The Sands of Time - Requiem to a Once Beautiful Estuary

The Sands of Time -
 Requiem to a Once Beautiful Estuary

"The sands of time whistle a tune,
either requiem or march;
indifference or action, 

a tomb or a glorious arch." 

Dr Abe V Rotor 

Living with Nature School on Blog 

Erosion progressively eats out the sand bunker protecting these vacation houses. This is a result of rising sea level combined with flash flood from the denuded watershed.
Heavy siltation has virtually locked up a large part of this estuary reducing fish catch and blocking the tides that wash away pollution.

  

Eye sore, pollution, blocking the waterway meet tourists in this once pristine estuary.

Heavy and irreversible siltation meets the eye far and wide in this once beautiful estuary in Fuerte, Vigan, Ilocos Sur, formerly Ciudad Fernandina. Here galleon ships dock and ply their trade for more than two centuries during the Spanish regime.

The sands of time here is literal,
each grain a part of history,
each grain an emissary
of man's unending greed and fall.

The sands of time pile up still,
more than the grass that covers all,
lifeless, gray and dull,
aimless, searching any space to fill.

The sands of time, spirit of the past,
spirit of the future, haunting
the conscience now, throbbing,
restless 'til comes a kindred at last.

The sands of time in Flanders field,
in Austerlitz, lie with the dead
in peace with tears once shed,
to enshrine honor and deed.

The sands of time for us alive -
while there is time to amend,
hold them right at the shed,
away from shore and ebb.

The sands of time whistle a tune,
either requiem or march;
indifference or action, 

a tomb or a glorious arch. 

The sands of time can't wait,
the Sahel was once Eden,
sand dunes green hills then
that kept man's pride and faith. ~

Lesson on former Paaralang Bayan sa Himpapawid (People's School-on-Air) with Ms Melly C Tenorio. 738DZRB AM Band, 8 to 9 evening class, Monday to Friday