Garden Verses on Angels' Hills

Top, San Lorenzo Ruiz; the Annunciation, Angels' Hill, Tagaytay

Dr Abe V Rotor

1. Yellow bells:
what chime,
what song,
what music,
what message
come forth
from you
in the morning
of your full bloom?
Shhh... listen.

2. I seek not the Tree of Knowledge, oh God,

To whose fruits man had fallen;
Neither would I ask for another Flood,
To put him back to Eden.

3. Red, red, oh, the bleeding drops of red,
Erythryna, Erythrina,
Stain my palms and feet and my side
And I shall never doubt Him again,
Nevermore, nevermore!

4. Bromeliad, trees would be bare without you;
You hang on their limbs, and blossom, too;
Deep in your bosom some little ponds lie,
Oasis to fish, frog and dragonfly.

5. Lantana, odorous yet amorous
in many mysterious ways,
leaving scent in the misty air,
trails for some beautiful wings,
a kaleidoscope of sun rays.

6. Mimicry's the name of the game,
all in survival's name;
defense and offense,
conceit and deceit -
cloaked in beauty
and Nature’s sense.

7. We love to play the flower game,
"Loves me, loves me not." It's also sane
If I ask, "What do other creatures gain?"
Ask the butterflies, the bees and fly crane.

8. When my days are over,
let me lie down to sleep
on sweet breeze and earth
in the shade of trees
I planted in my youth;
and if I had not done enough,
make, make my kind live
to carry on the torch,
while my dust falls
to where new life begins –
even only an atom that I shall be;
let me be with you,
dear Mother Earth.

The Edge of the Forest, AVR 2011