Fountain

By Abe V Rotor

A geyser, a waterfall I am,
A river flowing, hissing as I please,
I make rain, an arch of rainbow
To bridge the sky and the trees;

Again and again I touch the sky,
Or anything, far and wide and high;
To quench the thirst of a lonely cross,
Rest in a bosom or wash a sigh.

Make way, make haste for my intrusion
To make children and old believe
That I am always born - without end;
Even when I'm gone - I still live.

x x x
University of Santo Tomas, Manila. Canon EOS 350D with Sigma telezoom lens 70-200 mm.

Self Administered Test on Humanities (True or False, 50 Items)

Self Administered Test on Humanities (True or False, 50 Items)

Dr Abe V Rotor

1. The most dominant color of the earth as seen outer space is green.

2. There are six colors of the rainbow that follow a standard sequence whether the rainbow is in the tropics or in the temperate zone, in summer or in winter.

3. It is rare to see a twin rainbow, but if there is one and you are lucky to witness it, the lower rainbow is wider than the one on top of it.

4. Humanities comes from the old English word humanus which speaks of fine of human culture.

5. Victor Hugo wrote Les Miserables and The Hunchback of Notre Dame, both classic socio-political novels.

6. The Happy Prince by Oscar Wilde is a example of a tragedy because the happy prince died at a very young age, and therefore missed the opportunity to serve his constituents.

7. One of the standards of a classical work of art is that it is timeliness.

8. Alexander Dumas, Miguel Cervantes, Leo Tolstoy, Victor Hugo and Jose Rizal have one thing in common: they are writers of powerful novels that move the world so to speak, and changed the course of history.

9. Robert Frost by mistake repeated the last lines of his famous poem On a Snowy Night,
“And miles to go before I sleep
And miles to go before I sleep.”

10. A drawing exercise of fruits like apple, pear, grapes, chestnut, and orange arranged on a table is an example of "still life."

11. Don’t go gentle into the night is a poem which tells us to be vigilant, and that our work is never done; don’t settle for comfort when in trouble and even when there is apparent peace.

12. Shakespearean drama is akin to tragedy; and if it were not for the literary genius of this world’s greatest dramatist, many of his works like Romeo and Juliet won’t pass the Board of Censors today.

13. Biag ni Lam-ang is a local counterpart of Iliad.

14. Juan Luna’s work, particularly Spolarium is a typical example of Impressionism.

15. Vincent van Gogh is considered the Father of Expressionism, an art movement that preceded Impressionism.

16. Impressionism is an art movement that started in France in the later part of the 18th century, among the pioneers are Paul Cezanne, Pizarro, Monet, Degas.

17. In the poem Fisherboy, the boy being referred to has something in common with Mark Twain’s boys, Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn, who did not want to go to school.

18. Jose Garcia Villa is a one of the greatest Filipino poet, awarded the honor of National Artist.

19. Nicanor Abelardo is to music as Fernando Amorsolo is to painting. Their masterpieces are classics today.

20. Nature takes shape was the basis of a drawing exercise on Landscape. The three basic shapes are circle, square and triangle.

21. When blue and yellow are mixed the color produced in green; blue and red will produce violet.

22. When the primary colors – red, blue and yellow - are mixed in equal proportion the resulting color is black.

23. These are contemporary Filipino compositions: Saan ka man naroon, La Deportacion, Dahil sa isang bulaklak, Pamulinawen, Manang Biday, Matudnila

24. Maestro Mamerto Villaba, tenor; Ryan Cayabyab, composer; and Prof. Paulino Capitulo violinist, are Filipino musicians belonging to the same generation and school.

25. Dr. Jose Rizal’s novel, Noli Me Tangere, has been recently launched in NY in a new English translation published by Penguin Books.

26. Mahatma Gandhi is ranked among the world’s greatest leaders. His weapon: asceticism, love, compassion - a favorite model for biography, cinematography, and political documentary.

27. To become great you must be able to a book for the sake of posterity, like Rizal.

28. The Old man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway which won the Nobel Prize for Literature, ended with the old man, worn out from his battle to land a big fish, and the world rejoiced for his victory.

