Riverbank Verses

Floating market, Bangkok

Abe V Rotor

Chao Phraya River
The river is deep; its source is long;
Its shoulders broad, the sea is far.
Keeper of legends and ancestry;
It washes tears, reflects the stars;
Chronicler of culture and history.

Tourists Center
Incessant is life with joy and flair,
Under the sun, in the night’s air,
Like bees humming, fish circling,
Birds arriving, leaving.

Hotel Room
Simplicity is the rule and reference;
Colors melt in cream and gray pallor,
Ceiling meets floor, window and door,
Only the guests make the difference.

Busy Lane
Busy feet and hands, mind and heart at race
On the fast lane, sidewalks blocked;
Where is order, dignity and grace?
Life never dims, stars just hang out.

Floating Market
Boat songs here are not of romance and gay,
But songs of bounty in the land of the free,
Floating down the meandering river to the city
Where the heart of trade throbs, throbs all day.

Living with Nature 3, AVR (All Rights Reserved)

Macopa Hybrid

Macopa (Eugenia jambalana) hybrid

Abe V Rotor

I know you on the backyard where I grew up;
A big tree laden with fruits and children,
I among them all day laughing, swinging
From branch to branch in pure joy and delight,
Never reaching our fill, unheeding old folks.

Now your fruits are bigger, perhaps sweeter,
In bright red skin to sad purple green,
Hanging on frail branches touching the ground,
When you were a living cradle with strong limb;
How frail indeed is man's ultimate aim. ~

Living with Nature 3, AVR (All Rights Reserved)

Sea Bass in Captivity

Bangkok Live Fish Market, January 25, 2010

Abe V Rotor

How sad their faces are though seemingly at ease;
I tapped the glass, they stared at me a friend;
With a camera I sealed their fate forever in peace,
Alive in memory but failed to save them.~


Living with Nature 3, AVR (All Rights Reserved)

Act II - Destruction of the Forest

Abe V Rotor

One day modern man came, the trees he saw.
He is one that progress has not given peace and content,
His aim is endless, his prospect’s to get richer and richer.
Renouncing pagan worship to a god of materialism.

His measures of wisdom is domination over every creature,
Taking a complete turn from that of his ancestors;
His view of economics is dangerous, but a deaf ear he turns
To the consequences of his action – and his future.

His face reflects that of a devil.
He swings a huge axe and heaves with madness;
He tears down whole forests with giant machines.
His laughter echoes in deep chill.

The forest and all creatures living in it lay dying.
Though the sun is shining still,
Its life-giving light and heat are now useless,
And silence reigns in eerie and sadness.

(Continued)

Act III - Rebirth

Abe V Rotor

Now is the revenge of the deities on earth;
They cry day and night long, howl with the wind,
Hiss with the dust, shimmer in the heat,
Roar with the flood, sigh with the last breath of death.

The deities have lost compassion not long ago,
How cold and harsh they have been treated!
They wonder if knowledge – that kind learned in school –
Has also taught man indifference and hatred.

The deities even doubt if civilization is good at all;
Dreading Armageddon, the earth’s final chapter;
They remember the lustful masters of the colonial past.
If history’s repeating itself - who is this new master?

The master emerging from the liberated masses will show
If he is more fearful than the old enemy below.
What can the deities do now except to avenge?
As they roam the earth where their old friend is now a foe.

Then a group of children visited the lost forest.
A cross they raised, no big name they did extol.
Seedlings they planted, and their words were real
A structure they put up, it was neither church or hall.

A tower they built to link the forest up the shore;
All these brought the deities back home,
And they began to sing their songs once more.

They came down at night when the children
Were sleeping, to take care of the seedlings
Which grew fast – and soon many trees began to grow,
As the community got to its feet around the children.

They are simple people, they are kind to Nature.
Their joy with plants and animals seems pure;
The animals came back found a new home –
Home, sweet home of their ancestors before.

