Poems of Jean Rojas

Lost in the day

For the night’s

Chief bound captive

Wandering soul

In the morrow of doom

Love of the flame

Inscribed in a name

Heaven with mercy

Had given this fame

 

Wonderful feeling

Send strolling the air

Hide not in secret

To this, where I came

In colorful ribbons

To wrap all my gains

To touch all that drops

In winter gold rains

 

Love then, I shall

This wandering soul

Whose body is free

And can never be owned

By what right I should

Though eager I would

Passing in time

Forgotten in rhyme

 

Foregoing the consequence

Ne’re regretting the care

Neither remaining

In silver chain’s swell

That which was lost

For whatever the cost

To fallow a lead

And carry this deed

 

To wandering souls

To mortal time’s fare

Just for a share

In want and in bear

Give me one moment

Or give me but none

For this be the soul

I’ll offer the sun

 

Return to the clock

Whose hands I would lock

Are then to shock

And fate there to rock

In solid solitude

I dare not arrest

This impossible quest

That I must possess

 

A toast to thy presence

Without all pretense

Inverting the past tense

In measures immense

Thee be that wandering soul

That maketh me whole

Direct thee but one role

And safe in my lap

A bird that is free

Of the gilded restraint

 

For to covet a soul

Which I can not deny

Nor pardon for faults

I am not to blame

If I love a being

That God hath create

No matter what package

He be present

Is to love the morning sun

That quench this request…..

 

To this wandering soul

I lay at his feet

Submitting my past

My present and all

The I rest my case

And let my life fall

On the lap of this one man,

This wandering soul……….

 

1994

Morning is in the eyes of

Those who seek

The waves that lap

To meet the cheek

Death that calls us

Soon and all

Evening bends the will

That has to fall….

 

Enter life, in essence

Naked to the world

Exit life, as naked as the

Day of our births

Sleep that we have no choice

But to partake

Must in time and place

Break up things

We must forsake

 

Moving now

As moving we create

Swaying with the breeze

That will never cease

How moments treasured

Just go by,

In a wink,

In a flash,

And forever flying high

 

Think in my mind

Of you

When you were here

Silently, the tears have fallen

With the fears

Friends we were and

Friends we’ll always stay

In clouds of smoke

I do begin to pray

 

I see you as a bird

I see you as a flower

No longer man

Your spirit blooms

In splendor

Where you are

Is where God dwells

And where we’ll all be

Someday……

 

I take your hand

You view my soul

And you take off

On the clouds

In the skies

As morning blends

With the coming evening

I say

Goodnight my friend

 

Sweet are the thoughts

That you have left me

While you lived

We’ll meet there somehow

And somewhere

We’ll take off together

Soaring the blue and endless heavens….

You were there first

And I’ll be there next……..

 

 

For: Jose Tolentino Jr.

       12 February, 1993

My fearless general

Full-blooded son of our nation

I call you

In these uncertain times….

I need your courage

And extreme nationalism

For I am surrounded by

Anemic Filipinos,

Merely like myself,

Unable to act and speak

No dynamism-

A lack of principles

 

Where could you be, my general?

Surely a man like you will never hide

No wound, no bullet, no threat

Can ever make you bend your knees

I hear no cried nor pleas

From your revered lips

My strength is failing me

I need your blood

Alone, I cry

Believing myself to be incomplete

Embrace me, for you are magnificent

And there can be no other

 

Through the years

I still remember

How I leafed the pages

Of history just to place your name…

Maybe time ran so fast

But to me you were never last

Because you last….

 

Tell your brothers what you

Could do for love of country

I know and I have felt

You are my first

And  foremost general

And I shall carry you

Upon my shoulders

And stroke your head

While you sleep on my lap

Because you make me want

To tell the entire world

That my general is a Filipino

And I am proud to be his comrade!

 

For: Gen.Artemio Ricarte

        1997