29. Florante at Laura, masterpiece of poet laureate Francisco Balagtas is an epic.

30. A good work of Art must rise with the elements of spirituality and the universal criteria of intellectual values.

31. Style is unique; it's like finding no two snowflakes exactly the same.

32. Rhythm is found in music, as well as in poetry,

33. Even a free verse has musical qualities, in spite of the fact that it does not follow a definite pattern of rhyme and rhythm and meter.

34. Joyce Kilmer who wrote the famous poem Trees, is a man.

35. In Trees the figure of speech used in personification.

36. Where have all the flowers gone is a song and a poem that condemns war.

37. The Lord is my Shepherd I shall not want is the opening line of Psalm 23 by King David.

38. Melodrama is like soapbox opera, and telenovela in many respects.

39. Gettysberg Address was originally intended as an oration.

40. The editorial of a newspaper, is considered a formal essay.

41. Soliloquy and monologue are basically similar – a kind of dramatic poetry.

42. The classical model of dance is Ballet, and the greatest ballet music composer is Tchaikovsky. He composed the Dying Swan.

43. Ideally there are 100 players in a full orchestra, with string instruments comprising the biggest group of instruments.

44. Drink to me with only thine eyes and I will not look for wine is the first line of Song to Celia.

45. Our old Spanish churches are a good example of Gothic architecture.

46. The Parthenon of Greece is the greatest architectural work of the classical period.

47. Mona Lisa is considered the greatest of all paintings in the classical period.

48. Renaissance means rebirth or renewal which took place as early as the 15th h century – the model used is Greco Roman.

49. The Philippines was once a part of Renaissance Europe.

50. Calligraphy is the art of writing beautifully while graphology is hand writing analysis.

ANSWERS: 1F (blue), 2t, 3t, 4t, 5t, 6T (it has a tragic beginning and triumphal ending), 7F (timelessness), 8t, 9f (Frost did it for emphasis of theme, and to impart musical quality to the poem), 10t, 11t, 12t, 13t, 14f (romanticism), 15t, 16t, 17t, 18t (posthumous), 19t, 20t, 21t, 22t, 23f (all Filipino, combination of kundiman, native Ilocano and Visayan songs), 24t (although each one has a distinct style, Cayabyab is more recent and versatile), 25t, 26t, 27f (Christ, Buddha did not write any book - others wrote for and about them), 28t, 29f (Balagtasan in romantic and lyrical style - local Shakespearean), 30t, 31t, 32t, 33t, 34t, 35t, 36t, 37t, 37t, 38t, 39f, 40f, 41t, 42t 43t. 44t. 45f (Baroque), 46t, 47t, 48t, 49t, 50t.

RATING
46- 50 Outstanding
41-45 Very Good
36-40 Good
31-35 Fair
25–30 Passed
Below 25 – listen regularly to Paaralan ng Bayan sa Himpapawid

Tropical Rainforest on the Wall

              Tropical Rainforest on the Wall

“…and heaven and nature sing,

and heaven and nature sing,

and heaven, and heaven and nature sing.”

           - Joy to the World

                              Mural Painting by Dr Abe V Rotor

              Wall Mural of a Tropical Rainforest, St Paul University QC, AVR 2001

Nature represents the idea of the entire universe in a state of perfection. Nature is one: it unites heaven and earth, connecting human beings with the stars and bringing them all together into a single family. Nature is beautiful; it is ordered. A divine law determines its arrangement, namely the subordination of the means to the end, and the parts to the whole.

After putting down my brush, I took a view of the mural from a distance. The scene – unspoiled nature – one spared from the hands of man and typified by the tropical rainforest, flowed out from a wall that was previously white and empty.

In the course of painting the mural, which took all of seven days and in the days following its unveiling, I took notice of the reactions of viewers. It must be the stillness of the scene, freshness of its atmosphere, and its apparent eccentricity that attract passersby as if in search of something therapeutic. It seems to slow down busy feet, soothing tired nerves. There is something I thought was mysterious beyond the levels of aesthetics. For the huge scene is a drama of life completely different from city living. It is respite. It is transformation from concrete to greenery, from cityscape to landscape.

