Laws

a poem by Roger B Rueda

are now circumstance like virulent toxic put in

like nameless berries

in the garden, deliberate & posited,

their gazes so dumb like gourds

hanging from their trellis.

Guard against them –

they’re noxious when the gardener

wants to set you against everyone

in the garden.

It’ll come to be pestilential,

in a flash, so mystical,

so mercurial.

It’s a ruse, not a rose –  

everyone can scoff them,

but only on the sly,

or amongst heavies,

or amongst mangoes, bananas,

pumpkins, lemons, curries,

valenciana, yolks, honeydews,

mums, ylang-ylangs,

sunflowers, corns, ducklings!

When the gardener spurns you,

don’t be a grasshopper grasping

at a spur; you’ll snuff it.

Remember you’ve had the deadly drupes.

They all will finger you

as if only you were filthy.

Slope off in silence

before everyone yanks you out of the garden.

Honesty

a poem by Roger B Rueda

is cloaked in the hall of justice
by an honest politician,
like a spirit, invisible, masked
in its facade -
oh so beautiful.
Now it's spoilt
by the cracks
like time-worn designs,
quiet like lizards.
It's like a poem
so mute,
its cryptic code revealed in our brain.

Evening

a poem by Roger B Rueda

Eventide slithers, a torrent
of deep darkness
onto the skyline -
distant, nearer,
now within grasp.
Then, a sooty shaft of light
rises, dominances trussed
to the sky by the tinkle
of silvery lustre.
Skulk towards it, then hasten
your stride -
reaching out for handfuls
of stars, the is and the was
of fervour -
like the discerning, then
the having had held:
this is the what of vanishing.

Alpha

fiction by Roger B Rueda

Alpha was a shy, quiet-spoken girl. When we were classmates at primary school, she was always polite and respectful. She never had an ambition, though. She wisely contented herself with her family and her love of nature. All of eighteen, her turf was their farm. Seldom would she go to Iloilo City. She seemed very innocent.

At weekends, she would go to the sugarcane field and pick tinôtinô, or she would go with her cousins and they would bite sugarcane off a bit.  She also liked eating bananas.

We would romp happily around the mounds of hays whenever she invited us to their house. I would throw hays at our other classmates.

Her family spent a lot of time rearing free-range chickens. Sometimes, her mother would cook us nice meals. I liked her chicken adóbo and  tinúla of chicken and green papaya.

Alpha and I remained friends until high school and even college. She did mass communications at a local college; I, creative writing in another city. She became very talkative. Her skirts were knee-skimming and flirty. She told me that she had been idolising Vega, the daughter of their neighbour, when one time we met at my grandmother’s house, which was along the road to their house on the farm. Vega grew more rebellious because her father left them when they were all young. Her mother’s permissiveness towards Vega and her siblings reflected the wild abandon of her own life.

Vega was marvellously cool, so Alpha, then a young innocent girl, admired the way she had coped life.

She’d got a lot of boyfriends. She’d flirt outrageously. She was very open in her attitudes about sex. Her parents, though, didn’t know what she was doing in their community.  Her parents were naïve and innocent. They were both illiterate.

I was speechless with shock when she showed me her chest full of kiss marks. She became a tart. She would go to the ROTC building all alone in the night to meet some guys there. Young men didn’t respect her, so I wondered a lot. When we took a tricycle to the busy plaza, the driver refused to take our fare, but rather he poked her in the ribs.

Alpha was deflowered by Vega’s brother, Manny, also a rebellious brat. She had a crush on him since she was all of ten, so when Alpha was all alone he pulled her to their house, which was also along the road to Alpha’s house. She never resisted him though she already knew that he might rape her. He was sort of a maniac. But to Alpha, it was an opportunity to have a relationship with Manny though she knew it wouldn’t be going anywhere.

I thought that Alpha only behaved stupidly. She had been a smart woman, and now she was perceived as vain, spoilt, and promiscuous. All her friends and classmates knew it. She just disregarded her friends’ advice to her. She wanted a different path and so she went and studied all alone.

One of her friends locked her and raped in the toilet in school. The man was trying to blackmail her into doing whatever he wanted. She was afraid that some photographs of her in the nude might be circulated all over the campus, it would really embarrass her and her family.

***

It was only an hour or so later that her father Lando discovered that Alpha was missing.  The unexpected and sudden realisation briefly panicked Alpha’s family.  Her father walked to the street corner and waited for her. It was late in the evening.

Lando seemed very worried. He couldn’t explain why he was feeling that way, however.

He and his wife walked in silence for some while. They kept a vigil in front of their house.  His voice trembled with emotion.

The next day dawned sombre and gloomy: Alpha came within minutes of bleeding to death after her wrists were slashed. She told her parents that she was held down and raped by their neighbours, while she was walking a few steps to their house. She couldn’t let out a scream because they gagged her mouth with a towel. She was trying to resist it, but her might was not enough: she was weak to move. Three men raped her, according to her. She seemed to be crying with anger and frustration.

Lando almost ran amok as soon as he heard that news from his daughter. It seemed that bombs fell in the town. He became a chaotic sort of person.

An hour later, two policemen arrived on foot. They immediately arrested the three young men in connection with the rape complaint. That came as a shock to three young men. They arrived in court handcuffed to two police officers. They became an embarrassment to their parents, who were professors of the university.

They were detained by the police after further questioning. Their case was a heinous crime and they had a slim chance to be in the clear. Alpha’s family, most of them lawyers, vouchsafed to help. Actually, because they had the same family name.

For months, there had been no talks between parties. Manny’s mother was depressed, and she’d do everything so long as her son would be cleared. She was willing to pay any amount, even if that’d mean borrowing money from a lending firm.

Alpha’s family were terribly cross. It seemed that they wouldn’t agree with any settlements the other party would offer.

Being poor was other reason that they couldn’t just agree with anything. It was an insult to their whole family if they would just give in. So, the three young men had to be sent down. Or else, they’d no face to show in the town.

***

A year later, the three young men were seen at the party. Everyone was shocked to see them. Never had they seen Alpha since then.

The parties had agreed to try to settle their dispute by negotiation. Alpha had demanded a million peso-settlement. The three suspects then had been released from detention.

Their life continued as normal. They felt, though, incredibly ashamed of themselves for being indicted on a rape charge. What had happened ruined their reputation as it brought disgrace upon them.

Years later, the three started a family.

***

The family left the farm, their landlord had sacked them. They moved to a nipah house near the highway. A decade later, the simple house transformed to a mansion, the biggest so far in the town.