Now the deities sing the songs of the breeze and stream,
Whisper into the ears of the children before sunrise
Who dream of paradise, and on waking up,
See it shine before their eyes.~


Sunshine on Raindrops, AVR

Requiem to Suso ni Aran

Abe V Rotor

Wasn't through eons of time this replica
of Olympus on a local shore
a perfect flesh of earth,
warmed by the sun,
caressed by the wind,
drenched by rain,
kissed by dewdrops?
Pride of the species,
the spring of new life?
And beneath it throbbed a gentle thunder?
Didn't the trees hush,
the birds sing lullaby?
Oh, heart, dear heart!
Do you still throb,
Do you still bleed? ~

Suso ni Aran is a mythical mountain, a proud breast in the distance, until recently. Unabatted quarrying has permanently destroyed the figure and is likely to level it to the ground. Barangay Suso, Santa Maria, Ilocos Sur.

Light from the Old Arch 3, AVR

Sister Mamerta Rocero SPC, PhD - A Religious for All Seasons

Sister Mamerta Rocero SPC, PhD - A Religious for All Seasons

Last photo with the author at the Vigil House, Taytay Rizal.

Death of St Paul stained glass, Vigil House where Sister Mamerta spent
the last years of her fruitful life.

St Paul of Chartres cemetery, Antipolo - resting place of
Sister Mamerta overlooking Marikina Valley -

By Dr. Abe V. Rotor


“The undulating valley below,
The river serpentine, a moving silver sheen,
Take my breath away in the ecstasy of their beauty,
Because You are in them, Lord.”

- Sister Mamerta Rocero,SPC
Because You are in Them, Lord

Close your eyes and you can see the imagery – that inner mind, in the quaintness of Amorsolo, stillness of Corot, freshness of Renoir, faithfulness of Rembrandt and passion of Van Gogh.

Yet it is the last line that gives meaning to all these attributes – Because You are in them, Lord. It is submission, reverence; it is prayer.

Sister Mamerta, being a religious, takes us to fathom deeper the meaning of a poem. Shakespeare is perhaps the ultimate in classical style and richness of words – she can’t compare with that. The Brownings may be the most romantic in the world of poetry – she may fall short of that, too. Edgar Allan Poe’s abandon (Annabelle), Lord Byron’s melody, Whitman’s vernacular – her poems may only have a shade of these. But she exudes here and there Alexander Pope’s morals (A little learning is a dangerous thing), Robert Frost’s simplicity (And miles to go before I sleep…), Longfellow’s values (The Arrow and the Song), and Shelley’s musical lines (To a Skylark).

She can take you to meditation like in Thomas Gray’s masterpiece, Elegy on a Country Churchyard. Her poetry, like John Keat’s, possesses an urgent cause and awareness that beauty exists in a world “where pain is never done.” Yet unlike this medieval English poet, Sister Mamerta finds hope, radiating hope to any suffering.

"I meet the poor, the suffering,
the abandoned, the unwanted –
And my heart, deeply touched,
Goes out to them –
Because You are in them, Lord."

She may not all agree of grace falling down like manna from heaven. The moral is her poetry is for man to find God, for He is everywhere. But who is this God in her poetry? It is a universal God of goodness, goodness in the true sense of Christian philosophy, Christianity in action. It is the essence of the Messiah, of Matthew 25 (What you have done to the least your brethren, you have done it to me.)

You may find Him hidden in some abandoned hospital ward…
He may be the shrunken little woman, sitting all alone…
Nay, He may be the frustrated man with ambitions thwarted,
Or the humbled rich so suddenly bereft of his great wealth.

And so, you will find the Lord, not amidst glitter and wealth.
- Sis. Mamerta Rocero, Recognize Him

Browsing over her poems, one is lead to think that ours is a fatalistic world. Artists generally are like that. The more they perceive their subject to the core, the more intense their expression becomes. Suffering is dominant ingredient of art, and one can unmistakably perceive its expression, say in Eugene de la Croix’s colors of black and red in Victory Leads the People, or in Pablo Picasso’s plaza mural, Guernica that inflamed a revolution in the Basque territory of Spain, his mother country. One is familiar of course with Vincent van Gogh’s painting of Starry Night, which was transcribed into a song – Vincent - more than a century after his death.

