loving

Your kin, and fighting the bold.

Against the wind and scanty rain;

The inner signal comes around

Ticking, then it comes, it is fall;

You have earned a bigger crown. ~

 

24. There’s no place like Home! 

     There’s no place like Home!

Dr Abe V Rotor

Brick farm house in acrylic, by AVRotor

                                                          

Home, Sweet Home

By John Howard Payne

Music by Henry Rowley Bishop (1786-1855)

(Arranged for the violin and piano by Henry Farmer)

‘Mid pleasures and palaces though we may roam,

Be it ever so humble, there’s no place like home;

A charm from the sky seems to hallow us there,

Which seek through the world, is ne’er met with elsewhere.

Home, Home, sweet, sweet Home!

An exile from home, splendor dazzles in vain;

O, give me my lowly thatched cottage again!

The birds singingly gaily, that came to my call –

Give me them – and the peace of mind, dearer than all.

Home, Home sweet, sweet Home.

There’s no place like Home! There’s no place like Home!

Home Sweet Home is one of my favorite pieces on the violin. My daughter would accompany me on the piano in my lectures, and on one occasion, in a concert. The arrangement made by Henry Farmer is made up of three variations revolving on the popular melody of the song. Home Sweet Home was popularized by the pioneers who left their homes in the Old World and settled in the New World - America.

One of the lessons I discussed lately on the school-on-air program - Paaralang Bayan sa Himpapawid - is about home and family. It was one of the liveliest lessons ever conducted on air with many enthusiastic callers who shared their concepts and views about a happy home. Here is a short list.

1. Home is a roof for everyone, residents and guests.

2. Home is a wall with large windows that let the sun and the breeze in.

3. Home is where fish in the aquarium sparkle in the morning’s sun.

4. Home is a baby smiling, of children playing.

5. Home is a faithful husband and wife.

6. Home is a “place for everything and everything in its place,” but not always.

7. Home is dad and mom waiting for us from school.

8. Home is a workshop for hobbies and inventions.

9. Home is where our dog lies on the doormat waiting for its master.

10. Home is a litter of puppies and kittens.

11. Home is a rooster crowing, nature’s alarm clock.

12. Home is a house lizard’s crispy announcement of a guest coming.

13. Home is a frog croaking in the rain.

14. Home is a safari of wildlife – from insects to migratory birds.

15. Home is a warm embrace of a cat.

16. Home is a cup of coffee, a sip of wine, a newspaper.

17. Home is a warm bath, a cold shower, a bath tub.

18. Home is National Geographic, Time Magazine, Daily Inquirer.

19. Home is ripe tomato, succulent radish, dangling string beans,

20. Home is a brooding mother hen in her nest.

21. Home is fresh eggs everyday.

22. Home is the sound of birds and crickets.

23. Home is the sweet smell of flowers, falling leaves, swaying branches

      in the wind.

24. Home is the sweet smell of the earth after the first rain in May.

25. Home is a singing cicada in the tree.

26. Home is a swarming of gamugamo in the evening.

27. Home is a sala too small for so many friends.

28. Home is a cabinet of books, a study table, a computer.

29. Home is Beethoven, Mozart, Abelardo, Santiago.

30. Home is Charlotte Church, Josh Groban, Sharon Cuneta.

31. Home is Amorsolo. Picasso, Van Gogh.

32. Home is potpourri of appetizing recipes, of the proverbial grandmother

      apple pie.

33. Home is pinakbet, lechon, karekare, suman, bibingka.

34. Home is a garden of roses, a grass lawn to lie on.

35. Home is an herbarium of plants, a gene bank.

36. Home is home for biodiversity, a living museum.

37. Home is doing repair that has no end.

38. Home is disposing old newspapers, bottles, metal scraps, used clothes.

39. Home is a midnight candle before an exam.

40. Home is a shoulder, a pillow, to cry on.

41. Home is Noche Buena.42. Home is fireworks on New Year.

43. Home is general cleaning on weekends.

44. Home is a soft bed that soothes tired nerves and muscles.

45. Home is a fire place, a hearth, which takes the cold out of the body and spirit.

46. Home is a Prodigal Son returning, Good Samaritan.

47. Home is a round table where thanksgiving prayer is said.

48. Home is laughter and music, prose and poetry.

49. Home is forgiving, rejoicing, celebrating.

50. Home is angelus and rosary hour.

To sum it all, Home is Home, Sweet Home.~

Author plays "Home, Sweet Home" with imagined scenery of love and longing.

  
Homeward Bound

                     There's one road you travel on down the bend:

going home every day in your life 'til its end.

when the sun is low, and when it's going down,
you have to leave, and home you're bound.

when the fowls roost in their favorite tree,
you too, shall cease in your work and spree.

when the leaves of the acacia tree start to fold,
start walking home, a wise advice of the old.

when the fields are empty, save the haystacks,
and some old gleaners bent on their backs.

when the prop roots of the balete appear ghostly,
even if you are afraid, don't show, act bravely.

when the bell tolls the Angelus, it's time to pray,
and every one pauses for a while on his way.

when approaching home the whole household
greets you - what a happy family to behold!

When the day is over, when life comes to an end,
finished or not your task, it's time to say Amen.