Yet, I found it difficult to give it a title and an explanation that captures both its essence and message. This time many ideas crowded my mind. At the start of my painting labors, the challenge was how and where to start painting. Now that it is completed, what else is there to say after one has “said” it all in colors and lines, hues and shadows, perspective and design? What more is there to declare for after the last page of a book? For a painting, it is the same.

Relaxation did not come easy for me after many hours of concentrating on my subject, dealing with a fast-drying medium of acrylic. What made it more challenging was the unending attempt to capture those fleeting impressions and recollections that pervaded my mind as I painted. I then took a pen and slowly wrote my thoughts. From the mural, I saw the scenery of my childhood on the farm, views of my travels here and abroad, imagery from my readings, and views drawn out like a thread from the mass of a golf ball. It was imagery and memory working jointly.

Tropical Rainforest Model

I chose the tropical rainforest scenery since it is the richest of all ecosystems in the world. The Philippines, being one of the countries endowed with this natural wealth is a treasure, indeed. For this reason, I believe that, the tropical rainforest closely resembles the description of the biblical paradise. It is not only a living bank of biological diversity; it is the most important sanctuary of living matters on earth.

To paint such a big wall is no easy task. It is not unusual to face a blank wall, literally speaking, and not knowing what to do first even with all the colors and tools on hand – and a predetermined topic in mind. Shall I start at the center and move outward, or from both sides slowly progressing inward? Or do I divide the wall into parts, working on them one by one, then unifying them at the end?

…and Heaven and Nature Sing

Christmas was already in the air and the Siberian winds were bringing in the chills. Carol music was now being played in malls, schools and homes. I was engrossed in my work when some students, watching me paint, sang a familiar song. On this particular occasion, something about the song chimed inside me, directing me towards the central theme of my mural.

“…and heaven and nature sing,

and heaven and nature sing,

and heaven, and heaven and nature sing.”

           - Joy to the World

What does this mean? Is it the idea of nature representing the entire universe in a state of perfection? Or is it nature as one? Does it unite heaven and earth? Does it connect human beings and the galaxies as one family?

Little did I know of my ecology. As a subject I teach in college and in the graduate school I depend much on formulas and equations, principles and case studies. My knowledge about the environment is structured and formal. I use module maps or course syllabi based on accepted teaching techniques and references. My approach was comparative analysis. I was a judge of the beautiful and ugly, the do’s and don’ts. At times I am a Utopian; at others, conformist.

Little did I realize that the order of Nature is not merely determined by natural laws applied as ecological tenets, but as a divine law which determines its arrangement, the subordination of the means to the end, and the assimilation of the parts to the whole. Many of us are ignorant of this law, or if we know it, seem to forget or disregard it as we relentlessly work to exploit the earth.

In our apparent failure to preserve nature, perhaps it is time to look at ecology with the essence of this popular Christmas song – a song that makes everyday of the year, Christmas. Ecology is “heaven and nature singing together.” Only then can we truly understand the term, balance of nature – a kind of dynamic equilibrium that leads to homeostasis where there is stability among interdependent groups that characterize natural processes, and the period in which they take place. The ultimate conclusion is always a balanced system. We have to look beyond books to understand biological diversity, and its application in nature, to find the common phrase: In diversity there is unity. The general rule is that the wider the diversity is in terms of number of living species, and in terms of the number of natural species and their habitats, the more closely knit the biosphere becomes, resulting in a richer, more stable environment. Undoubtedly, all this is part of a grand design inspired divinely.

A Hole in the Sky

Looking at the mural from a distance one notices a darkened part of the sky, apparently a hole (though this is not the ozone layer pierced by CFC pollution). It gives one a feeling that it is a tunnel to infinity as if to link both earth and heaven. Through this hole, one envisions a Higher Principle. From the foreground, which is the placid stream of a downward meandering river, its tributaries and banks lined with trees and thickets, the eye soon reaches the forested hills and mountains shrouded by clouds.

