Fruit Laden Mango Tree

By Abe V Rotor

Summer, the mango and me
This is life under the tree,
Its shade cool and plenty
In assuring bounty.

Come and live with me
Under the spreading mango tree,
Whose care it shall free
The hungry and weary.

And friends we shall greet
With sweet fruit to treat;
And welcome every visit
By those from the busy street.

The world is big and wide
For a single tree to provide;
Lest we forget to abide
With the rules on the other side.

x x x

Golden Shower

By Abe V Rotor

The Siberian High lulls you to sleep,
While summer heralds your birth
Into a kingdom regal yet brief
That reigns over a parched earth.

You greet the sun with garlands of gold,
Dancing the whole day through;
And soon explode into a thousand fold,
Only to fall and cease to grow.

Sybil’s ghost hangs, flowerless you stand,
Save pods dangling in dull chime
In the wind - then fall to the ground.
‘Tis the end of summer time.

x x x

Development Communication: Self-Administered Practical Test - (True or False, 50 items) Development Communication

By Abe V Rotor

1. You will eat less if you drink water, tea or softdrinks before meals.
2. Eat fast so that you will eat less.
3. Healthy eating means deprive yourself of food that makes you fat.
4. Eat even if you are not hungry so that in the long run you will be eating less.
5. Our fears are ingrained in our ancient genes as part of our successful evolution.
6. Past experiences are saved in our consciousness ready to be expressed by stimuli that may come along the way.
7. Halloween has its origin in medieval times in the British Isles.
8. In olden times Halloween was the only day of the year the devil is invoked in marriage ceremonies.
9. In Jonathan Swift’s “The Travels of Gulliver,” the third and last travel of the kindly doctor is the world of the spirits of the dead.
10. The symbol of Halloween is Jack ‘o Lantern, a pumpkin curved like a clown head with candle lit inside it.
11. All of us carry, in one way or the other, certain phobias - no exception.
12. The more intelligent a person is, the more he is affected by emotional problems.
13. Chess is the game that drives players to mental disorder and even early death.
14. Drawing the ghost you are afraid of most makes you a master over it – thus you will not be as scared as we were before you had drawn it.
15. Androphobia is fear of women.
16. The most common phobia is fear of confined places – claustrophobia.
17. The opposite of claustrophobia is agarophobia.
18. Vertigo is associated with aerophobia.
19. There are phobias that are associated with infirmity and certain disorders such as photophobia.
20. Nervous prostration is characterized by exhaustion even without physical cause.
21. Anxiety, if not corrected, may result in compulsive impulses.
22. People who have poor esteem of themselves have more experiences in seeing ghosts and in developing phobias.
23. “Spare the rod and spoil the child,” means we have to be lenient to our children.
24. Predisposition to mental illness is both hereditary and environmental.
25. “White noise” such as the hum of a fan or sound on tape of ocean waves, can enhance sleep rhythm.
26. Deep sleep stimulates growth which explains that children who are getting enough sleep grow bigger than those who are deprived of sufficient sleep.
27. Bed wetting, sleepwalking and sleep talking occur in the 5th and final stage of the sleep rhythm.
28. REM (rapid eye movement) occurs during Stage 1 or light sleep.
29. People are generally classified larks (day people) or owls (night people) – a biological phenomenon that is ingrained in the genes.
30. Ultradian is rhythm taking place in less than twenty hours such as brain waves, heartbeat, attention span.
31. It has been observed that rejection of kidney, heart and pancreas transplants occurs in after a week (circaseptan).
32. Menstrual cycle is the classical example of circatrigintan (monthly rhythm).
33. There are more victims of SAD (Seasonal Affective Depression) in the tropics than in temperate regions.
34. Of all members of the animal kingdom it is the fishes that do not sleep.
35. The Breathing Rhythm is made up of slowing down your rate of breathing.
36. Psychosomatic symptoms develop when we are constantly subjected to anxiety, and persistent stress.
37. Dr. Hans Selye, the proponent of relaxation as key to long life advocates that people should not be subjected to stress and tension.
38. Excess mental activity leads to overactive nerves, then to poor sleeping habits – then to insomnia.
39. The Breathing Rhythm has 3 elements – abdominal breathing, dissociation of thoughts and autosuggestion.
40. One disadvantage of the Breathing Rhythm is that you have to isolate yourself to be above to accomplish its relaxing effect.
41. The prevailing faith of industrialized societies seems to be a religion of work.
42. Tension is the sickness brought on by the inability to relax; it is America’s most hazardous illness.
43. Dewitt Wallace, the reader’s digest founder and president saw a new challenge in journalism during his time, at the turn of industrialization and age of intellectualism.
44. Benevolence and philanthropy are ethical leverage to wealth getting – but if you give part of your wealth, be sure there is absolutely no condition otherwise it negates altruism.
45. Postmodern means after today, that is tomorrow.
46. Times are changing, so with values. There will come a time when what is taboo today will be morally and ethically acceptable tomorrow.
47. Just to cite Filipino excellence, we have distinctly coveted a Nobel prize, citing the first Edsa Revolution.
48. The European Union today has member-countries from both western and eastern Europe.
49. ASEAN has opened its door to other Asian countries, this time to China. It could be the beginning of an EU counterpart in Asia.
50. The newest revolution in Asia is Science Revolution, with India as the next scientific giant.