Gleaming on the lighter side, our poetess exudes the touch of naturalism, the healing secret of a doctor who attends kindly to her patient, whose assurance for recovery comes first before the book and technology. She draws imagery from the inner self where tranquility resides – and springs in times of haste and trouble.

“The mountains before me –
majestic, verdant-hued,
their cascading, glistening falls,
envelope me with awe
and sheer wonder…”

Sister Mamerta is a living witness of man’s inhumanity to man during the Second World War. But you can only glimpse like through a keyhole the sufferings of war in her writings. It takes a contrite yet courageous heart to take the road to forgiveness and bury the past. Yet she warns that history has the capability of repeating itself, and shares with Wilfred Owen’s The Pity of War or Ernest Hemingway’s Farewell to Arms, the tragedies of Shakespearean dramas, notwithstanding.

How about the pessimism of Matthew Arnolds who foresaw the dark side of industrialization that molded our modern world? Arnolds laments -

"To lie before us like a land of dreams,
So various, so beautiful, so new,
Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light,
Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain;
And we are here as on a darkling plain
Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight,
Where ignorant armies clash by night."

- Matthew Arnold, Dover Beach

How frail is human! But how does Sister Mamerta look at this prophesy-come-true? This is what divides the grains - whole and broken. More people see the broken grains of life. No, not our Paulinian laureate. “I would rather look at John Donne,” she said. Donne wrote, encompassing the heritage he left to the world. When somebody dies, a little in each of us also dies – because humanity is interrelated, it is one.

And from here Sister Mamerta, riding on Donne’s philosophy almost always makes reference to afterlife. She is at the forefront of values formation and reformation, while writers most often talk about here and now, of this earthly life, its realities and fantasies. True to her mission as a Paulinian, she believes that one must prepare his soul’s journey to everlasting life. But earn he must, for neither by a Tower of Babel nor material affluence can one be able to reach that beautiful destiny. The mortal part of our being, is but the springboard to this great, remarkable travel, which all peoples - irrespective of culture and religion – firmly believe in. This is universal faith that binds the human species. The core of our being as Homo sapiens is therefore, our spirituality.

"You’ve need to ask His grace and His spirit of enlightenment,
If you have to pierce through the clouds hiding Him from view -
But the reward is great – He is there waiting to embrace you!"

Indeed, an unsung saint has spoken in the beauty of poetry and in the peace of a cloistered life, candle light streaming through the convent’s window. Out there the wind blows and blows on some mountain tops and down into the valley. And dawn is a child.

Author’s Note: This article is dedicated to the memory of Sister Mamerta Rocero, SPC, who died on January 7, 2009 at the age of 93. This is a critique of her poems and verses which I obliged upon her request five years before her death.

Sister Mamerta wrote eight books: two in poetry, two essays (Talking with God and His Friends, and God Bless the Family)), a compilation of her speeches, a biography of her late sister, Sister Mary Nathaniel Rocero, SPC, also a Ph.D. holder, (My Sister Mary Nath), and several scientific papers. Ethnobotany of the Itawes, her doctoral dissertation earned the honor of meritissimus from the University of Santo Tomas. It was published by the National Museum in 1985. I have known Sister Mamerta since I was a child in our hometown, San Vicente, Ilocos Sur. She and my father were cousins on the maternal side, Roberonta.

x x x

Books by Dr AV Rotor

Published by University of Santo Tomas, launched 2008 Manila International Book Fair, SMX Mall of Asia, 220 pp. "The book is a compendium of indigenous technical knowledge complemented with modern scientific thinking. The narratives offer an exploration into the world of ethno-science covering a wide range of practical interest from climate to agriculture; medicine to food and nutrition..: (Excerpt of Foreword by Dr Lilian J Sison, dean UST Graduate School).

