“One cannot write unless one has known satiety, debauchery, and the intimacy of desire, and can remember them “in moments of tranquility.”
— Luis G. Dato, Philippines Herald Mid-week Magazine in April 6, 1932
By Luis G. Dato Like eagles striving for the mighty sweep Of sky blue-vaulted o’er the mirroring wave, In awesome first rehearsals your dreams leap Beyond the perilous peaks with young wings brave. Flutter your wines upon the desolate cliff,…
By Luis G. Dato Movement, there’s buoyant movement in the dance, A grace and gay abandon, gift divine, And as we view it we fall in a trance Like one drunk of some rare, exotic wine. And we behold the…
By Luis G. Dato In days of old, one moonlight night, When young was life and earth and art, A lover asked his friend to write A song to win a fair one’s heart. The outcome the world knows so…
By Luis G. Dato The wings of song would carry me To worlds which the sad soul beguile, But I turn to the melody Of earth that sings within your smile. Dance is a wine that warms the heart, That…
By Luis G. Dato To the ear of murmurous zephyr, Comrade, thrill your lute, While the greening leaves and bowers, Hearkening turn mute. To the boughs where wanton clinging, Flutter you about, Sing of harmonies remembered With your golden throat.…
By Luis G. Dato Sing me a song of sorrow, Such as the lone bird knows, When night sits over the waters, And withered is the rose. Morning is red in the mountains, Hours fly on golden wings, Song is…
By Luis G. Dato Leaves on the ground, Boughs by the zephyrs in ecstasy dropped, Vines looking up At the trunk they had clung to but lately, Till the breezes came their way… They are scattered and helpless, Wistful of…
By Luis G. Dato Before you rise the portals of your glory, The marble moulded to your artifice Your eyes survey the vistas of your triumph, Your dim, unseeing eyes. The multitude to strains harmonious hearkens As to forgotten music…
By Luis G. Dato I know not if the songs that from you rise, Are tuned to pain or mirth, They are, it seems, some compromise Of sky and earth. For from the throat of mortals such as we, The…
By Luis G. Dato Your unseen fingers of the night have spun Auroral flowers that surprise, Clouds petalled red against the sun, And scarlet with sunrise. Last night a terror crept within my heart With every gust of sudden rain,…
By Luis G. Dato I have a vision of a world-soul fleeing, Too airy for touch, and too swift for seeing; I see the footstep of the soul immortal Left in the glow of twilight’s fiery portal, In rise of…
By Luis G. Dato At Christmas time the nights are dark and chill, But over all the world resplendent sill The Star of Bethlehem we all can see, Rejoicing in the Lord’s Nativity. All to the Church will gather swain…
