Pensive mood of LUIS G. DATO
A Baaeño Poet musings on Love and Life
Filipino Poet, Writer, Educator and Politician
Luis G. Dato (pseudonym ISAROG) was a Bikolano Poet, writer, educator and politician from Baao, Camarines Sur, Philippines. He is one of the first generation Filipino poets in English of the 20th century and the author of “The Spouse”, “Malolos”, “Day on the Farm”, “Among the Hills,” etc.
His works are anthologized in several published books, such as the Filipino Poetry by Rodolfo Dato 1924; Philippine Prose and Poetry, Jose Garcia Villa 1949; German-English Anthology of Filipino Poets, Pablo Laslo 1934, Readings in Philippine Literature, Celedonio G. Aguilar 1994; Our Scene So Fair: Filipino Poetry in English, 1905-1955, Gémino H. Abad 2008; Brown River, White Ocean: An Anthology of Twentieth-century Philippine Literature in English 1993; Writers & Their Milieu: An Oral History of First Generation Writers in English, Edilberto Alegre, Doreen Fernandez 2012; Philippine Poetry in English, 1928–1950: A Critical Survey, Joseph Ignatius Bengzon Gonzales, 1986; to name a few.
Prose and Poetry
CXXIII
By Luis G. Dato Now nearing sixty, what report to make To God on high and to the earth below? What record of accomplishments to show, What ripples in life’s sea leave in our wake, As we prepare evading Charon’s lake, And, leaving, we our of offspring shall bestow, By which posterity of us shall…
NOCTURNE
By Luis G. Dato Night comes, a spirit through my being steals, And bids my eyes, tired eyes in sleep to close, And to the bidding, now my soul that feels No sense of quiet, quietens in repose. Stay longer, sprite of night, and ever fill With your cool presence this my life distraught, Come,…
LXXIX
by Luis G. Dato Awake, my sweet, the silver moonlight laves Your window shut, like you, in placid dreams, Through clouds of gray the new moon’s radiant beams Shed eerie light on church, rice fields and graves, And houses all, the belfries and the caves, And only you, sweet sluggard mine, it seems Still hug…
DAYS OF LONG AGO
By Luis G. Dato When day is dying in the western sky And all the world is red with twilight glow, Often my heart given out a painful cry, Remembering the days of long ago. Often in other days I sat beside The boulders of the sea to watch the west, Dreaming across the sea…
THE STREETS AT NIGHT
by Luis G. Dato The cruel muse with tumult fills the cities, They rear with gasping breath, And thunder beats upon their pavements, Thunder that came from death. The stranger’s heart at eventide is lonely, And weary must be roam, As down desert-lands of treason Faith roams in quest of home. Love is a weary…