" For the science educator and communicator, here is a handy volume to help you reach the popular consciousness. You will find here more than ample number of examples for making connections between lived experience and scientific information." (Dr Florentino H Hornedo, UNESCO Commissioner)


Winner of the Gintong Aklat Award 2003 by the Book Publishers Association of the Philippines. The book has 30 chapters divided into four parts, a practical guide on how one can get closer to nature, the key to a healthy and happy life. Second printing, 2008.

"Once upon a time, nature was pristine, undefiled, and unspoiled. We used to live in a dreamlike world of tropical virgin forests, and purer hidden springs, calm ponds, and serene lakes with majestic purple mountains, crowned with canopied trees. That was when people took only what they needed, caught only what they ate, and lived only in constant touch with a provident earth." (excerpt from the Introduction by Dr Anselmo Set Cabigan, professor, St Paul University QC and former director of the National Food Authority)

A Sequel to the Living with Nature Handbook, it was launched at the Philippine International Book Fair in 2006. It won the National Book Award by the National Book Development Board jointly with The Manila Book Circle and the National Commission for the Culture and the Arts. Published by UST Publishing House, the book has 35 chapters divided into four parts. The book can be aptly described in this verse.

"Nature shares her bounty in many ways:
He who works or he who prays,
Who patiently waits or gleefully plays;
He's worthy of the same grace."


The principal author is Dr. Belen L Tangco who wrote the verses and prayers. Each verse or prayer is accompanied by an appropriate painting by AV Rotor. Full color and handy, it is useful as a prayer book and reference in the Humanities.

"Indeed, God speaks to us in the little details of nature - through the trees and the flowers, in the drip of rain, in the blow of the wind. He speaks to us in all of His Creation..." (Excerpt from the Foreword by Fr Tamelane R Lana, UST Rector)

A Giraffe Book, it contains 72 verses, mainly four-liners, each verse accompanied by a photograph or painting. Most of the photos were taken by students in the Humanities at then St Paul College QC. The school president wrote the Foreword, an excerpt of which reads as follows:

"It takes deep reflection to arouse one's inner child to take notice of the undistinguished buds, hyacinth, date palms... and it takes a trusting, affirming, and enlightened teacher-artist to lead and inspire..."

Poems, poems, poems, 72 pages, a handy book, colored and black and white, published by Megabooks 2000. The late secretary of justice Sedfrey A Ordonez wrote in the Foreword "... it is inescapable that after reading his poetry and after examining his paintings which accompany his verses one is led to the conclusion that the man who created the multi-disciplinary tour de force is a Renaissance man, one who reveals his reverence for nature by means of music, verse, and painting."

The book is in full color, 75 pages, written by a very young student of then St Paul College QC. In the words of Sr Mary Sarah Manapol in the Foreword, "Viva is a youthful poetess who thinks and writes about pain and loss, friendship, joy and love, music and the arts, nature, math and literature, war and piece - these belie her age of 17 summers."

Dr AV Rotor as co-author, provided the photographs and paintings that fits harmoniously with the poems. More than this, he encouraged the young poetess to write her first book which was launched on her debut. Here is a verse from an anonymous admirer.

"After reading Light of Dawn,
How can I live without poetry and art?
From the love that I shall find,
Shall not my heart depart."

"The authors have embarked on this task of providing people with more information about the many uses of some plants. While herbal plants have long been recognized because of their nutritional and medicinal qualities, their other uses are not fully exploited... May we continue to promote alternative medicine... The prices of medicine and health products remain unaffordable to most of our countrymen and herbal plants are the best alternative as most of these have been proven to be effective." (Excerpt from the message of Dr Juan M Flavier, former senator and secretary of health)

A compilation of 18 essays about life and living, 216 pages. Published by UST in 2000 with the Preface written by Fr. Jose Antonio Aureada, regent of the Graduate School.