But it does not end there. Here the cloud is a curtain laden with the radiance of the sun, and the life-giving provenance of rain, useless each without the other for life on earth to exist. This is the crossroad. The cloud opens with a backdrop of infinity. The universe, whose limit is unknown, bursts open a foreground that reveals a whole drama of life on earth. After that, the eye repeats the journey. In the process, the viewer becomes sensitive to the details of the painting. He searches for things familiar, or situations that later become a new experience.

Creatures in the Forest

Creatures in general are not as visible as they appear in books and on the screen. They blend with their surroundings mainly for predatory anticipation and protective camouflage. But there are other reasons too, that are not well understood. Take the case of the butterflies. Their beauty is extravagant for their basic function as pollinators. Fish jump for mere pleasure, dragonflies have wings that split light into prisms. Birds stay in the sky longer for the sheer joy of flying, and not just to cruise in search of a prey.

Among the animals suggested to me while painting the mural are flying lemur, Philippine monkey, heron, monitor lizard, boa constrictor and hornbill. I painted these - and many more, the way I imagined them in their natural habitat. I put a touch of Noah’s Ark, painting them in pairs. For the rodents, ducks and doves I made them in amiable groupings that exude a familial atmosphere.

Whenever I see viewers seriously searching for these creatures with walking fingers, I am tempted to add to the collection of creatures, making them even more difficult to find. But that might change the ambiance to fun and puzzle solving, rather than of meditation and recollection.

People in the Mural

The trees and the massiveness of the scenery dwarf the characters in the mural. They appear mindless of events and time. They care not for the chores of the day. Those who are engrossed fishing with a simple hook-and-line do not show excitement even as they land their catch. Others patiently wait for a bite. There is a sense of tranquility and peace to all characters, whether they are promenading or just passing the time away. Their faces show only the slightest hint of anger or sadness.

I noticed viewers trying to identify themselves with the characters of the mural. Some construction workers envision themselves fishing. High school students are drawn by the promenades. But there are those who simply imagine themselves part of the scene. “This place is familiar to me,” one would say, apparently recalling provincial life. “We have flying lemurs in Davao,” says another.

Where does the water flow, and what does the mural mean to us? Water is everywhere. It is free to flow. Tributaries abound as if there were no limit. Trees are everywhere and far into the backdrop is a vast virgin forest. There is no sign of man’s destructive hand. At the foreground is a placid pond where Nymphaea and lotus grow. It is in contrast to the lively pulse of the river. This is a corner where life is peaceful and serene. It is here that we draw strength in facing the river and beyond.

What really is the message of the mural?
Quite often, images of nature enrapture us. These are reminiscences of childhood, a re-creation of a favorite spot we may have visited or seen, or products of the imagination greatly influenced by the society we live in.

These images reflect a deep-seated biological longing to be part of nature. Putting it in the biblical sense, it is a natural searching for the lost paradise. They are a refuge from city living, a respite, and an escape from the daily grind.

But these images do not only tell us of what we are missing. Rather, it reminds us what we are going to miss, perhaps forever, if we do not heed nature’s signal towards a fast declining ecosystem. If we do not change our way of life from too much dependence on consumerism, to one more closely linked to conservation of nature, we may end up building memories and future archives of a lost world.

The warning is clear. The painting challenges everyone to do his part to save Mother Earth so that her beauty is not only kept in the form of images, but a scenery of real life enjoyed by us and future generations. ~

Reference: Living with Nature in Our Times
Copyright 2007 Abercio V Rotor and University of Santo Tomas

Copra Maker

By Abe V Rotor

You are the Miller of River Dee
Whom a king did once envy;
Your kiln, like the old waterwheel,
Grinds silently, slowly at will.

Mark Twain I think would indeed agree
With your life under the tree,
Where the stout hearted learns your skill
Like a captain by the keel.

From a pauper the king vows reform,
Knowing you and the coming storm;
Bless you, simple man and your craft,
This land shall never want.

x x x

Research Institute

By Abe V Rotor

Search on, search on
the mysterious, the unknown;
aim at man's welfare,
far away from warfare,
and find time to contemplate
over a half full plate.

