CIV
by Luis G. Dato When I am dead, will you then think of me More kindly, when I cease to haunt you dear Or dog your steps in school or church no more, Will I seem better in the memory,…
Luis G. Dato
Filipino Poet, Writer and Educator
Luis Dato
Luis G. Dato (July 4, 1906 - January 29, 1985) was a poet, writer and educator from Sta. Cruz, Baao, Camarines Sur. He published books in English including Manila A Collection of verse (1926), My Book of Verses (1936) and the Land of Mai in 1975. He also wrote several books and text in Bikol such as, Vocabulario Bikol-Ingles-Kastila (1963), Cantahon na Bikol (1969), Morfologia kan Tataramon na Bikol (serialized in Naga Times), Patotodon sa Bikol (Bikol Mail) and Sarabihon sa Bikol.
CIII
by Luis G. Dato If I should die, no sigh of yours shall call Back to the living and the world the dead, And not your tears in tardy pity shed Shall make arise the dead that you let fall.…
CII
by Luis G. Dato And life shall pass, and leaf by leaf, its tree That, mighty, from its seed earth has seen grow, Sturdy of trunk and stately, spreading bough, With blossoms in due season fruits to be, Will grace…
CI
by Luis G. Dato O dear, as each day passes we grow old And those smooth cheeks each time I would fain kiss, And those warm lips, the vortex of my bliss Will not forever Time’s assault to with hold.…
C
by Luis G. Dato O the black moment when you parted from Our place, the sudden unexpectedness, The prospect of drear days, the emptiness, The silent school, once like a second home, Turned into sobbing ones, where small tots come…
XCVIX
by Luis G. Dato Have I been wrong, was I not overwise When of my heart to you I gave the key, Was it all folly on the part of me, Succumbing senseless to lone’s witcheries? Is it that in…
XCVIII
by Luis G. Dato O punctuate my sonnets with your voice, Give periods and the commas to my lines, For word with word with slippery ease combines, And in the process difficult the choice. Mix, intersperse love with earth-earthy Joyce,…
XCVII
by Luis G. Dato I love you with each rhyme, with every beat And foot and meter, each throb of my heart. When you come near and when you stay apart, I find in every word a message sweet That…
XCVI
by Luis G. Dato On an uneven keel my ships of song Have sailed the seas and oceans of our time, Not always flawless have been all our rhyme, The masts astern of meter not all strong. My barks have…
XCV
by Luis G. Dato And now this mountain that we see beyond, Blue from a distance, green as we go near, Pair, beautiful she ever shall appear, With Nature and with earth our common bond. Of all her changing moods…
