The Sick Rose by William Blake

O Rose thou art sick. 

The invisible worm, 

That flies in the night 

In the howling storm: 

Has found out thy bed

Of crimson joy:

And his dark secret love

Does thy life destroy.

Moonlight on Manila Bay By Fernando M. Maramag (1893 – 1936)

A light, serene, ethereal glory rests

Its beams effulgent on each crestling wave;

The silver touches of the moonlight wave

The deep bare bosom that the breeze molests;

While lingering whispers deepen as the wavy crests

Roll with weird rhythm, now gay, now gently grave;

And floods of lambent light appear the sea to pave-

All cast a spell that heeds not time‘s behests.

Not always such the scene; the din of fight

Has swelled the murmur of the peaceful air;

Here East and West have oft displayed their might;

Dark battle clouds have dimmed this scene so fair;

Here bold Olympia, one historic night,

Presaging freedom, claimed a people‘s care. 

Day on the Farm By Luis G. Dato

I've found you fruits of sweetest taste and found you

Bunches of duhat growing by the hill,

I've bound your arms and hair with vine and bound you

With rare wildflowers but you are crying still.

I've brought you all the forest ferns and brought you

Wrapped in green leaves cicadas singing sweet,

I've caught you in my arms an hour and taught you

Love's secret where the mountain spirits meet.

Your smiles have died and there is no replying

To all endearment and my gifts are vain;

Come with me, love, you are too old for crying,

The church bells ring and I hear drops of rain.

Order For Masks by Virginia Moreno

To this harlequinade

I wear black tight and fool’s cap

Billiken*, make me three bright masks

For the three tasks in my life.

Three faces to wear

One after the other

For the three men in my life.

 

When my Brother comes

make me one opposite

If he is a devil, a saint

With a staff to his fork

And for his horns, a crown.

I hope for my contrast

To make nil

Our old resemblance to each other

and my twin will walk me out

Without a frown

Pretending I am another.

 

When my Father comes

Make me one so like

His child once eating his white bread in trance

Philomela* before she was raped. I hope by likeness

To make him believe this is the same kind

The chaste face he made,

And my blind Lear* will walk me out

Without a word

Fearing to peer behind.

 

If my lover comes,

Yes, when Seducer comes

Make for me the face

That will in color race

The carnival stars

And change in shape

Under his grasping hands.

Make it bloody

When he needs it white

Make it wicked in the dark

Let him find no old mark

Make it stone to his suave touch

This magician will walk me out

Newly loved.

Not knowing why my tantalizing face

Is strangely like the mangled parts of a face

He once wiped out.

 

Make me three masks.

 

 

The Spouse by Luis Dato

 Rose in her hand, and moist eyes young with weeping,

She stands upon the threshold of her house,

Fragrant with scent that wakens love from sleeping,

She looks far down to where her husband plows.

Her hair dishevelled in the night of passion,

Her warm limbs humid with the sacred strife,

What may she know but man and woman fashion

Out of the clay of wrath and sorrow—Life?

She holds no joys beyond the day’s tomorrow,

She finds no worlds beyond her love’s embrace;

She looks upon the Form behind the furrow,

Who is her Mind, her Motion, Time and Space.

O somber mystery of eyes unspeaking,

O dark enigma of Life’s love forlorn;

The Sphinx beside the river smiles with seeking

The secret answer since the world was born.