MIRAGE
By Luis G. Dato I saw in dreams a landscape With not a shadow by, It seemed so like a promise Half-hidden in the sky. There were high hills and mountains In purple drest and green, Like shades and shapes…
Category POEM
“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
Read MoreMIRAGE
PARTING
By Luis G. Dato Upon a path we lingered When skies were overcast, She knew not I was doubting If love had come at last. In her I felt arising The pity Christ thought ofTo me naught else did matter…
GRADUATION POEM FOR MISS USA
By Luis G. Dato Dear queen, on this occasion historic and sublime, Which will be all recorded as annals of our time, It is indeed an honor on coronation night, In tribute to your beauty bright verses to indite. This…
QUEEN ANGELICA I
By Luis G. Dato Tonight, Queen Angie dear, it is for me A pleasure great, as well an honor high, To soar with wings the realms of fantasy And chant in verse your beauty to the sky. An honor high,…
TO QUEEN ELENOR I
By Luis G. Dato In ancient times our people lived under their own kings, Malayan sultans, rajahs of whom no bard now sings, In this our Bikol region in centuries bygone, They, too, had their own rulers, the kings of…
TO QUEEN AMPARO
By Luis G. Dato O radiant queen of beauty It is a pleasant duty And near my heart’s desire, To write for you these verses The while the muse rehearses To wake the living lyre. In St. Dominic’s regions We…
TO QUEEN CRISANTA
By Luis G. Dato Most gracious queen, My eyes have seen In other days what men call fair; The face divine That warms like wine, And urges men to strive and dare. In very truth, What could to youth, Be…
ODE TO RIZAL (Translated from Cecilio Apostol)
By Luis G. Dato Eternal idol of the nation’s story, Arise immortal from the dream of glory And break the sleep abysmal of repose, Descend from shades eternal where you slumber, For now our love intense as we remember Would…
THE LA MUSES
By Luis G. Dato The LA candidates are pretty pearls, We think, not common, ordinary girls; Glory and glamour certain they would give To any court in lands of make-believe. Purita stands five-six in stockinged feet - This for dalagas…
THE MUSE
By Luis G. Dato Have you met her in the flesh, youth, And did you keep yet your heart? Fairer than the fairest flowers, At her sight must Care depart. For the sprite of spring had sent her, Hands divine…
MY MUSES
By Luis G. Dato I think sometimes of flowers once perfuming, The scarlet alleys of my yester-years, And then again, an aureate form assuming, Their memory brings a memory of tears. Here once beneath dark-green acacia branches, How gilded golden…
MY BROWN GODDESS
By Luis G. Dato My goddess brown, so pure and sweet, I kneel a pilgrim at your feet, I love you, dear, strange it may seem That to possess you I should dream. But Mely dear, O bless my life,…