A woman alighted from a limousine. She walked into the municipal hall. It was only two months before the election that Alpha announced she would run for mayor.

She had been making substantial donations to poor barangays. A lot of poor students were going to college on her scholarship.

About three thousand people started holding a rally to support her candidacy. They were shouting slogans. Nobody had known who Alpha Focker was. All they had known was she was just a public spirited woman.

Alpha’s coming back completely altered the political landscape of the town.

A big banner was draped across one of the streets saying, `Welcome Ms  Alpha Focker.’ The crowd were enormously enthusiastic.

It seemed that everything that had happened to Alpha was likely to sink into silence.

Tinôtinô - Small orange fruit similar in size and shape to a cherry tomato. The fruit is covered in papery husk, its flavour pleasant.

The Manyfruit Primrosewillow

a poem by Roger B Rueda

in dykes has been growing enough leaves
all year round even during summer,
children, fathers, and mothers
stepping on or pulling it out
as they hurry to work or home,
all finding no use for it,
only grannies pinch
its leaves for their mung bean
porridge with shrimp
in pink curved body.
Only the tongues
have memory for it,
only the children going
with grannies
know again its fresh bice
appearance.
It's all strange to those
who have never been
grannies' big babies, but it
has been
an acquired taste to them,
and there they remember it,
not as an edible in dykes
but a flavour
at the dining table when
they go home
to the middle
of nowhere when school holidays start.

Lung Cancer

a poem by Roger B Rueda

In a cloud of black smoke
blowing over the city
is virtuousness, thoughtless
and compassionate,
its hands gentle
and welcoming,
its presence rice and fish
on every table,
it’s presence loss,
modest and as if likely,
jeepneys, antediluvian,
in near constant-gridlock –
a common thing to feast
our eyes on.
It’s being public-spirited.
It’s being self-sacrificing –
yes, self-sacrificing.
Too is feebleness:
it’s shrouded in
unassuming nature.
Too is unfussiness.
Too is power,
brief and pedestrian.
It’s, remember, elections,
dirty and fraudulent.
It’s our imagination, perhaps.
Lung cancer is
just a marvel
when it befalls,
its presence numinous, as if.

The Mango Tree

a poem by Roger B Rueda

Some drupes were turning pale green,
big and a bit ovoid,
some canary yellow,
the bees flying through the leaves,
the garden birds not there,
the children growing up
in dirt-poor
flinging stones
at fat bunches of mangoes,
gorillas, too, at night,
the yellowish flowers plucked,
its leaves cut off.
Far afield were children
all of six or seven
licking the stones,
their shirts and faces
clammy with juice.
The next week,
the tree was felled,
the log dumped anywhere
to moulder,
its roots dug up, a bed
and breakfast being built  on the site.

Gayness

a poem by Roger B Rueda

is as shapeless as water,
runny and smooth,
its undertone
asymmetrical,
its quintessence cryptic.
it’s, though, intuitive
unlike water:
it’s H2O:
it’s confines;
it’s finite;
it’s material;
it’s of gases;
it slakes a thirst.
Gayness
isn’t elemental,
it’s labyrinthine.
It’s about womankind,
it’s about menfolk.
No, it’s about itself,
fresh, misheard,
singular.
It’s banal yet
imaginative.
It’s angelic:
it’s transcendent.
It’s elusive like a poem.

May Mga Araw Na Minsan Walang Ulan, Walang Ideya

tula ni Roger B Rueda

May mga araw na minsan walang ulan, walang ideya
Na pumapatak kahit gusto ko pang sumulat ng tula.

May mga araw namang hindi ko inaasahang
Uulan - nakasulat tuloy ako ng tula.

May mga araw, o kahit buong panahon namang
Walang ulan, walang ideya na pumapatak.

El Niño siguro. Ngunit may mga araw,
O buong panahon namang parang walang hinto

Ang pag-ulan. La Niña siguro.
Ngunit minsan kahit hindi ko gustong sumulat

Ng tula pinipilit kong sumulat nito.
Parang rain seeding na ito siguro.

First saw print in Mantala: An Anthology of Philippine Literature 3

In the Garden

a poem by Roger B Rueda

For Janette and Roque

The bougainvillaeas bloom

all through the summer,

their inflorescences huge,

sharing oodles of splendour.

The roses are in bud,

all set to spread out their blazes

of colour, the sun blazing down,

some leaves turning yellow.

The hibiscuses are wilting,

a mound of withered leaves beneath.

The Mangroves All Along the Iloilo River

a poem by Roger B Rueda

Under the leaden sky, the mangroves are often
full of gloom and despair,
their existence wrapped in mystery,
the riverwater as silent as the grave,
the eerie noise
of the wind howling through the leaves,
my eyes filled with dread
as I gaze them,
me feeling numb on a Mandurriao jeepney
on the way to my house towards SM City.
Funny ha-ha!
Behind the mangroves, I’ve been there.
The once-empty site
is now covered with buildings.
At a great distance,
I crossed the street over
quite a while and
went shopping at Gaisano City
and bought a pair of wash pants
in a midnight sale.
There, the street is wedged solid
with the near-constant traffic gridlock.

Summer at CPU

a poem by Roger B Rueda

The acacias are swaying in the wind,
the hibiscus aflame
with colour,
the bougainvillea, too.
Ripples of laughter run
through the children
talking in the gazebos,
watching a flock of birds
fly over the football field,
and Facebooking on their
iPhone or Samsung.
Palm fronds hanging down
loosely to their trunks.
Children walking by
put their umbrellas up
as they traverse the university street,
almost all carrying a cone
of ice cream or a paper tumbler
of frappes or a bottle of iced tea.
The chirps of
the small garden birds
sound distant.
Kites in the blue sky are flying in the breeze.

Come Home to Barotac Nuevo

a poem by Roger B Rueda

for Dida, Jade, Ruby, Gemma, Bernadette, Marissa, Valnie, May Mart, Judy Anne, Rachel, Phoebe, Sylvia, Giegie, Keith, Sharon, Andrew,  Lawrence, Francis, and Maricel

Revel in the land where Tamasak gazing

wistfully at the sky,

the field where you walked

together bringing back memories

of salad days.

Reminisce about the footballs

rolling across

the greenish carpet

of carabao grass,

the fishponds

where telescope shells

scuttle along the sludge,

the fiddler crabs

peep up from their holes,

and the eels slither into the water,

and the shrimps

skipping out

of the bamboo winnowers

as you, having a runny nose,

peddled bushels of them

at schools.