"What is considered a religion of disconnection betrays man's inability to see sensuality through divinity and divinity through sensuality... It was Victor Frankl, a Jewish psychotherapist-philosopher, who popularized logotherapy, a word of Greek origin which literally means healing through meaning. Dr Abe. the poet-musician-painter-scientist rolled into one, reminds us of the Franklian inspired principle: The unheard cry for meaning if only well-heeded in all aspects of life - from the least significant to the extremely necessary, from the most commonplace to the phenomenally sublime - can only restore authenticity back to living life beautifully."

A coffee table book, full color, published by Megabooks in 1995. It was dedicated and presented to the Holy Father on his visit to the Philippines by the late Jaime Cardinal Sin, Sister Teresita Bayona SPC, and Fr. James B Reuter, SJ.

" Doctor A.V. Rotor is an extraordinary man - scientist, painter, musician, photographer, poet. With these verses he becomes something more than an artist. He is an apostle - trying, in his own gentle way, to bring man to God. and God to man, through beauty." (Message by Fr James B Reuter, SJ)

NOTE: Available at the University of Santo Tomas Publishing House, Espana corner P Noval, Manila at special discount for a package of books: The Living with Nature Handbook; Living with Nature in Our Times; Light from the Old Arch, and Living with Folk Wisdom. Please call 406-1611 local 8252/8278).

Available at National Book Store branches. (Quezon Avenue Branch: Living with Nature Handbook, Living with Nature in Our Times, Living with Folk Wisdom)

Environment Lecture-Forum at UST

Dr. Abercio V Rotor receives a Certificate of Appreciation from Professor Rebecca David, adviser of the Rotaract Club of UST Pharmacy, after presenting a lecture on the environment with the theme, “Be in the Know Now: Make a Difference - You can Save the Earth.” The lecture-forum was held at the Tan Yan Kee Auditorium, University of Santo Tomas last January 8, 2010. In the In photo, from right are Prof Ophelia Laurente, Dr Rotor, Prof David,Miss Gayle Alexine Nadres (governor, UST Rotaract Club); Prof Perla Villamarzo, Miss Caress Cabrera, and Mr Jason Modina, Rotaract officers.

Peter Huang, a Pharmacy student, raises a question on how the "Greening Movement" helps in combating global warming and other ecological problems.

Happy disposition is painted on the faces of these participants. Boredom is the common problem in lectures. Let the audience participate in the forum and through hands-on exercises and group dynamics.

Dr Abe V Rotor

Lecture-forum, workshop, conference, field camp, outreach project, social immersion, rural service, apprenticeship, practicum - these supplement and complement classroom instruction. Or substitutes to it.

In many instances, they constitute the bigger part in acquiring knowledge specially on the skills level and where social concern is needed. They are practical and effective because they often make use of hands-on and on-site approaches. They hone all senses, unlike electronic and blackboard learning which are mainly visual and auditory. They break monotony and boredom, and develop camaraderie, and link between resource persons and participants.

This is particularly true to topics of great significance which involve mobilization of the masses such as Saving the Environment, indeed a topic for all ages, races, religions, ideologies, and all walks of life.

Build a bridge between theory and application. Learn the latest and keep abreast. Express your views and listen to the views of others. Give more weight to utilitarian rather than aristocratic education.

Get out of the classroom. Abandon the computer. Trek to where the action is. Get involved. "Be heard, be counted - and share." ~

Living with Nature 3, AVR

Part 3: Ecological Paradigm of Salvation - “Why is Mother Earth complaining?”

Abe V Rotor

The prolificacy of the human species sans war and pestilence, plus growing affluence of its societies led to a population explosion, doubling in lass than 50 years. We are now 6 billion. In this paradigm master and subject have joined hands to exploit the earth’s finite resources. Our best economists are the worst housekeepers of Nature. While they aim for the good life, they have unwittingly reduced the very foundation of that good life – the productivity and beauty of Mother Earth.

Ecological paradigm endorses an eco-centric approach where all forms of life and non-life are important to human life. Spirituality points out to a unitive force: the sacredness of everything. Hod’s divinity flows in everything. There is integration in the universe. And we are part of that integration, exceedingly small as we are notwithstanding.

