A Place by the Sea

Abe V Rotor and Melly C Tenorio
Paaralang Bayan sa Himpapawid 738KHzAM 8-9 evening class Mon to Fri
Living with Nature - School on Blog
Lesson March 8, 2012
Memories of years ago - how well do your remember them? The meaning of recollection and nostalgia, analyzed through the medium of poetry. Write your own personal experience and rekindle the light of childhood and adolescence, whether on a countryside or urban setting.

Old boat in ruin, acrylic painting, AVR, c.1995

Painting and Poem by Abe V. Rotor

That was a long, long time ago
In a place by the western sea,
Hidden by feathery bamboo,
Thickets of wild kakawate
And the old resilient maguey.

I used to ride a wooden cart
Creaking on the dry stream bed,
‘Til I reached where two roads part
One leading to a homestead
From where came our daily bread.

This is the place I used to know,
Part of my childhood, part of me,
Where seasons come and seasons go;
Early dream of a destiny -
A beautiful life by the sea.

Faces I knew, old friends now gone,
Stare the young at someone new;
Big trees that used to shade the sun,
Houses I remember are few,
All makes an unfamiliar view.

Old Rip van Winkle I’m today,
Longer did I sleep than he;
And too long I had failed to pay
Respect to this land by the sea,
And the treaty of time and me. ~

NOTE: Two roads part, which one did the author take? Who was Rip van Winkle? Why the analogy to the author's life? Can you relate it with your own?