I asked God for more

I asked God for more
Dr Abe V Rotor


Virgin Forest - only 3 percent is left in the Philippines. Requiem to a forest, 

Brooke's Point, Palawan

I asked God for food, clothing and shelter
     and He showered me
these necessities I can not live without -
     they are the Earth's bounty;
I settled down on fertile hills and valleys
     and multiplied freely.

I asked God for power to boost my strength,
     and He gave me energy;
I leveled the mountains, dammed the rivers
     and conquered the sea;
raped the forests, prairies, lakes and estuaries,
     a world I wanted to be.

I asked God if I can be god, too, all knowing
     with my technology;
broke the sacred code of life and of matter,
     changed the Great Story;
annihilated life unfit in my own design,
     and set my own destiny.

I asked God if He is but a creation of the mind,
     and rose from my knee;
probed space, rounding up the universe,
     aiming at immortality;
bolder than ever, searching for another home,
     and wanting to be free. ~

Insects, insects everywhere! Insects in verses

Insects, insects everywhere! Insects in verses

"If we were to wipe out insects alone on this planet, the rest of life and humanity with it would mostly disappear from the land. Within a few months." - E. O. Wilson

Dr Abe V Rotor


Precariously perched, oh Dragonfly;
your doom awaits below;
a leap away or two, and time ticks,
for there's no tomorrow.

 
Bird droppings, these caterpillars assume;
to deceive their enemies;
until they emerge - long secret preserved,
mystery to the scientists.


Anona fruit borers feast in numbers -
their survival, yet their doom;
when too many, and fruits are few,
and there's not enough room.

 

Bagworm, turtle in the insect world;
carries its house as it roams around,
bit by bit builds a beautiful mansion,
only to abandon it in the final round.


Green like a leaf and slim like snake,
this caterpillar bold and free;
Pavlov could be wrong to insects,
and Charles Darwin in mimicry.

 
Cicada, it's the male shrilling in the trees,
love call to the females on the run;
then a would-be bride or two come close
to Romeo and Caruso rolled into one.

 
Cotton Stainer - guess what is the first dye,
but its saliva in the cotton boll;
ever wonder how designs of fabric are made,
but stains in colors, hues and all.

 

Oriental cockroach - filthiest of all insects,

yet catholic a cleaning habit it got;
of millions of germs it carries and spreads,
it too, disposes more through its gut.

 

Termites, how canny, deceitful;
disguised as coy and shy;
yet could bring a house crushing
down amidst fear and cry.

 
Nature's executioner - preying mantis;
killer by instinct, pious in look,
yet friendly to gardens and farms,
devouring pest in every nook.

 

Psylla lice - the scourge of ipil-ipil trees,
epidemic to the imported varieties,
wiping out plantations in the seventies,
save the indigenous lowly species. 

 

A butterfly makes a garden
with sunrise in union,
plants to bloom to carry on
the next generation.

 

Wasp pollinator - enigma of procreation
of a fig by co-evolution;
by rule, one cannot live without the other
in Nature's strictest order.

 

Stinkbug, how divergent its life is

with inviting coloration,
repugnant odor, to attract and repel,
for freedom and admiration.

 

Tiger moth, remote mimicry
of a dreadful brute;
if threat is preserved this way
what then is truth?

 
Rhinoceros beetle, fierce looking male,
all bluff in a dangerous world;
the female coy and naïve her strategy,
both stronger than the sword.

 
Leafhoppers - minute yet destructive
in countless number;
sipping the vitality of plants
turning them green to amber. ~

Verses to my Model Writers

 Verses to my Model Writers

By Abe V Rotor

1. To Jose Rizal:

Your enemies tried to silence you,
and curtailed your freedom;
the lamp flickers to its last ray at dawn
to seal your martyrdom.

2. To Aesop:
Ah! Animals talk louder than men
though in screech, crow and bleat;
yet by moral and sanity, speak
not the language on the street.






3. To Ernest Hemingway:

You seem as brave as the old man
in your great masterpiece;
the soldier, the hunter, the dreamer -
yet wanting a life of peace.


4. To Charles Darwin:
You did not give up to your critics,
who only prayed and preached;
Around the world you witnessed,
Change by random and fit.

5. To Lola Basiang (penname of Severino Reyes)
You touched a million-and-one lives,
around campfires in their prime;
like Grimm and Anderson and Homer,
storytellers of all time.

6. To Boris Pasternak
Zhivago, to the end walked away alone,
from love neither in winter nor fallow;
what romance away from the war zone
wrapped him in doubt and sorrow.

7. To Mark Twain 

I am a boy forever, Tom or Huck,
down the Mississippi loafing;
and let the world go on sans care
what grownups are missing.

8. To Robert Louis Stevenson
"Kidnapped" made a boy into a man
too soon to faced a cruel world;
learning quickly the art of war
deceit and conceit, gun and sword.

