photo by skeeze @ pixabay.com
fleeting thoughts of a fevered lover
now
the gurgling of peace
in confused currents of a
soft-silvered stream
that runs under my pillow
is joined
by the stringed reflection
of your guitar —
a heartfelt tone of some
moonbeam lights in nights
of rambling cries.
you are the rosy-colored aura
that promises a carefree world
atop the branches of framed air
you come swinging to and fro
up and down with the elegance
of the eagle
that is contained in your tune.
i am lulled by your winged hoverings
i am lulled
by the wideness of blue heaven
you occupy.
yes, you are
the distant mountain that bathes
in sunlight yet hides
in the shadows
of the stretching foliage
of some remote myths.
© said sadain, jr. 1974
Author’s note:
This is my very first poem published in a national magazine (Focus Philippines, May 18, 1974 issue), written late in 1973 or very early 1974 when I was 15 years old. Contrary to some who thought that this was written for a schoolgirl, the poem was (and continues to be) about the yearning for peace and order that many of the townsfolk in that enigmatic land, Sulu, knew was slipping farther away during that period. By the time the poem was published, what remaining pieces of peace and order in the land had been totally shattered, and would remain elusive as a myth for a long, long time to come.
This post, while not part of the collection: Mt. Tumantangis and Other Poems on Sulu, serves as an introduction to this collection of 12 poems, which I shall be posting in the coming weeks.
– SSJ, 13 October 2017
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Some related readings:
http://www.mindanews.com/top-stories/2016/02/that-we-may-remember-february-7-1974-the-jolo-caust/
http://opinion.inquirer.net/104299/from-jolo-to-marawi
http://thingsasian.com/story/last-tribes-mindanao-tausug-people-current
