By Sedfrey A.
Ordoñez
They say life starts at forty. Not really. It starts, to many people like justice secretary Ordoñez, at eighty. As life span gets longer and longer, people will ask, "What will I do when I'm eighty?
Dedicated to those who will turn eighty in a few years or so. Facing the sunset of life is perhaps the most rewarding, the most beautiful, the most fulfilling stage of man's brief sojourn on earth. And it is the most important because it bridges our being mortal with meeting our Creator, indeed a singular gift of God to Man.
This is a memorable photograph of some of our own literary giants: (left to right) the late poet and author of Life Cycles, Sedfrey Ordoñez (Justice Secretary and permanent representative to the United Nations); doyen of Philippine contemporary poetry Ophelia A Dimalanta, Hortencia Santos Sankore, Larry Francisco, and the late national artist and poet Jose Villa. Like Secretary Ordoñez, the late Dean Dimalanta and Jose Villa left invaluable lessons in life to the younger generations.
Today
the first of September
In this
year of our Lord
Nineteen
Hundred Ninety-One
I am
clear-minded seventy
And ten
years from now
As
tumultuous twentieth century
Slip
away like a leaf in the wind
I will
be, God bless me, eighty.
I will
not count the coming years nor be
Worried
by calendars thrown away
Because
I will be very busy –
Not
engrossed in counting my blessings
For
these are blazed in the brain
But
work figuring the ways
Of
loving humanity,
Striving
to be human,
Making
peace and avoiding war.
When I
reach eighty
You and
I will date our letters
Two
thousand one A.D.
But
have you ever pondered
What is
a mere two thousand years
Beside
the life of a universe?
Merely
simply contemplating
The
enormity of the tasks ahead
Urges
me to start right now
And
fill my last ten years
With
music
With
the wisdom,
With
the daring,
With
the vision
Of the
Master.
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