Move on through wet grass

soaking your legs

as you pinch the leaves

of the manyfruit primrosewillow

for your mung bean

porridge with prawn

in pink, curved body.

Savour the essence of each mouthful,

and bite on your linaga

with libas leaves well, or

your seabass stew.

Commune with wholeness

as you bring back a piece

of Barotac Nuevo

in you that has been travelling

from New York to Dubai,

from Ottawa to Istanbul,

from LA to Oslo,

solitary and longing,

and kiss the faces you left

slowly vanishing, yet still

with big smiles as you hand down

to the self you’ve left the children of your fate.





'Manyfruit primrosewillow' means 'lupo.'

Cate

A Short Story for Children by Roger B Rueda

Cate was at a dumping ground looking out for her food. Running hastily, she stumbled on a log and fell on a foetus partly rotting on the ground. It must be a baby, she thought. How come it has no life?How come a baby is thrown here like a sort of rubbish? She shivered as she looked at it in astonishment. All of a sudden, she brought her past life back into the mind. Then she ran off in fright. Someone grabbed hold of her neck to stop her from running into the highway. Put in cage, she suffered amnesia again.

***

When Cate became a small animal with fur, four legs, a tail, and claws fifteen years ago, her eyes rolled gleefully innocently. She suddenly remembered her mother while chatting away on the road that runs through their golden mansion under the silvery stars. After that, she suffered from loss of memory. A queen cat carried Cate by the neck and brought her to her nest of brown leaves and tatters of clothing in a bush next to a dumping ground. Cate felt a little incongruous, but she couldn’t understand her feeling.

Cate was weaned at five weeks of age. Cate the cat liked to hunt mice and birds and ate some leftover chicken inside paper boxes printed with a happy bee mascot or two golden arches which looked like the letter ‘M.’ But often some ragged beggars would shoo her away before she could open the dustbin bag.

***

Cate’s sadness at her coming back to the golden mansion was obvious. It frustrated her that she was not able to put her dream into life. She seemed to have a face like thunder.

She would sit quietly for hours staring into the distance, thinking of what might have been. Might there be intelligent life on other planets? But anything to do with the earth and living there fascinated her. She wanted to know how her not being a cherub could shape her destiny.

She'd go now given half a chance. If she insisted on coming back to the world, however, there was still an outside chance of living there again. But her mother seemed unable to agree whether living in the world was good for her.

For one thing, her mother knew she was taking a gamble when she would agree to let her daughter go. If Cate died of unnatural death, she would vanish into thin air, but if she lived to the ripe old age, she could have the key to eternity.  It's the golden mansion’s rule that all cherubs must follow.

Her mother always caught her talking to Malakas and Maganda or staring out of the window in which they’d got some wonderful plants from earth and could hear her crying in the next room. Cate had a pitiful story to tell, so she managed to convince her mother of living out the rest of her days on earth.

***

Cate was a beautiful, fat, naked child with small silvery wings. It'd always been her dream to live on earth. For one thing, humans are so precious to Bathala, their god, so she always had a burning ambition to be a human being. She always watched with envy as some of her cherub and angel friends set off for the world, her chin resting in her hands.

Her mother and Bathala talked her living on earth. Cate, too, had spoken to him to make a request.

‘Cate, I've got some good news for you. You’re living on earth.’ Her mother was so happy that everything was working out for her daughter. She winked and gave the little cherub a smile.

Cate smiled the smile of a cherub who knew victory was within reach.  Then she ran up to her, weeping for joy. ‘I can't believe my ears, Mum.’

She laid her on the smooth-textured silvery bed. Then, she fell into a deep sleep.  One moment she was sleeping, the next she had vanished in a puff of smoke. The old cherub cast a quick look in the mirror, but she was worried sick when she saw that there had been a problem getting to the world. A lot of mortal mothers would decide to get an abortion.

She felt a desire to know what the future held for Cate on earth. She knelt and prayed silently.

***

Cate had to be borne by a young mother all of eighteen. She was getting excited about her new life. Living on earth was her idea of sheer bliss, so she would kick excitedly inside her mother as if she was pedalling down the road.

She was sadly missed by all who knew her in the golden mansion especially her mother, but becoming a human was a dream come true. There was nothing she'd done in her life that she regretted. She seemed fairly content with her life now like birds in the treetops.

She curled her fingers round her umbilical cord. It was too dark for her to see properly as her eyelids were still fused like petals of a rosebud. Sometimes, she would scratch or pat her face, smile, cry, hiccough, and suck her smallest toes and gradually move on to suck a bigger and better toe. These had amazed her greatly.

She was absolutely delighted that she would be a human as she’d have a taste of life on earth before long.

Sometimes, her mother would put on some music. She listened in silence as her mother sang up.  Her mother sang her to sleep every night.

One evening, however, she woke up with a pain in the head.

‘There's no need to shout, I can hear perfectly well.’ Her mother was arguing with her father over which film to go and see. Both parents had juvenile behaviour.

The next day, her parents were arguing over money, which was tight at the moment.

She soon learned that her father didn't have any plans to marry her mother. Then, her mother broke up with her boyfriend and got really angry with him and looked at him like a lazy devil. He left her and since then her mother’s situation became desperate and her mother seemed rather forlorn. She was sad to hear that they'd split up, but she was a feeble, helpless foetus.

Her mother had been as silent as the grave since then. Always, her mother was overcome with emotion and burst into tears.

One day, a cocktail of pills like bombs fell on her tummy and Cate seemed to break up into pieces of stars violently. She fainted dead away. When she woke up she saw the same stars, but they were real stars staring sympathetically at her helplessness. Her body was taken to the rubbish dump and was covered with swarms of flies and red ants. Her soul was now at peace at a dumping ground.

She kissed her dead body goodbye and gave a rather sad smile as an angel was fetching her.  She knew her attempt to live on earth ended in failure.

***

Fifteen years ago, Mercedes Catalan, an ailurophile and renowned for her advocacy of cat interests, mounted a salvage operation for outdoor cats. These cats faced danger from traffic, from being attacked by other animals and ran increased risk of being accidentally poisoned by pesticides or deliberately poisoned by cruel humans.

***

Her hand on Cate’s shoulder, chumping a bar of chocolate or toffee, Mercedes would wake her out of a dream, and she would look straight at Mercedes with her piercing blue eyes. Cate would lick the chocolate or toffee off the old woman’s fingers.

