“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 My blood is Titanic in soul and in spirit, Rajah blood I inherit, Which tumultuous will down through my arteries beat, It is turbulence toned to hysterical war, It is flame from the fumes of volcanoes…
by Luis G. Dato Well, then, I must tell how much I adore you, And tell that I love you with all my heart, That much do I suffer, that much I deplore you And now I can’t bear it,…
by Luis G. Dato O Psyche immortal, fluttering unseen, Who hither from the dim abysses came To dower on my being what has been Of its statuary of flesh, the flame. I see you rise aglow with morning fire, And…
by Luis G. Dato To see my feverish hours Pass by so slowly, Who would beside me sit, My bed so lowly? And when with tremulous hand, I’m nigh the end, O who would clasp it then, What kindly friend?…
by Luis G. Dato Upon a Jewess’ couch an evening once, A ghost beseeming by the side of one Thought wandered from that flesh whence soul had flown, To one who might have on me brought romance. And then her…
by Luis G. Dato Quite often sailors shoot the albatross, And bring them down with infidel delight, Huge birds that trail the ships the sea across, With cloud-like pinions quivering in flight, Fallen on deck, and barely left alone, They…
by Luis G. Dato I have a dream too sharp and strange for name, Of one who loves me and for whom I yearn, A changing dream, yet somehow still the same, Companion to my fancy’s every turn. She understands…
by Luis G. Dato The town is quiet, the houses still, And the dark house of God, The heroes slumber up the hill, And in my heart, their blood. Again I see a gay procession, And men in bright attire,…
by Luis G. Dato Above Bataan warplanes soar, Relentlessly the cannons roar From smoking cliffs to ships off-shore, A roof of bombs, a ring of flame; Corregidor’s a blur behind, An army there will cover find, Bataan stands, and then…
by Luis G. Dato “Here fair Columbia, one historic night, Presaging Freedom, claimed a people’s care.” –Fernando Maramag This is America –she came this day To us three score and seven years ago, By accident? design? We cannot say, Perhaps…
by Luis G. Dato We are the memory of past desire, The sighs from old, forgotten agonies, We are the embers of a muffled fire, Entombed, yet breathing with the centuries. At sunset, when the clouds with bitter tears, Spread…
By Luis G. Dato Across the moonless meadows I make a sudden flight, Up hills and down the valleys of immemorial death, My throbbing heart remeasures my stallion’s labored breath, I stand upon Zapote this hour of near midnight. I…