X X X

Trees for Peace Greet Sunrise through the Trees

 Trees for Peace

Greet Sunrise through the Trees

"Morning comes early as the sun peeps through the trees;

greet the birds and butterflies, lovers and artists." avr

Dr Abe V Rotor

Wake up under the green umbrella of trees, 

     cool and invigorating; 

Breathe freely, away from the stale city air,

     and catch the breeze passing.

Let the morning settle down on dewdrops,

     on mist like curtain parting;

Just let the world go by on Nature's scale,

     and life's sweet rhythm singing. 

Wake up from too much haste and worry,

     life's not a race for winning;

You may have the happiest moment in life,

     listen to the trees singing. ~ 

Canopy of heritage trees laden with lianas and ferns, 

Living with Nature Center, San Vicente, Ilocos Sur 

Greet Sunrise Through the Trees in acrylic by the author. ~

“Trees are poems that the earth writes upon the sky.”

— Kahlil Gibran

*Original Title - 2022 Year of the Trees

Vietnamese Young Woman

By Abe V Rotor

Do you know Yeats, Marlow, Browning,
Or Ben Johnson, of their poetry of love?
You are too pure, too romantic to be true
Under the sun, in the rice fields,
In the jungle, in the once battle fields -
Yet your love is dearer - far sweeter,
For sweeter is love after pain,
When tears are washed away by rain.
And make the sun shine again.

x x x

HoChiMingh City, 2006

Brothers: Mekong and Pasig

By Abe V Rotor

The Mekong River, oh, it’s like our Pasig,
Full of boats and ships and monsoon silt
Leading to the sea, and carrying
Black and red tints of distant past,
To tell the world a lesson of humanity.
The Mekong River, oh, it’s like our Pasig.
They run out to sea to meet the world.
x x x

Vietnamese Song

Vietnamese bamboo xylophone

By Dr Abe V Rotor

How can I compose a Vietnamese song?
I ask Beethoven for the sound of Nature,
The genius of Bach for organization,
Chopin's touch and Mozart's therapy,
And Schubert’s lament to linger on.

But I must first enter the Cuchi Tunnel,
And fly ever the delta and trace
The restless meandering Mekong River
Seeking homage to the sea and beyond;
Then visit the War Museum,
To be able to write a Vietnamese song.
x x x

War in Retrospect

Mural painting Reunification Palace, HoChiMinh City

By Dr Abe V Rotor

In Retrospect, the US apologizes,
“We were wrong, terribly wrong."

Wrong for three million Vietnamese,
Half a million Americans and allies killed;
Wrong for spending trillions of dollars,
For dropping bombs four times over
That in the last World War.

Wrong for not saving America from another Great Depression
At the expense of escalating a local war.
All in the name of democracy,
A slogan sans conscience, sans piety.

How could it be true, “To err is human, to forgive divine?”
After Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan,
And another generation to explain why.

x x x

Vietnam Through a Window

By Dr Abe V Rotor

Through the window of an airplane,
I see a shroud of smoke turn into rain;
This is Vietnam now.
Its pains may linger, its wound a scar,
Blessed are its plains, golden in the sun.
Blessed are its people, victims yet victors
Of a David and Goliath war.

Through the window of the mind,
Through the window of a Western eye;
The world was blind for long, but not now.
As the one-eyed Nelson defied order
Cupping the wrong eye.

Through Milton’s window when lost
The sight, clearer is the view, deeper,
Deeper is the sense of seeing,
And the sense of being.

Through the window of a posh hotel
Over tree tops gracing the view,
Swaying and singing in the breeze,
While the city is buried in mist.
Wait, wait for time with ease.

For time knows all, cures all, forgets all,
Yet indelible is the lesson of mankind
That lust never last, it ends in fatal fall.
And pain endured is glory’s gain.

Through the window of ones soul,
Has spirituality lost its meaning?
Ask the Vietnamese toiling the fields
With a grave by his side.
Sans cross, sans tombstone,
Only a whisper of a name.

