A CHRISTMAS PRAYER
By Luis G. Dato And now as gladsome Christmas comes this year, May it, O Lord, bring to us all good cheer, May joy and happiness pervade the heart, And from our homes the cloud of Care depart! By night…
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
CHRISTMAS, 1952
By Luis G. Dato O frosty stars of Christmas night, Like candles in the sky they glow And shed their never-changing light As of two thousand years ago. Two thousand years, two thousand years, What ghastly greed, what bloody wars!…
MERRY CHRISTMAS!
By Luis G. Dato The Christmas season, it is here The gladsomest of all the year. Two thousand years or so this morn To Virgin Mary Christ was born. Long, long ago, in Bethlehem, In a low manger lay the…
PAMPANGA
By Luis G. Dato Here where the wind is friendly, And candid as the day, Here where to breathe is freedom, Here for a while let me stray. Here where to dream is heaven, Here where all hate disappears, Here,…
FIESTA IN IRIGA
By Luis G. Dato Ah, Iriga, town by a mountain blue Or green, depending on how far are you? There camias white bedeck a placid stream, And it is sweet of love and life to dream. Her grassy dells with…
POEM FOR IRIGA
By Luis G. Dato The streets of Iriga, they ever hum With wheels and traffic all the livelong day, As from the hills her folk and products come, And from all towns and barrios far away. The grotto to the…
OF NABUA
By Luis G. Dato A haven by the roads is Nabua town, Set midst a sea of emerald trees and plains, Where the wayfarer travelling up and down, See her streets teem with courteous, studious swains, Her maidens bloom like…
CALL OF THE TOWN
By Luis G. Dato Recalling the far-away town of my childhood, The city sounds harsh be it ever so wide and wise, Compared to the hills and humming wildwood, I knew, and the forest loud with bird-cries. Home of my…
SONGS OF THE ROAD
By Luis G. Dato I A boy and his lady walking — Of what may they be talking? A boy and his lady sitting - What thoughts in their minds are flitting? In a pickup at night together, Do you…
THE OPEN ROAD
By Luis G. Dato I take a road that starts I know not whence, Past fields and hills, it ends I know not where , The trees beside give shade, my thirst to quench In brooks, my lungs throb breathing…
ARMY YOUTH
By Luis G. Dato In the afternoon glare, without bugles, Without flags, or the rumble of drum, Straight when the foe least expects it, Charges a line of cavalry home. Now one comes dashing full-gallop, A stout stick of bamboo…
POEM FOR A GOLDEN WEDDING
By Luis G. Dato Recited during the golden wedding anniversary of Cousin Pablo Iraola Arroyo and Caridad Mirando Iturrios, at the St. Anthony of Padua Parish Catholic Center, Iriga City, June 24, 1970 The family from Totanes descended Has history…