Her tail was fascinating because it never seemed to rest. Its movements were motionless or extreme lashing as well as puffing up and it looked like a bristle brush. Mercedes enjoyed seeing it wave to and fro.

Mercedes would feed Cate homemade diets such as chicken, sardine, bone, and vegetables.

Cate, a tabby with patches of red, completely forgot about her being a cherub.

Every afternoon, she used to ‘help’ Mercedes in the garden by digging and rolling in the mud. Luckily, she didn't mind having a bath afterwards. She learned from kittenhood to accept water, shampoo, and drier as part of the routine.

***

Cate lived to the ripe old age of 15. Now, she spends a blissful time together with other cherubs who once became cats. But she is sad some cherubs have never returned. They disappeared without trace.

Mercedes, an octogenarian, is lucky. She loves Cate and many other cats, so she’s going to have a favourable life in the golden mansion under the silvery stars. Every day, Cate and the other cherubs ask Bathala’s blessing on Mercedes. They always remember her to him.

Cate has decorated Mercedes’s room with ribbons and flowers. It has been got ready for the new resident’s coming. Cate is so excited to meet Mercedes and see her a bit surprised to see that she is a cherub and not a cat as Mercedes knows of her.

After wearing their ruched satin dresses, all the cats in Mercedes’s house purr as the old woman and her eleven grandchildren stroke their soft fur as they usually have a siesta.

The Modal Verb ‘May’

an essay by Roger B Rueda

May seems cryptic or if not befuddling. I think taking a look at it again is the best thing we must do, to refresh our understanding of modal verb may or update it as we know English goes forward as fast as technology does.

In general, may is a modal verb signifying that something could be true, or could have happened, or will possibly happen in the future:  I may not be able to meet you. He may have been working too hard. A verdict may be announced today. There seems to have some vagueness, however.

May indicates possibility - it shows that something is possibly true: That may be the best way to do it. There may be other problems that we don't know about. I may see you tomorrow before I leave. The cause of the accident may never be discovered. The explosion may have been caused by a faulty electrical connection. We'd better not interfere - she may not like it. There may be some evidence to suggest she's guilty, but it's hardly conclusive.

The modal indicates that something could happen - it points toward that something could have happened, or could happen in the future: The crash may well have been caused by faulty brakes. The comet may be remembered best for its non-scientific impact.

May also indicates permission, indicating that somebody is asking somebody for permission or giving somebody permission to do something; however this is rather formal and not used very often in modern spoken English: May I leave the table? - No, you may not. A reader may borrow up to six books at any one time. ‘May I help myself to some more food?’ – ‘Yes, of course.’ Hi, my name's Tiffany. How may I help you? Can and cannot (or can’t) are the most common words used for asking for, giving or refusing permission: Can I borrow your calculator? You can come with us if you want to. You can’t park your car there.

May indicates right – it indicates that somebody has a legal or moral right to do something: You may withdraw money from this account at any time. That’s why you can often see may in contracts as well.

It, too, indicates requests or suggestions. It indicates polite requests, suggestions, or offers: May I remind you of our earlier agreement? May I help you with that bag?

It also indicates wish, indicating that somebody wishes for something very strongly: May God bless us, every one. Courage seems now to have deserted him. May it quickly reappear.

May, too, is used when admitting that something is true before introducing another point, argument, etc.: He may be a good father but he's a terrible husband.

It is also used to say what the purpose of something is: There is a need for more resources so that all children may have a decent education.

The idiom be that as it may means despite that or nevertheless: I know that he has tried hard; be that as it may, his work is just not good enough. It sounds elegant, right?

Did You Know That…?

an essay by Roger B Rueda

The infinity sign(∞) is called a lemniscate.

The first letters of the months July through November, in order, spell the name JASON.

‘Alma mater’ means ‘bountiful mother.’

The verb ‘cleave’ is the only English word with two synonyms which are antonyms of each other: adhere and separate.

The combination ‘ough’ can be pronounced in nine different ways. The following sentence contains them all: ‘A rough-coated, dough-faced, thoughtful ploughman strode through the streets of Scarborough; after falling into a slough, he coughed and hiccoughed.’

The highest scoring word in the English language game of Scrabble is 'Quartzy'. This will score 164 points if played across a red triple-word square with the Z on a light blue double-letter square. It will score 162 points if played across two pink double-word squares with the Q and the Y on those squares. 'Bezique' and 'Cazique' are next with a possible 161 points. All three words score an extra 50 points for having seven letters and therefore emptying the letter rack in one go.

The English word with the most consonants in a row is ‘latchstring.’

The word ‘robot’ was created by Karel Capek. It came from Czech/Slovak ‘robotovat,’ which means to work very hard.

The only word that consists of two letters, each used three times is the word ‘deeded.’

The word ‘karate’ means ‘empty hand.’

The word ‘girl’ appears only once in the Bible.

The word ‘checkmate’ in chess comes from the Persian phrase ‘shah mat,’ which means ‘the king is dead.’

The only city whose name can be spelled completely with vowels is Aiea, Hawaii.

Facetious and abstemious contain all the vowels in the correct order, as does arsenious, meaning ‘containing arsenic.’

‘Polish’ is the only word in the English language that when capitalised is changed from a noun or a verb to a nationality.

‘Corduroy’ comes from the French, ‘cord du roi’ or ‘cloth of the king.’

The slash character  (/) is called a virgule, or solidus. A URL uses slash characters, not back slash characters.

The only 15 letter word that can be spelled without repeating a letter is 'uncopyrightable.'

The 'v' in the name of a court case does not stand for 'versus', but for 'and' (in civil proceedings) or 'against' (in criminal proceedings).

The term 'honeymoon' is derived from the Babylonians who declared mead, a honey-flavoured wine, the official wedding drink, stipulating that the bride's parents be required to keep the groom supplied with the drink for the month following the wedding; that month became known as the honey month, hence our honeymoon.

‘Rhythm’ and ‘syzygy’ are the longest English words without vowels.

The two longest one-syllable words in the English language are ‘screeched’ and ‘strengths.’ 'Strengths' is the longest word in the English language with just one vowel.

The longest place-name still in use is Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateaturipukakapikimaungahoronukupokaiwhenuakitanatahu, a New Zealand hill.

The longest word in the English language, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, is pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis. It is a a pneumoconiosis caused by the inhalation of very fine silicate or quartz dust. The only other word with the same amount of letters is pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconioses, its plural.

