Morning at the University of Santo Tomas Manila Botanical Garden - An On-the-Spot Painting

"It is misty, it is foggy, here at the

garden, or it must be smog in the city air..."

Painting and poem by Abe V Rotor

 

                      It is misty, it is foggy, here at the garden,

     or it must be smog in the city air;
and the early rays pierce through like spears,
     yet this is the best place for a lair.

But the artist must be provoked, challenged;
     for peace can't make a masterpiece;
only a troubled soul rises where others fall,
     where ease and good life often miss.

This lair is where the action is, the battlefield,
     where pure and polluted air meet,
where a garden in a concrete jungle reigns,
     where nature's trail ends in a street.

Art, where is art, when the message is unclear,
     colors, colors, what color is blind faith?
what color is rage, what color is change?
     colors be humble - black is your fate. ~ 

A spray of red and orange in the tree top,

     either it is autumn's onset,
or the season had just passed us in slumber,
     yet too early to hibernate.

Catch the sun, borrow its colors and shine
     that you may be filled with grace divine;
for your life is short and your flowers ephemeral, 
     that make you a mythical vine. 

              

 There is no such thing as emptiness, for memories linger;

     the bench is warm, whispers hang in the glen;
spirits roam, the past comes around in them to haunt,
     to scare a bit to remember them, now and then.