The kind of person we truly are is reflected by our relationship with Mother Earth, how we comply under her treaties. Clearly, biocide is the greatest sin man commits in this period. Long live, Ceres! And Albert Schweitzer and King Solomon must be smiling up there. So with St. Francis of Assisi, patron saint of ecology. “Reverence for life,” is the key to this paradigm.

Filipino Paradigm
“Saan and magandang kalooban mo?”

Rip van Winkle is said to have slept for 20 long years, “dahil sa sama ng loob” because he was a henpeck husband. When finally he woke up he was suspected a sply, but later forgiven and accepted back to the fold, because of “kagandahang loob.”

The Filipino, like old Rip, finds spirituality if not through meditation with saints and spirits, and escape from reality and often into his inner self – “loob”. While he is afraid of the “aswang,” he at the same time wishes an “anting-anting” or amulet to fall from heaven. He views the world on the vantage point of “loob,” that life is cyclical: “gulong ng palad.” The other is a simple version of William James’ stream of consciousness, which he uses in expanding his “loob.” Example: “Pagbubu-o ng loob.” “Abot dama.” It is no wonder that the greatest sin one can commit is “pagsira ng loob,” which means destroying the dignity of a person.

There are things he is completely silent about, such as sex. But he will be most proud to talk of his family. Family-centeredness is an extension of “loob.” OFWs send back home their earnings. A private jeepney bears the name of the family which owns it. Houses huddle together in the company of family members and relatives. Thus the send of nationhood is little emphasized. Why globalization when that is too far from “loob.”

(Continued)

We Live in a Time of Hope and Change - A Response

We Live in a Time of Hope and Change
- A Response

Dr Abercio V Rotor
Golden Jubilee Awardee 1999
St. Paul University QC

 We realize and accept the big challenge that these awards expect us to carry on as we prepare to face the closing of this century, which marks the grandest milestone of our history, and, on the other hand, anticipates the promise of the next millennium. 

Conversion of St Paul on Damascus Road, painting by the author at the former SPUQC Museum (8ft x 8ft)

 Experience tells us of the dichotomy of the future as we walk the road the road of change characterized by danger and opportunity, uncertainty and optimism.  However, we tend to believe that the future is bright, and often the prophet in us sees it as a superhighway, sans the predicaments of Nostradamus, the man who saw tomorrow.

 At our feet lies a shrunken planet which we exaggeratedly call a Global Village.  Definitely our sense of dimension and time is wrong.  It is as if we are interpreting literally William Blake’s philosophical masterpiece, Auguries of Innocence, to wit:

        “To see a world in a grain of sand

      And a heaven a wild flower.

  Hold infinity in the palm of your hand

      And eternity in an hour.”

Breakthroughs in technology, pyramidal corporate structures, make a genie of a capitalistic society to which the world lies subservient. Paradoxically, through the present Information Revolution, the tentacles of such order have unwittingly clamped down reason in the Homo sapiens now being shaped into a singular mass where richness in diversity begins to dissolve and becomes polarized in the belief that modernization will lead us to the Good Life.

Is this the reason why The Hunchback of Notre Dame lost its socio-political theme in a recent Disney comedy musicale?  Was it because of money, because the New Order lacks conscience, because tradition is passé?  Whatever happened to Markham’s philosophy on Millet’s struggle, in Juan Luna’s Spolarium?

My fellow awardee and I believe that the Good Life that our fast changing world promises us is more than power.  Still, we must rely on man’s most powerful tool that is well tested in the long process of evolution and in the quest for advancement, and that is the power of the human mind, its imagination and its reason. 

While there is need to explore the world around us , there is equally a need to reflect into ourselves and onto God.

If truth is to be found in inventions and formulas, we must not forget that the foundation of truth is in the Great Book.

A clear mind about the issues of the world will merely lie obscure without a stout heart that accompanies it, and which is willing to deal with its imperfections.