The second longest word in the Oxford English Dictionary is ‘floccinaucinihilipilification,’ which means ‘the act of estimating as worthless.’

The third longest word in the English language is ‘antidisestablishmenterianism’.

The longest muscle name is the ‘levator labiisuperioris alaeque nasi’ and Elvis popularised it with his lip motions.

'Stewardesses' and 'reverberated' are the two longest words (12 letters each) that can be typed using on the left hand.

The longest word that can be typed using on the right hand is 'lollipop.'

'Scepticisms' is the longest word that can be typed using alternate hands.

One of the longest English words that can be typed using the top row of a typewriter (allowing multiple uses of letters) is 'typewriter.'

One out of every eight letters used in written English is an 'e.'

No words in the English language rhyme with 'orange,' 'silver,' or 'purple.'

The language Malayalam, spoken in parts of India, is the only language whose name is a palindrome.

The words 'sacrilegious' and 'religion' do not share the same etymological root.

The phrase ‘sleep tight’ originated when mattresses were set upon ropes woven through the bed frame. To remedy sagging ropes, one would use a bed key to tighten the rope.

No word in the English language rhymes with month.

‘Evian’ spelled backwards is naive.

Scottish is the language called Gaelic, whereas Irish is actually called Gaeilge.

‘Freelance’ comes from a knight whose lance was free for hire, i.e. not pledged to one master.

The term ‘devil's advocate’comes from the Roman Catholic church. When deciding if someone should become a saint, a devil's advocate is always appointed to give an alternative view.

When two words are combined to form a single word (e.g., motor + hotel = motel, breakfast + lunch = brunch) the new word is called a ‘portmanteau.’

Avocado is derived from the Spanish word 'aguacate' which is derived from 'ahuacatl' meaning testicle.

AM and PM stand for ‘Ante-Meridian’ and ‘Post-Meridian,’ respectively, and A.D. actually stands for ‘Anno Domini’ rather than ‘After Death.’

The phrase ‘rule of thumb’ is derived from an old English law which stated that you couldn't beat your wife with anything wider than your thumb.

Lucifer is latin for ‘Light Bringer.’ It is a translation of the Hebrew name for Satan, Halael. 'Satan' means ‘adversary,’'devil' means ‘liar.’

Facetious and abstemious contain all the vowels in the correct order.

There is a word in the English language with only one vowel, which occurs six times: Indivisibility.

The only capital letter in the Roman alphabet with exactly one end point is P.

The dot over the letter 'i' is called a tittle.

‘Xmas’ does not begin with the Roman letter X. It begins with the Greek letter ‘chi,’ which was used in medieval manuscripts as an abbreviation for the word ‘Christ’ (xus=christus, etc.)

The letter W is the only letter in the alphabet that doesn't have 1 syllable... it has three.

‘Bookkeeper’ and ‘bookkeeping’ are the only words in the English language with three consecutive double letters.

There is a seven letter word in the English language that contains ten words without rearranging any of its letters, ‘therein’: the, there, he, in, rein, her, here, here, ere therein, herein.

‘Underground’ is the only word in the English language that begins and ends with the letters ‘und.’

‘Dreamt’ is the only English word that ends in the letters ‘mt.’

There are only three words in the English language with the letter combination ‘uu.’ Muumuu, vacuum and continuum.

The oldest word in the English language is ‘town.’

Hydroxydesoxycorticosteroneandhydroxydeoxycorticosterones are the largest anagrams.

The word ‘boondocks’ comes from the Filipino word ‘bundok,’ which means mountain.

The derivation of the word trivia comes from the Latin ‘tri-’ + ‘via,’ which means three streets. This is because in ancient times, at an intersection of three streets in Rome (or some other Italian place), they would have a type of kiosk where ancillary information was listed. You might be interested in it, you might not, hence they were bits of ‘trivia.’

There are only four words in the English language which end in ‘-dous’: tremendous, horrendous, stupendous, and hazardous.

‘Speak of the Devil’ is short for ‘Speak of the Devil and he shall come.’ It was believed that if you spoke about the Devil it would attract his attention. That's why when your talking about someone and they show up people say ‘Speak of the Devil.’

The word ‘samba’ means ‘to rub navels together.’

The 'y' in signs reading ‘ye olde’ is properly pronounced with a 'th' sound, not 'y'. The ‘th’ sound does not exist in Latin, so ancient Roman occupied (present day) England use the rune ‘thorn’ to represent ‘th’ sounds. With the advent of the printing press the character from the Roman alphabet which closest resembled thorn was the lower case ‘y.’

‘Hara kiri’ is an impolite way of saying the Japanese word ‘seppuku’ which means, literally, ‘belly splitting.’

The word ‘set’ has more definitions than any other word in the English language.

The word ‘moose’ was originally Algonquin.

The Sanskrit word for ‘war’ means ‘desire for more cows.’

The ampersand (&) is actually a stylised version of the Latin word ‘et,’ meaning and.’

The word ‘hangnail’ comes from Middle English: ang- (painful) + nail. Nothing to do with hanging.

The word 'byte' is a contraction of 'by eight.'

The word 'pixel' is a contraction of either 'picture cell' or 'picture element.'

No modern language has a true concept of ‘I am.’ It is always used linked with 'are' in reference of another verb.

The naval rank of ‘admiral’ is derived from the Arabic phrase ‘amir al bahr,’ which means ‘lord of the sea.’

German has a word for the peace offerings brought to your mate when you've committed some conceived slight. This is ‘drachenfutter’ or dragon's food.

The Chinese ideogram for ‘trouble’ symbolises ‘two women living under one roof’.

The correct response to the Irish greeting, ‘Top of the morning to you,’ is ‘and the rest of the day to yourself.’

The abbreviation for pound, ‘lb,’ comes from the astrological sign Libra, meaning balance, and symbolised by scales.

The name Jeep came from the abbreviation used in the army for the ‘General Purpose’ vehicle, G.P.

The Greek version of the Old Testament is called the Septuagint.

The word ‘queuing’ is the only English word with five consecutive vowels.

The word ‘modem’ is a contraction of the words ‘modulate, demodulate.’

'Pinocchio' is Italian for ‘pine head.’

The only word in the English language with all five vowels in reverse order is ‘subcontinental.’

Some English Words of Filipino Origin

an essay by Roger B Rueda

Abaca  A large plant from whose leaves manila hemp is produced. It’s related to bananas. It is used to produce canvas, rope, paper, and cloth.