9. To Oscar Wilde 

You're a creator of characters and events,
in novels, stories, and plays
children and adults alike on the armchair
live in those times and places.

10. To Arthur Conan Doyle
"Sherlock Holmes" lives to this day,
idol of any detective;
"The Lost World" remains of the past,
is back in our midst to live. ~

Living Cradle

Living Cradle

Dr Abe V Rotor

A lady researcher finds comfort inside the hollow of a tree in 

a mangrove at low tide. San Luis, Batangas.

Hidden craving in a womb the second time around,

when in retreat to where we first came from;

comfort of a mother, comfort of nature, big or small,

reminds us to keep this primordial role.

I imagine myself to be the lady in the hollow of a tree,

among creatures that welcome her visitation;

I imagine myself to be the benevolent Brugierra tree

speechless in its joy to be the host of humanity.

Comfort our world never fails to provide the needy,

or in joy, the common language of the living;

when carefree, in abandon, when mother and child

are one, the earth and her children in unity. ~

"Sea on the Wall" Forever

"Sea on the Wall" Forever
Wall Mural by Dr Abe V Rotor 

"I love to paint the sea, the sea

when I was young,

as young today in my memory,

and after I'm gone." - avr 

"Sea on the Wall" wall mural by A V Rotor 2015 at his residence

in Lagro QC (30ft x 15ft) ~

Pierian Spring

Pierian Spring

  Mural and Poem by Abe V Rotor

The Hills are Alive Mural, by AVR 2009. Courtesy of University of 

Santo Tomas  Office of the Vice Rector and Secretary General

Pierian Spring, the fountain of youth -

could it be just down the bend,

or on mythical Mt Olympus?

How many souls have long sought

in their lifetime and lost at the end!

It could be the Shangri-La, the Atlantis;

it could  be the biblical Paradise,

the heaven of the good in God's promise,

in the afterlife that rewards the pure

in spirit - who shall again rise.

Little do we know, nil can we afford,

in our searching, for time and space

are but a tick in the clock of the world;

a dot in the infinite universe,

a step in its ever increasing race.

Pierian Spring is the triumph of good

over evil, the trophy of victory;

peace in War and Peace as Tolstoy told,

in the finer things of life and living,

in a beautiful tapestry.

For youth lives forever in the mind

and heart that throbs with humanity -

seeking, believing, loving and kind,

keeping the Pierian Spring flowing

to touch every being in a bind.~

Ruins of a Sunken Pier

Ruins of a Sunken Pier
Dr Abe V Rotor


Puerto, Sto Domingo, Ilocos Sur (Megabooks)

No, it was not the big gun
that brought you down;
it was old Lamarckian
who brought in the clown.

When not in use, a thing
degenerates into nothing;
once a rudiment,
it is a useless instrument.

The limbs of a reptile,
the coccyx of the tail,
Intramuros or Great Wall
are of no use at all.

Idleness and uselessness
are a duo in the art of waste;
great indeed is loss in disuse,
the grey matter's no excuse. ~

Make these dogs happy

Make these dogs happy

Dr Abe V Rotor

Pastel drawing by Anna Christina R Rotor, author's daughter, circa 2000

Make these dogs happy, I once asked a child,
with pencil drew a pair of bone,
which made a change in the dogs' expression,
their tails and eyes had shown.

Another child drew a house in gaily colors;
with arch door and window;
and he wrote the name of the new owner,
but King slept on its shadow.

Another child drew a tree with a bird's nest
which is happier, dog or bird?
He is referee, matchmaker, guardian,
he plays the role of the third.

Up front a child made familiar drawings:
playthings for dog and child.
happiness is in playing the same game
with the master though how wild.

At the back, a little girl kept drawing;
shy, she hid her work but I saw.
Why she had unchained the dogs! Freedom!
she wrote with knitted brow.

Here I saw two views, domestic and wild -
which is sad, which is happy?
How little I know of the lesson I ought to know,
of dogs in the wild and free. ~

Sunset

Sunset

                                            

                                               Photo and Verse by Marlo R Rotor

                                            Old Quirino Bridge across Banaoang Pass, Santa, Ilocos Sur 

Sunset:

call it beauty,

the color of war,

and death itself;

it is enough,

the passing of day.

the coming of night. ~

Warm water soothes itchy and sore throat, arrests coughing.

Warm water soothes itchy and sore throat, 

arrests coughing.

Dr Abe V Rotor

                 Don’t take medicated drops or syrup for your itchy or sore throat.

All you need is warm water which you sip now and then to relieve your throat and to stop your coughing.

Have a thermos of hot water at hand. Just add to tap water the same amount of hot water. The warm water is approximately 50 to 60 degrees Celsius. This temperature is within the Pasteurization temperature range that kills or immobilizes harmful bacteria - but not the beneficial ones.

Drink warm water liberally to replace water loss and restore metabolite balance while helping the body eliminate waste and toxin. 

Common streptococcus bacteria

Acknowledgement: Wikipedia, ADAM Internet for images