GRACE
by Luis G. Dato Of old, man had the innate power of grace,Which Adam lost, the father of our race,But from which fall he still himself can lift,Through baptism and penance, Jesus’ gift. And what is grace? it is to…
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
IDEALS
by Luis G. Dato Related to creation, what is man?To move, to feel, to reproduce he can,But so likewise in life the lower forms,These instincts all posses, the amoeba and the worms. Th trees, the order of the inanimateO prithee,…
CURSILLO DE CRISTIANIDAD
By Luis G. Dato The rollo or cursillo, what is it?For answer, tax the mind, the soul a bit,Make room for error and allow surprise,The answer (you have guessed it) elsewhere lies. Cursillos are retreats but more than these.They’re more…
THE VA MUSE (Los Viejos Alegres)
by Luis Dato The muse is a grace, a sun and a singing That encompass the distance of stars and the heart, A dimension in light and a silver bell ringing In a cosmos of worlds that have orbits apart…
NOT BECAUSE UNSPOKEN
by Luis Dato Not because unspoken Can you now say unbroken There was no park In the dark, No park in the darkness, No dark in the parkness, And a night-ride in a bus. For your curls Whipped in the…
Spinster
by Luis G. Dato The dove, when newly hatched,Has tasty meat and tender;When old, howe’er you stew her,You cannot rend her.
BLESSED BE THY VICARS, LORD
by Luis G. Dato I. MONS. JORGE BARLIN Monseigneur Barlin, the ages do not die But leave behind their monuments of glory, God-blessed and crowned with immortality, They mark the epochs of a nation’s story. And such was you, your…
THE CHRISTIAN CREED
by Luis G. Dato “In the beginning was the word, And the Word was with God, And the Word was God” — St. John Belief in God, of all creation Lord, Whence life, the cosmos issued from God’s word Is…
THE FACE OF GOD
by Luis G. Dato “Daily, with souls that cringe and plot, We Sinai climb and know it not.” — James Russel Lowell These gnarled trees that have stood for many a year, Of God they seem to whisper to our…
RETURN OF GRACE (A fragment)
by Luis Dato By nearest chance, one day, I stood before An altar by the meeting of the ways, My young heart, heavy, sighting as of yours, Filled with the nausea of the present days; How long ago, and how…
AND SO THE CHAPEL SPOKE
by Luis G. Dato He passed me by all heedless many times, At all odd moments, or when sharp chimes My bells would call the woshippers at dawn, The dews still fresh and glistening on the lawn, The east a…
IF GOD EXISTED NOT
by Luis G. Dato O God, I hear it said that You are dead, Lived ne’er below or out in space o’erhead, That Hell or Heaven, extent if at all, Are just in us, no Doomsday and no Fall. But…