Peace, that inner peace in every righteous person, in order to exist truly, must be an instrument of reconciliation to settle conflicts and erase tensions, and to teach us to live harmoniously with our fellowmen. Only then can true understanding beget justice, compassion.  This is a true gain of mankind, but like any other genuine gain, it cannot be attained without pain.  This is reality’s finest moment, a common dream come true.  That is why we are measured by our fidelity to our dream, however distant that dream is and impossible as it may seem.

Yes, periodicity – when we came and where we are, through an incidence of time and space – is not devoid of a purpose, a purpose that is part of a grand design of the great Creator, the purpose of life itself, the greatest gift of man from God.  And as a gift it must grow, grow into a mountain it must, before it is shared.

In sharing that dream, we indulge in vision, hope and prayer which bring us closer to God.  We are not only the dominant organism on earth, we are the likeness of our Creator.  If there is one that likeness must fit best, it is the Paulinian.  Our vision of her is “a perfect woman, nobly planned,” and bright with something of an angel light that shines, but she, too, takes pride in reaching out to the less fortunate.  She sits on a swivel chair, walks on the unbeaten path.  She shines in competition, to illuminate the vision that the youth is human life’s instrument of perfection.  

These awards are a perfect symbol of the immortal relationship between the old and the young.  They help bring generations together for common visions and

Aspirations.  The old may have earned the natural right to preach to the young, but the young see more clearly the errors of the past and are more willing to rectify them. 

As we walk on the road of change to the year 2000 and beyond, and, perchance find ourselves at a crossroad where we hesitate to proceed, let us look back, and there we will find a lamp shining through the portals of our institution – a light that once upon a dark night on a lonely road to Damascus, a stranger found his way to the hearts of men and into the kingdom of Christ. ~

“Buy books, sir?”

War Remnant Museum, Ho Chi Ming City, Vietnam

“Buy books, sir,” a boy called,
stopping me on my track
to the War Remnant Museum.
“No, no.” My words were cold.

Back in time, the inhumanity of war
unfolded beyond my belief:
barbaric, grotesque, pathetic -
at the end, stood the Yellow Star.

It is the star of David I saw indeed
Goliath met his fate once more,
his sword broken, his armor rusted,
another lesson of man’s greed.

“Buy books, sir.” The boy was back.
Before leaving the sacred compound,
I read Iraq and Afghanistan.
What is it that we humans lack? ~

Light from the Old Arch 2, AVR

Society in Art

Paintings, Life in Vietnam, Ho Chi Ming City, Vietnam

Aristocrat, bourgeois, proletariat -
a postulate of equality,
Marxist and Leninist philosophy -
a make-believe classless society,
inspired by the promise of heaven,
imprimatur of theology;
abstracted by art,
a distorted reality -
through beauty.

Light from the Old Arch, AVR

Cathedral

Cathedral, Ho Chi Ming City, Vietnam

Dr Abe V Rotor

A cathedral – but where is its door?
A barred gate, heavy lock at the rear,
Forbidden view the eyes couldn’t tour,
Footsteps only radar could hear.

That was before; the war is over now.
I knocked at the door. A kindly nun
Let me in and showed me all around.
Through the stained glass, I saw the sun.

Into the Crypt I dared not tread,
My shoes dusty, I was in slack,
Yet I dared to ask from the dead
And the martyrs the courage I lack.

Between two guards I pass,
Walk the aisle to the altar
To hear the Holy Mass
I hear the heavy doors close.
How deep is my faith?
I did not look behind.~

Light from the Old Arch 2, AVR

Papait, Kalunay, Ngalog...dagiti atap a mulmula a mabalin a kanen wenno sidaen.

Some Wild Food Plants:  Kalunay, Ngalog...dagiti atap a mulmula a mabalin a kanen wenno sidaen

Dr Abe V Rotor

Wild ampalaya, eggplant, native patani and alukong (himbaba-o)

Ngalog or Portulaca

Dampalit

Talinum

Fortunately Ilocano has remained vigorous and progressive. This is principally because of one distinct trait of the Ilocano - his loyalty to his language, and pride he carries with it as Ilocano. He carries it across the oceans and plant it in the community in which he is integrated. He is so regionalistic that he influences people around him, more than the other way around.