NOTE: Answers to be provided January 30, 2009
How did you fare?
47 to 50 Outstanding
41 to 46 Very Good
35 to 40 Good
30 to 34 Fair
25 to 29 Passed
24 and below – Tune to the program regularly

Silent Decision

Mural and verse by Abe V Rotor

Where two roads meet: one leads to the gate,
the other to the woods, beyond, the unknown -
which one would you take?

In silence the mind explores, or ends in recourse;
if in silence the mind stops, so with the heart to throb;
it matters not where to go - or which road to take.

x x x

Cybergods

Cybergods
Dr Abe V Rotor


Kingdom and Eternity – these they say
Are too far out, they raise the brow,
From mountain tops to where the rivers flow,
Yet we've learned to accept them though.

Skeptical does the world grow each day,
As rituals of faith cease to be sane,
The day shall come when all reason shall reign,
And the spirit with little to gain.

For the world has grown to be vigilant
Of the sword and cross on the throne;
The subjects, once oppressed, again question,
If God is doing right or wrong.

Gone is the Aztec’s god long time ago,
And the deities no longer roam.
Will the Vatican still glow at sunset,
While cyber-gods crowd the living room? ~

ON A HILL

Mural by Rossa Fernando, Marinell Catalan, Bobbie Soriano, Jazzielyn Chow & Isabel Gueco. High School Department, St. Paul University QC

Poem by Abe V Rotor

How can I see a better view than from here,
The magnificence of God’s creation?
They are at my fingertips,
I am a Gulliver- everything is small:

The valley, the river, the mountain,
Big as they are - they’re the small;
And the small are the biggest:
The birds, the crawlers, the bees.

I wonder how God sees us from top of a hill,
Or from heaven to down below.
But if the big are that small
And the small are big - it matters not.
Everything is the same and equal
To God’s eyes while he sits on a hill.

x x x

The Sea Runs Through My Hands

Mural by Joanna Samodine, Macy Adriano, Pristin Marlbojoc, Frida Gonzales, Jackie Equing & Karina Cenit. St. Paul University QC, College of Arts, Sciences and Education

The Sea Runs Through My Hands
Poem by Abe V Rotor

Stop roaring and cease to be wild
But don’t stop the tides come and go;
Just come even only once
To soothe my hands and make
Them soft, gentle and mild
As mild as the breeze that cover a still sea;
As mild as the flow of a deep stream
That whispers in music among the trees,
That brings back the faithful to thee.
Run through my fingers, I can’t hold you;
Wash me then that I may be as pure as you.
Pristine you came and forever shall be,
So with the land and air,
The lake and the sea.
x x x

Seed

By Dr Abe V Rotor

Wake up
For the sun, sleeping one.
The soil is fertile, the rains have come,
Make the field bloom
To feed mankind.

Wake up.
Stir my whole being,
My life, my intellect, my faith,
That they, too, shall blossom
To serve mankind.
x x x

Dragonfly

By Dr Abe V Rotor

The child in me lives, it lives forever.

It lives in a dragonfly

Many years ago I captured for fun.

Ah, you bought me back to my yesteryears

When I would run to catch you in the field.

The sound of your wings was music to me.

Then, when my childish whim was satisfied,

I longingly set you free.

x x x

Rage and Break

Painting and Poem by Dr. Abe V. Rotor

There is time to be meek,
The lake and sun and their art -
Between the sea and a lonely creek
Set two worlds wide apart.

Clouds make a giant shroud,
Drums are heard yonder;
The sky weeps, meek is the proud,
As the earth melts in the lake.

Rage and break, rage and break,
On the cold wall and be free;
Make the sky and the river meet
Under the rainbow by the lake.

Wash the sweat on my brow,
And let me go along with thee;
I’ll sing your song as we flow
To where the world is free.

x x x

We Travel Together but Why

By Dr. Abe V. Rotor

To where eagles dare, so do I,
On rocks shrouded by the sky;
On currents of ill winds they fly,
And I, sans compass but an eye.

These lords look down from up high,
While I look into the blue sky;
To each other searching eye to eye;
We travel together, but why?

Soon beyond the pass I sigh,
Relieved by the great birds’ cry,
Past Prometheus Bound Isle,
Leaving the weak and shy.

x x x

You Leave Us a Song

Painting and Poem by Dr. Abe V. Rotor

You leave us a song we’ll always remember:
A song of the fields, meadows and sky,
A song of the soil and the growing bud,
A song of seasons, a song of the earth.

And as we listen, we are awed.
We laugh the laughter of the brook
Where we once fished and played,
And found our childhood in dreams.

In the clouds we would see monsters,
Meek and silent as they passed by,
Leaving us to wonder if ever we could
Someday face and conquer them.

Years after the monsters came.
They were real now as life itself.
Monster that bring grief and suffering;
We stood together, faced and conquered them.

Now you leave us a song,
Now that you’ve laid down your sword.
We hear the wind, the rustling leaves,
Farmers’ laughing and Ceres singing.

Original title: Farewell Eugene, Farewell
August 18, 2003. Dedicated to my late brother.