“Poetry lives on love, and love is nothing but the worship of woman.”
Luis G. Dato, Philippines Herald Mid-week Magazine, April 6, 1932
by Luis G. Dato I Dear Mary, Mother of Christ, whom all these years The faithful have, next but to God, believed, God’s virgin Mother, without sin conceived, Our Queen in heaven who our pleas all hears, Past two millenia…
by Luis G. Dato When bruised with pain, my soul would agitate And hearken mandates from unholy power, To find my self in the unhallowed hour Faithless, and Satan whispers at the gate; When I surrender to the voice of…
By Luis G. Dato In this state of the mind when the least sound perplexes, And the faintest light shadow the spirit depresses, When the pen, hesitating, conjectures and guesses On the scheme enigmatic of mortals and sexes;When the twilight…
By Luis G. Dato I am sweetly perplexed by love sallies, releases, By the countless retreats and the numberless captures, By the petulant coldness and agreeable raptures, By the whisper of phrases that hurts and then pleases, I am drunk…
By Luis G. Dato I sit upon the white rocks by the bay, Against whose hollows numberless, the waves Will splash forevermore. The sunset laves The deep with light. There rises far away A mountain that has seemingly defied The…
By Luis G. Dato Upon these deeps in days remotely old, A daring band of Malays flung their sails Intrepidly. On tempests, storms, and gales, On ocean furies, full their valor told, Each gust a grave, each grave a tale…
By Luis G. Dato Our days in swift succession bid us on To these unchartered, desolate domains, Where over deserts strewn with the remains Of unreturning caravans long gone, We follow trails that, winding, go astray Into the dull horizon.…
By Luis G. Dato Grey on its ancient rise of ground, it stands Against the icy rain’s unceasing spears, The streets with rich homes dotted commands - Uninterruptedly the sky sheds tears. A passing beggar throws a brief, bleak glance…
By Luis G. Dato Against the time I did prepare my heart When blind no longer to the heard reality, The veil must fall from dream and revery, And mine no more, your ways and mine must part; I sought…
By Luis G. Dato Under your window passing in the night, For your accustomed face to see behind Your orchids fluttering in the nocturne wind, (Like little pigeons posed for flight Into the blueness of the infinite), My eyes could…
By Luis G. Dato I The rills in their cascades, the brooks in their courses, Will, seething and whirling, unresistingly flow, Some invisible power they never can know, Bids them stir from their basins and leap from their sources. And…
By Luis G. Dato Whyfore must minstrels unattended sing, And warble songs but little understood? The shy doves coo their music to the wood And wild, as soon the answering echoes ring; Perfumed flowers impetuously will fling Such exhalations like…
