Tag: Henrietta Diana de Guzman

Pit Senyor!

This is your thirty-first
candle this month. Your fervent hopes
of being with her,
walking in the rain,
sharing one umbrella,
trudging a journey,
together.

Your candles vary
every day. Some days, you lit them
golden and warm.
Some days, the wind
blows them stone cold.

You always say that once I light a candle,
Sto. Nino will eventually hear my prayer.

“Believe me, the unlit candles
are wishes in a state of sleep.”

But, do I need to light one?

Perhaps.

In silence,
I am with my prayer.

In silence,
I burn,
I melt,
I disintegrate
everyday,

alone.

---

Henrietta Diana de Guzman is a graduate of Creative Writing at UP Mindanao. She was a fellow for poetry at the 2009 Davao Writers Workshop and at the 2nd Sulat DULA: Playwriting Workshop at Xavier University (Ateneo de Cagayan University). Some of her works have appeared in SunStar Davao and the Best of Dagmay anthology.

And I blame it on
how you look at me and then suddenly,
you took control the universe of my thought
like whirlwind brushing against the afternoon sky
or like waterfalls that splashes and gushes forth
into my boundless sea of desire
or maybe like fire that flares
love and lust with cold coal,
burning yet yearning for more
or like mounds of earth that crushes my roots
of wisdom and reason
because it seems that your eyes speak
a thousand things
of bliss, of passion, of love
that I myself failed to discern
before.
Hate me,
but I would love to blame
those eyes over and over
again
for wanting and desiring
and desiring and wanting
you more.

—
Henrietta Diana de Guzman is a graduate of Creative Writing at UP Mindanao. She was a fellow for poetry at the 2009 Davao Writers Workshop and at the 2nd Sulat DULA: Playwriting Workshop at Xavier University (Ateneo de Cagayan University). Some of her works have appeared in SunStar Davao and the Best of Dagmay anthology.

For JMS

I have had to come up with
various techniques to stop
myself thinking about how
to savor this hot and bitter
black coffee without
thinking about jaded thoughts;
the never-ending persuasion
of warm faces, of me moving
to their department ,
-wanting me to stop thinking
because there’s none to doubt about.
or the steam faint vapor waking like
loin girding shouts of unfamiliar souls
whom I only spoke with during a phone call,
or the barren poems and jumbled
metaphors, thirsting, waiting
for me to pen their existence down
on a piece of cold
and crisp white paper; to let them live
in a majestic universe
they deserve to own.
or the clear vision of you
and that girl walking in the rain,
sharing one umbrella,
trudging a journey, leaving footprints of bliss
stirring me to sudden melancholy,
or the lurid idea that stimulates me
to think , to go on
to taste the reality of fortune, of a ‘yes’
though my heart always
sip and drink down a caffeinated ‘no’
because in a pure, honest and
absent minded stupidity, I want
to stay because
I love you.
And this is the only catharsis
the sole epiphany
I have kept and own.
To continue
loving you,
To stay,
to stop thinking
and start finishing
a cup of
hot and bitter
black coffee.

—
Henrietta Diana de Guzman is a graduate of Creative Writing at UP Mindanao. She was a fellow for poetry at the 2009 Davao Writers Workshop and at the 2nd Sulat DULA: Playwriting Workshop at Xavier University (Ateneo de Cagayan University). Some of her works have appeared in SunStar Davao and the Best of Dagmay anthology.

gamayng kahayag sa samin,
ang dyutay kong namatikdan

kalkag nga buhok,
muta sa mata,
uga nga ngabil,

hinay hinay
kong gitulon
ang napan-os kong
laway.

naghubog ang duha ka
pulong

ikaw ug ako

madayganon ka
dinhi kanako

Continue reading Kot' ilē ' don (cotyledon)

Dedicated to Kristoffer Alibangbang

The dawn is breaking rapidly
like hundred light years have
passed away over the omniscient horizon,
mirroring my heart nestled into
patterned solitude.

…because I have to find the panoramic view of
life. Eyeing differently from gleaming stars, moons and
shadows of light that reflects his cherub façade,

… because I, vowed to see each butterflies and how
they undergone several epiphanies every morning, with
flowers around them, frothed in rain drops, coaxed
by the sun. Leaving me empty with my scratch papers,
lines and silenced metaphors.

…because words are just words. But he composes a bucket of
strayed fragments that I should let go of- to decipher these words
are not just words.

… maybe because , my mind just aches, overfed with this cathartic malady.

…and maybe because, I want to get cured though I know I loved to be severe.

Continue reading Oblivion

Wa pa gani miusbaw ang adlaw
Si Tiya, nagsugod nag latagaw
Sa gawas sa balay ginasugdan
chismis na murag way kahumanan.
“Dre’, kabaw baka sa nahitabo?”
“Day, kabaw ko unsa iyang tuyo.”
“Ay da! Baho daw kag ilok..”
“Siya? Tamad daw ug palahubog.”
“Unsa? Iya nang gi- ‘storya Piling?”
“Kabaga baya sa iyang aping!”
“Nya, puti ba di ay iyang ilok?”
“Bagag nawng! Mura bayag mulihok!”
Continue reading Ang Tsismosang si Tiya Piling