Adobo A dish of marinated meat or vegetables seasoned with vinegar, garlic, soy sauce, and spices.

Alogbati An annual plant widely cultivated for its edible purple stems and dark green leaves. It’s pronounced as [alogbátee].

Amalanhig A dead person brought back to life again and again and can only truly die when someone comes into this power.

Anahau  A tall palm yielding a prised wood used for golf clubs, a fibre used for bowstrings, and leaves used for thatching and for hats and fans.

Aswang Somebody who eats human flesh.

Azkal An animal or plant that is a mixture of different breeds or strains. It can also mean as a combination or mixture of different people or things, especially one that seems particularly strange.

Bacauan  An evergreen tree or bush with straight willowy stems and entwined roots that are exposed at low tide.

Bagat A dog or cat or any big animal believed to be an aswang which attacks somebody suddenly from a concealed position.

Bagoong  Fermented fish paste, a soft mass or mixture with a consistency between a liquid and a solid.

Bahay-kubo A house made of bamboo and thatched with cogon.

Bagyo A violent tropical storm in the Philippines.

Balut It’s a duck embryo matured to 15-18 days and then cooked. It is commonly eaten with salt and vinegar and can be purchased from vendors who walk the streets of neighbourhoods at night yelling, ‘Baluuuut!’

Banca A small, often open vessel for travelling on water.

Bangus A large toothless silver fish related to herring and salmon. Sometimes, it’s deboned and cooked as sinigang or fried bangus. It’s pronounced as [bəng gus].

Barangay A village, especially when considered as the smallest political unit. It’s pronounced as [bárrəngày].

Batchoy A noodle soup made with pork organs, crushed pork cracklings, shrimp, vegetables, chicken stock, chicken breast, beef loin, and round noodles. Its origins can be traced to the district of La Paz, Iloilo City, hence it is oftentimes referred to as La Paz batchoy. It’s pronounced as [bat chóy].

Bayani Somebody who commits an act of remarkable bravery or who has shown an admirable quality such as great courage or strength of character.

Boondocks A place regarded as out-of-the-way, local, and lacking intricacy.

Calalau A winnower made of bamboo, to separate grain from its husks chaff by tossing it in the air.

Calamondin/Calamansi The small tart orange-yellow fruit of a citrus tree.

Camote A fleshy orange root cooked and eaten as a vegetable or a plant producing fleshy edible tubers.

Capiz A small mollusc with a hinged shell.

Carabao A large buffalo with a grey-black coat and long backward-curving horns.

Cogon A coarse tall grass used as thatching.

Cootie A louse of the kind that infests people.

Dagmay A perennial plant cultivated for its edible starchy tubers, ample stalks, and leaves. It’s pronounced as [dag mī].

Dugong A large plant-eating sea mammal, related to the manatee. It has a two-lobed tail, a cleft upper lip, forelimbs resembling flippers, and tusks in the male. It’s pronounced as [dóo gàwng].

Durian A foul-smelling but deliciously flavoured fruit.

Ginamos Fermented and desiccated shrimp paste. It’s pronounced as [gínna mōz].

Gulaman A red alga that is one of the chief sources of agar.

Hablon A fine thread of a natural material that can be spun into yarn.

Halo-halo A sweet  dessert made of colourful tapioca, nata de coco, ube jam, gelatin, leche flan, ice cream, and  pinipig, and flavoured with a variety of fruits or other extracts, with crushed ice.

Inasal Meat or fish in large cuts brushed with annatto and lemongrass juice and cooked on a skewer.

Jeepney A jeep or similar vehicle that has been converted into a jitney, used as a form of public transportation. It is one of the main causes of air pollution in the Philippines.

Kahoy A woody perennial plant that grows to a height of several feet and typically has a single erect main stem with side branches.

Kundiman A musical composition about love.

Langka A tree that produces jaks and fine-grained yellowish wood; also its fruit.

Lauan The light yellow to reddish-brown or brown wood.

Mabuhay It's used as a greeting or farewell.

Macapuno The fruit of the coconut palm, consisting of a hard fibrous husk around a single-seeded nut with firm white flesh that is eaten raw or dried to make copra and a full core containing sweet-tasting liquid coconut milk.

Machin A sturdily built and long-tailed greyish brown monkey.

Manananggal  A mythical scary vampire-like creature (as opposed to an aswang), capable of severing its upper torso in order to fly into the night with huge bat-like wings to prey on unsuspecting, pregnant women in their homes. Using an elongated proboscis-like tongue, it sucks the hearts of foetuses or the blood of an unsuspecting, sleeping victim. It is known to whip its hair in urban forests, causing hurricanes all over the globe. The severed lower torso is left standing, and it is said to be the more vulnerable of the two halves. Sprinkling salt or smearing crushed garlic or ash on top of the standing torso is fatal to the creature. The upper torso then would not be able to rejoin and will die at daybreak.

Manila A kind of paper.

Nipa/Nipah A palm tree that produces nipa leaves, fruit, and the sap from which the drink nipa is made.

Paksiw A dish of fish, for instance bangus, or meat with vinegar.

Pandan/Pandanus A plant resembling a palm, with prop roots and a crown of narrow leaves. It’s used for mat-making.

Panguingue A 19th-century gambling card game.

Patadyong A skirt worn by women. It has kaleidoscopic colours and graphically accessible patterns.

Pawican/Pawikan A large turtle with limbs shaped like paddles. It’s pronounced as [pa wíkən].

Pedicab A pedal-operated tricycle with a seat in front for the driver and a passenger seat behind covered by a hood.

Pilit A sticky rice.

Pinipig A roasted and pounded half-ripe rice.  

Salacot A broad-brimmed hat woven from strips of cane or from palm leaves.

Sinigang A dish of meat or fish with radish, taro crom, string beans, aubergine, and tamarind juice.

Tamarau A small rare buffalo. It’s native to swamps of Mindoro.

Tamawo A supernatural being, usually resembling a person, with magic powers.

Tao A person, regardless of sex or age. It’s pronounced as [tow].

Tricycle A motorcycle with a sidecar, a kind of box with wheels which one can attach to the side of a motorcycle so that he/she can carry a passenger in it.

Ube A vine tuber with purple flesh. It’s commonly made as jam. It’s pronounced as [óobi].

Ylang-ylang A tree with flowers that yield a fragrant oil used in perfumery.

Yo-yo A toy consisting of a long string wound onto a spool that is dropped and raised repeatedly using the force of gravity and momentum to unwind and rewind the string.

