Autumn in Summer

It’s summer; the sun’s smiling brightly
But autumn reigns inside me.
Like a tree who just lost a leaf
Inside me, there is grief.
I am a vast sky on stormy nights
Forsaken by the moon, bereft of stars.

Help me feel I am no tree
And you are not a leaf;
You are a river, and I am a creek.
From different springs, we came together
To flow side by side
But the time has come that we must travel apart.

I flow on by, as I know you would.
Have faith, let us both believe
We will entwine somewhere, someday again.
And when we each reach destiny’s ocean
Trust that we will be one water again, my friend.
Until then..


//Sherma E. Benosa;
02 April 2008; 1:20pm

Balasang ti Bambang

Kansionanka man, O balasang ti Bambang
balasang a napintas nga innak pagrukbaban
itoy nga aldaw nga inka panagkanaganan
panagtaom, ita ken iti agnanayon, diakto kalipatan.

Isagutko kenka toy ayatko a nagpaiduma
bitbituen sadiay langit, purosekto amin ida
inayonko diay bulan aramidekto a kas korona
nga ibalangat dita ulom, selnaganna ‘ta sadia.

Iyawatko a naimpusuan dagiti pinilik a rosas
karagupna metten dagiti napudno nga arasa-as
ti talingenngen ni Kari, saanto a manasanas
panangtagiben kapia-ni-tulag, dinto pulos agkupas.

Itden koma ti Apo ita nga aldaw a panagkasangaymo
pannakataginayon ni ragsak, regta, salun-at ken dungngo
ni pangipateg ken ni Ayat, agsadag dita barukongmo
tapno inta manibi dagiti tarigagay ken kari ti dua-a-puso.

Kansionanka ngarud O Pintas ti Bambang
sapata ni kinapudno dim’ to koma kalipatan
ta awanton sabali nga innak tarigagayan
no di ‘ta ayatmo, Anghel nga innak pagraywan.


//Birthday song from Mr. Clifton Pascua
March 2007

Hymn Within Me

.
There is a hymn inside my heart that begs to be sung,
Waiting for my wobbly fingers to strum
The strings of my soul’s discordant melody.

But my lips refuse to sing the notes
That would pull my soul out of the void;
For though it badly needs to hear the music
It fears the thundering boom of the drums.

So I sit around, hoping for someone to play a song
All the while knowing it’s got to be me;
I wait here, daydreaming for a concerto
All the while knowing my ears have become deaf
To the music of the life around me.

Tell me, how can I sing my heart’s tune
Without first fixing the pitch of my thoughts?
I’ve forgotten my lines, I can’t relate to the melody;
Sing to me, sing to me so that I may remember
That there is a hymn that begs to be sung within me.


//Sherma E. Benosa
18 May 2008; 5:46pm

Dead End

I cannot pass through you
but I can make a way around you.

You deter my progress
but you cannot stop me.

You are the slow-down sign,
the check-your-way reminder
in disguise.

You are the detour arrow
That makes me try another road.

Like a hump,
you stand on my way
so that I may not go too fast.

So I step on the brakes
To check my road map.

And I halt a moment
For a well-deserved rest.

You are a dead end.
But my trek does not end with you
nor am I dead because of you.

‘Coz I’ll find another way.
And I’ll walk on.


//Sherma E. Benosa
August 29, 2007; 11:45pm

As I Sleep

You are the night
that envelops me with peace.

Under your watchful moon
you make me feel safe.

In the company of your stars
you fill my heart with gladness.

Upon your request, the crickets
hum me a melody.

And on your order, the breeze
caresses my face.

All these, as I sleep.


//Sherma E. Benosa
13 July 2007; 3:46pm