You Are Braver Than You Know

- Even losing you (the joking voice, a gesture

I love) I shan't have lied. It's evident
the art of losing's not too hard to master
though it may look like (Write it!) like a disaster.

--Elizabeth Bishop

This is the Hour of Lead-
Remembered, if outlived,
As freezing persons,
recollect the Snow-
First-Chill-then Stupor-
then the letting go---

--Emily Dickinson

In their daily life, all are braver than they know.--Henry David Thoreau

 to the memory of jerry yet again

& for mira araos & jorge v. ledesma who mourn for him from a great distance

i agree that we are not just

bereft but humbled

by our great father's

departure

sure, the doctors

from the capitol

may have given him

several chances

to continue loving

life till eternity

but who wants to live

& love to eternity in

a shell that is 

withering

before our eyes?

it is just as well

that we will & force

ourselves 

to fill our time

with work & daily worries

concentrate on

the details of living

despite the absent luster

the trill of notes in 

his laughter

the songs that gush

naturally out of him

all these we can still hear

in morning bird songs

in the rush of water

as we cry along

in the shower

in the song of wind

that moves the green force

of tree branches

he would dislike

our hot tears

& whip the wimp

out of us

oh man,

where's the discipline?

he'd shout at us

beyond my window

the sun is up

i can already imagine

him shout-singing

"i've got a lot of livin'

got a lot of livin'

got a lot of livin'

to doooooo!"

--Babeth Lolarga

Jan. 3, 2013

6:40 a.m.

Photo of Jerry and Melen in Antipolo taken by Babeth, April 3, 2011