Some of My Favourite French Words in English

an essay by Roger B Rueda

‘Adieu’ is used to say goodbye. ‘Gentlemen, I bid you adieu.’ It’s sound [ə dyoo] or [ə doo] is very magical. It has some daintiness. I mean it’s so cute.

‘Bric-a-brac.’ The correct French spelling is ‘bric-à-brac.’ Note that ‘bric and brac’ don't actually mean anything in French; they are onomatopoeic. It’s a number of small ornamental objects of no great value. It’s pronounced as [bríkə bràk]. When I was in Grade Five, I thought bric-a-brac was a cupboard. My teacher told me to look for the brooms in the bric-a-brac. Well, it took me years to know what really ‘bric-a-brac’ is.

‘Comme il faut’ means ‘as it must.’ The proper way, as it should be. It’s so graceful an expression. It’s pronounced as [kŭm' ēl fō'].

‘Du jour’ means ‘of the day.’ 'Soup du jour’ is nothing more than an elegant-sounding version of ‘soup of the day.' It’s pronounced as [doo zhoor].

‘Esprit d'escalier’ means ‘stairway wit.’ Thinking of an answer or comeback too late. It’s pronounced as [e-spree des-kal-i-ye].

‘Force majeure’ means  ‘greater force’ refers to superior/greater force, or to an unexpected or uncontrollable event, such as ‘an act of God’ like a typhoon or earthquake. It’s pronounced as [fawrss ma-zhur].

‘Gauche.’  If you describe someone as gauche, you mean that they are awkward and uncomfortable in the company of other people. ‘We're all a bit gauche when we're young.’ ‘She was a rather gauche, provincial creature.’ It’s pronounced as [gōsh].

‘Haute cuisine’ means  ‘high cuisine.’ High-class, fancy, (and expensive) cooking or food. It’s pronounced as [ot kwi zeen].

‘Idée fixe’ means  ‘set idea.’ Fixation, obsession. It’s pronounced as [ee dày feeks]; its plural idées fixes, [ee dày feeks].

‘Je ne sais quoi’ means  ‘I don't know what.’ Used to indicate a ‘certain something,’ as in ‘I really like Aljur. He has a certain je ne sais quoi that I find very appealing.’ It’s pronounced as [zhö nə say kwaa].

‘Laissez-faire’ means  ‘let it be.’ A policy of non-interference. Note the expression in French is ‘laisser-faire.’ It’s pronounced as [lè say fér] or [ lè zay fér].

‘Mot juste’ means  ‘right word.’ Exactly the right word or expression. It’s important. For one, good writing needs good diction. And being wordy sometimes is not good. It’s pronounced as mot juste [mo zhoost].

‘Nouvelle cuisine’ means ‘new cuisine.’ Cooking style developed in the 1960's and 70's that emphasised lightness and freshness. It’s pronounced as [noo vèl kwi zeen] or [noo vèl kwee zeen]. On TV these days, we can see a lot of nouvelle cuisine promoted by different companies, say, tuna companies and seasoning companies. I love the food prepared by ABS-CBN’s Junior Masterchief. The kids here are good at making nouvelle cuisine, which seems outlandish to my fancy.

‘Oh là là’   means ‘oh dear.’ Usually misspelled and mispronounced ‘ooh la la’ in English. It sounds hilarious at first time you hear it.

‘Prêt-à-porter’ means ‘ready to wear.’ Originally referred to clothing which is manufactured in standard sizes ready to be bought off the rack, now sometimes used for food. It’s pronounced as [prèt aa pawr táy]. These days, things are prêt-à-porter. It’s not ‘instant’ as most of us would mean that ‘instant’ is prêt-à-porter.

‘Rouge’ means ‘red.’ The English refers to a reddish cosmetic or metal/glass-polishing powder, and can be a noun or a verb. If a woman or an actor rouges their cheeks or lips, they put red powder or cream on them to give them more colour. ‘Florentine women rouged their earlobes.’ ‘She had curly black hair and rouged cheeks.’

‘Tableau vivant’ means ‘living picture.’ A scene made up of silent, motionless artistes. It’s pronounced as [tábblō vee van] or [ta blṓ vee van]. Its plural ‘tableaux vivants,’ [tábblō vee van, ta blṓ vee van].

My 100 Favourite English Words

Ailurophile A cat-lover.
Assemblage A gathering.
Becoming Attractive.
Beleaguer To exhaust with attacks.
Brood To think alone.
Bucolic In a lovely rural setting.
Bungalow A small, cosy cottage.
Chatoyant Like a cat’s eye.
Comely Attractive.
Conflate To blend together.
Cynosure A focal point of admiration.
Dalliance A brief love affair.
Demesne Dominion, territory.
Demure Shy and reserved.
Denouement The resolution of a mystery.
Desuetude Disuse.
Desultory Slow, sluggish.
Diaphanous Filmy.
Dissemble Deceive.
Dulcet Sweet, sugary.
Ebullience Bubbling enthusiasm.
Effervescent Bubbly.
Efflorescence Flowering, blooming.
Elision Dropping a sound or syllable in a word.
Elixir A good potion.
Eloquence Beauty and persuasion in speech.
Embrocation Rubbing on a lotion.
Emollient A softener.
Ephemeral Short-lived.
Epiphany A sudden revelation.
Erstwhile At one time, for a time.
Ethereal Gaseous, invisible but detectable.
Evanescent Vanishing quickly, lasting a very short time.
Evocative Suggestive.
Fetching Pretty.
Felicity Pleasantness.
Forbearance Withholding response to provocation.
Fugacious Fleeting.
Furtive Shifty, sneaky.
Gambol To skip or leap about joyfully.
Glamour Beauty.
Gossamer The finest piece of thread, a spider’s silk.
Halcyon Happy, sunny, care-free.
Harbinger Messenger with news of the future.
Imbrication Overlapping and forming a regular pattern.
Imbroglio An altercation or complicated situation.
Imbue To infuse, instill.
Incipient Beginning, in an early stage.
Ineffable Unutterable, inexpressible.
Ingénue A naïve young woman.
Inglenook A cosy nook by the hearth.
Insouciance Blithe nonchalance.
Inure To become jaded.
Labyrinthine Twisting and turning.
Lagniappe A special kind of gift.
Lagoon A small gulf or inlet.
Languor Listlessness, inactivity.
Lassitude Weariness, listlessness.
Leisure Free time.
Lilt To move musically or lively.
Lissome Slender and graceful.
Lithe Slender and flexible.
Love Deep affection.
Mellifluous Sweet sounding.
Moiety One of two equal parts.
Mondegreen A slip of the ear.
Murmurous Murmuring.
Nemesis An unconquerable archenemy.
Offing The sea between the horizon and the offshore.
Onomatopoeia A word that sounds like its meaning.
Opulent Lush, luxuriant.
Palimpsest A manuscript written over earlier ones.
Panacea A solution for all problems
Panoply A complete set.
Pastiche An art work combining materials from various sources.
Penumbra A half-shadow.
Petrichor The smell of earth after rain.
Phantasmagorical Very strange, like something in a dream.
Plethora A large quantity.
Propinquity Proximity; Nearness
Pyrrhic Successful with heavy losses.
Quintessential Most essential.
Ratatouille A spicy French stew.
Ravel To knit or unknit.
Redolent Fragrant.
Riparian By the bank of a stream.
Ripple A very small wave.
Scintilla A spark or very small thing.
Sempiternal Eternal.
Seraglio Rich, luxurious oriental palace or harem.
Serendipity Finding something nice while looking for something else.
Summery Light, delicate or warm and sunny.
Sumptuous Lush, luxurious.
Surreptitious Secretive, sneaky.
Susquehanna A river in Pennsylvania.
Susurrous Whispering, hissing.
Talisman A good luck charm.
Tintinnabulation Tinkling.
Untoward Unseemly, inappropriate.
Vestigial In trace amounts.
Wafture Waving.
Wherewithal The means.
Woebegone Sorrowful, downcast.