No only that, Ilokano is integrated with culture like horse and carriage. No language can best describe pinakbet, basi, Biag ni Lam-ang, Angalo, Apo Lakay, and a thousand-and-one indigenous terms that describe native practices and beliefs, historical places and events, heritage and values of this proud regional race.

This article and other articles in Ilokano which I wrote in this blog were inspired by Dr Nicholas L. Rosal, author of Understanding an Exotic Language - Ilokano (1982). His work explores the significance of the syntactical structures and grammatical forms of Ilokano, a language spoken by (more than) three million Filipinos and recognized among the eight Philippine languages amidst eighty-some dialects. I had the opportunity to visit Dr. Rosal many years ago in his residence in New Jersey where he and his family reside. Dr. Rosal taught graduate education courses at Seton Hall University, and became director of the Perth Amboy Adult Bilingual High School, one of its kind in New Jersey and elsewhere in the world.

I invite the Ilocano reader to interpret this article and share it with fellow Ilocanos and non-Ilocanos as well.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Adu dagiti atap a mulmula a mabalin a kanen wenno sidaen. Ammo da apongtayo daytoy.

Ti saluyot (Corchorus olitorius), gagangay laengen ta saanen a kas idi a dagiti laeng agtubo iti babaet dagiti mula a tarong ken kamatis ti tarayen a kettelen. Ita, addan dagiti agmulmula iti ilakoda.

Adda met dagiti mabalin a kanen a ganggannaet iti imatang wenno di ammo a kanen ti adu kadatayo ita. Kas pagarigan, ti nami (Dioscorea hispida) wenno karut. Makasabidong daytoy ngem ammo dagidi apongtayo nga ikkaten ti sabidongna sa lutuen (salapusopan) a kanenda.

Idi met panawen ti Maikadua a Gubat, napilitan dagiti tattao a mangan kadagiti dati a dida kankanen a kas iti bunel ti saba (nangruna ti balayang) ken magey tapno mapedped ti bisinda. Adda met dagiti mangmangan iti bunel ti wild taro wenno aba a paminduaenna ti tayag ti tao ti tayagan dagiti lupakna. Pispisienda daytoy sa lingtaenda iti mabayag tapno di makaulaw.

Kadagupan dagiti atap a mula a mabalin a kanen, adun ti dandani maungaw. Maigapu daytoy iti panangipamaysatayo iti panagpatanor kadagiti mula a gagangayen nga am-ammo dagiti aggatgatang, dagiti nakairuamanen ti dilatayo ti ramanda.

Ita, aglatlatak manen dagiti makmakan a kunkunada nga organic—saan laeng a ditoy Filipinas, no di pay ket iti ballasiw-taaw a kas idiay America— adu manen ti maibaw-ing ti imatangna kadagitoy a naipakpakanigid a mula. Kayat ngamin a liklikan ita dagiti tattao dagiti makmakan a narnek iti abuno ken pasuyot iti pestisidio, wenno dagiti mula a kunada a GMO (genetically modified organism).

Isu a makitkita manen kadagiti tiendaan dagiti lako a ngalog (Portulaca), dampalit, katuday, papait, kalunay wenno kuantong, balleba wenno ballaiba (Vallisneria), tartarabang, talinum, alugbati, kumpitis, rosil, gulasiman, atap a paria wenno ti aw-awaganda iti simmaron, ken alukon. Adda payen aglako iti bunga ti singkamas. Awan met ngata ti makitkitayo a mapaspasuyotan iti insektisidio a bunga ti singkamas, ania?
* * *
Okeyka, Apong!
Dagiti Tawid a Sirib ken AdalColumn of Dr Abercio Valdez Rotor, Ph.D.
Bannawag Magazine