It is an old window I am seeing through,
My own, through a politics of disorder,
Greed and indifference, its spawn.
How can I raise a chin to greet you,
After you have mended your own?
I must have slept too long in comfort
And ease in plenty and play, in freedom,
Believing in a god I call Bathala,
Existential to my needs and caprice;
While you struggled for sanity
With a god by your side fighting,
And brought Olympus down.

I see you fighting again,
Opening your doors to conquer the world
With homegrown rice, knowledge and valor,
To win another war, another honor.

x x x

NOTE: Written in HoChiMingh City (Saigon),
as a visiting professor at Ho ChiMingh University of Technology, 2006

Farm Life Memories

Mural and Poem by Abe V Rotor

Rain and river meet where my life began;
A farm life to the old and the young;
The school, the woods, the field - all one,
Shielded from the other world beyond.

Ah, childhood is when nobody misses
Endless thrills as the sun rises,
Watching the herons stake the fishes,
Slingshot for simple prizes.

Stillness reigns around a kingfisher,
Reading rain from a dragonfly;
A birdsong, a nest owned by its finder -
Sweet early lessons to live by.

Conflict is solved in kites and fishing poles,
Hide-and-seek and barefoot races;
Faith in the seasons the sky extols -
Virtues that friendship embraces.

Peals of thunder break the afternoon,
Sending the fowls to their tree;
The boys catch the raindrops, and soon,
Across the field, dash home aglee.

Summer is short,rainy days are long,
Indeed a passing imagery,
For the young can't wait and all along
The years gone but sweet memory.

When and where in crisis and retreat,
At another place and time;
One rises where rain and river meet
Where the sun shines on the clime.

Freud and Jung long foretold, we know,
The seed that was and how it grew,
Like a man the child of years ago
In some log cabin - it's true.

x x x

Song of the Warbler*

 
 Dr Abe V Rotor

Tag-wa-tee-e-e-e-et, tag-wa-tee-e-e-e-et, tag-wa-tee-e-e-e-et,
Tag-wa-tee-e-e-e-et, tag-wa-tee-e-e-e-et, tag-wa-tee-e-e-e-et-
(Refrain)

Tig-wa-too-tee-e-et, tig-wa-too-tee-e-et, tig-wa-too-tee-e-et,
Tig-wa-too-tee-e-et, tig-wa-too-tee-e-et, tig-wa-too-tee-e-et-
(Refrain)

Ter-r-r-r-r-r-r, ter-r-r-r-r-r-r, ter-r-r-r-r-r-r, ter-r-r-r-r-r-r,
Ter-r-r-r-r-r-r, ter-r-r-r-r-r-r, ter-r-r-r-r-r-r, ter-r-r-r-r-r-r-

From a branch to another he repeats his song,
Crispy and clear as light of dawn,
And if trees are not enough and streets
Are wider than fields, on wire or antenna he perches,
And sings still the song of his ancestors.

Shouldn’t I wake up with a happy heart,
And spare a tree or two for his art?

Acknowledgement: Photo. Common Tailor Bird (Orthotomus sp) Parkes

Smokestack by Day and Night

These shots were taken during the 24-hour operation of a sugar mill in Batangas at the peak of milling season. The smokestack emits gases, particulates and steam harmful to health and the environment. Photo by Matthew Marlo Rotor, Canon EOS 350D, Sigma lens 70-200 mm.

Sailboats

Painting and Verse by Abe V Rotor

Let the sailboats play in the wind
And water, let alone an old boat
At rest, sitting on rock like an old man,
Standing guard over the young, who too,
Shall someday play the same old game.

x x x

Red Mushroom

By Abe V Rotor

You glow at the edge of decay,
To herald birth at life’s last bend;
"Death, be not proud," you seem to say,
"You're but a process, not an end."
x x x

This red mushroom growing on an old log creates
an aura of fairytale. Sacred Heart Novitiate,
Novaliches, QC. Pentax SPII, Takumar lens 1.4, AVR