Prayer

a poem by Roger B Rueda

Let my body be submerged in the volley 

in a cavernous,

sodden logs,

under the deep drizzling bosom

of soil shaken by quakes

where once

a twisted tree hoisted -

and paint an image

on my sepulchre

with mud and piece of limb

of a lass and a lad

underneath a rotund drum dish

in the skies

eating of affection

with a keen serve

and pledging

an enthusiastic promise -

and do not keep

my patch sheared even

and fresh as a bedstead

of someone spoken for,

but let the wildflower,

the floret, the sapling,

violent, fecund, bare,

and at large,  grow high above my pate.

The Depth of Earthquakes

a poem by Roger B Rueda

to the Great Queries,

has served as an epiphany.

I lie on my back

under the stars

and the invisible galaxies

and let their enormity wash

over me.

I blend in the immensity

of the spaces,

the incorporeity.

I go all the way out

and then I go

all the way down,

to the fact of photons

without mass

and gauge bosons

that grow into massless

at high heats.

I take in the thoughts

about powers and equilibriums

and they stroke me,

like mantras,

the sense of the words

not mattering –

the words are so poignant.

On Atheism

an essay by Roger B Rueda

Never can I be an atheist anymore, I think. I got this thinking while watching Bottomline on ABS-CBN. Well, perhaps, I’ve become mature now, for then there was nothing I could do about many things - I’d just have to put them down to experience.

I now live my life, recognising my magical existence, trying to be glad for the dreamlike life about me, so I’ve plumped for committing myself to the mystical pathway, and I think I’ve managed to grow: having arrived, I look backwards, remember the beginning of my journey, and laugh at myself.

God uses lonesomeness to teach me about living together. Every so often he uses antagonism so that I can understand the immeasurable importance of peace.

At other times he uses boredom, when he wants to show me the importance of undertaking and leaving things behind.

God uses quietness to teach me about the restraint of what I say. At times he uses lassitude so that I can understand the value of waking up. At other times he uses illness to show me the importance of wellbeing.

And now and then he uses death when he wants to show me the importance of life.

God has remained elusive for me even how much I tried to know what his design is for all of us. So, to define him I just believe that he is elusive because he is. His ways are only his – he is a god of random. He is a god of subtlety, of irony perhaps. He is a god of balance. He balances everything and his love for us despite our inadequacy: that’s why he can’t just start all over again creating another perfect creation. His love is patient, compassionate, and enduring. God is not a god of one part but of everything: his blessings and floggings are given to us based on what makes him a true god and not who he is not, all together. Everything is based on his perspective and not ours no matter how logical we are.

For me, deciding to be an atheist is like committing suicide as early as the death here on earth and the life in heaven. Atheism is stupidity - lack of wisdom, I'm afraid. Robot-like, an atheist has no depth and transcendent perspective.

Life is poetry itself. Reading life as a poem is a challenge, but like so many other things, it takes practice, and your skills and insight improve as you progress.

That’s why we cannot make someone love us - all we can do is be someone who can be loved. The rest is up to them. No matter how much we care, some people just don’t care back. It takes years to build up trust, and only seconds to destroy it. We can get by on charm, for about fifteen minutes. After that, we’d better know something. Either we control our arrogance or it controls us. No matter how hot and steamy a relationship is at first, the passion dwindles and there had better be something else to take its place.

Then, from time to time the people we expect to kick us when we’re downhill are the ones to help us get back up. Sometimes when we’re angry we have the right to be angry. True friendship continues to grow, even over the longest distance. Same goes for true love. Just because someone doesn’t love you the way we want them to doesn’t mean that they don’t love us with all they have. Maturity had more to do with what types of experiences we’ve had and what we’ve learned from them and less to do with how many birthdays we’ve celebrated.

Other things, our family won’t always be there for us. No matter how good a friend is, they’re going to hurt us every occasionally. It isn’t always enough to be forgiven by others - every so often we have to forgive ourselves. No matter how bad our heart is broken, the world doesn’t stop for our misery.

Our upbringing and conditions may have influenced who we are, but we are responsible for who we become. Just because two people argue, it doesn’t mean they don’t love each other. And just since they don’t argue, it doesn’t mean they do.

The last I have observed are we don’t have to change friends if we understand that friends change. Two people can look at the exact same thing and see something perfectly different. Our life can be changed in a matter of hours by people who don’t even know us.

Life like poems speaks to us in many ways. Every day, we find a sense of discovery, of surprise. The same is true of poems. The most magical and wonderful poems are ever renewing themselves, which is to say they remain ever mysterious.

As believers of God, we need to grasp, to connect, to understand. Some magic, some satisfaction, some ‘ahhh!’ is one of the rewards of believing the magic, irony, and ambiguity of God in this beautiful poem of his I call ‘life.’

We need to shape our thoughts through this magic in our midst. We need to see simple details that can have meaning beyond furnishing a world.