adayinthelifeofrj.com » Quickbytes

Woe to the Writer

RJ Marmol — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 09:46:11 +0000

I was set to 'kill time' in school today. Made sure my journal was packed neatly in my bag. But lo and behold, as I was set to write, my lovely pen was nowhere in sight, thus the silly prose poetry. Tsk.

Woe to the Writer
by: RJ

Woe to the writer who is caught without a pen,
When the train of thought starts flowing
He's but a helpless, crying baby in a hungry lion's den.

How else will he appease upset dragons breathing fire?
How can his words satisfy this insatiable desire?

How else will he rationalize, hypothesize or theorize
Streams of musings that go swiftly in between blinks of his eyes?

In earnest ramblings of metaphors? Pitiful twists, ironies in disarray?
In incomprehensible assertions -- all that cause the reader sure dismay.

The writer caught without a pen,
like a naked soldier amidst a fierce battle
Is left to either run, hide or foolishly surrender.

What to do then, pray tell, when all you have is the 'here and now'
And when neither yesterday nor tomorrow will ever soothe you somehow?

When there is no time to waste searching for an elusive pen
Lest the ideas before you fly in haste like silly men.

How does a writer write when mere fingers can barely make a line?
When what's in your head is sure to leave you in no time.

Woe indeed to the writer caught without his trusty pal,
When words come raining on a summer day's lull.

If he misses this chance, this one perfect trine,
Tomorrow might pass him without passion or rhyme.

How will he pocket letters, mix and match, confound and clarify?
When nothing seems a blessing but these words from on high?

Such waste of time, such waste of thought,
Such moving tragedy for a struggling, stupid moth.

A loss indeed, a loss in need.
For what glory does a knight have
apart from his noble steed?

Suggested Further Reading:

Woe to the Writer is another original post from: adayinthelifeofrj.com
If you are not reading this blog post via an RSS reader, this content is stolen. Please contact the site administrator at stolen@adayinthelifeofrj.com. Thank you.

Nacionalista’s Manny Villar kicks off campaign in Calamba, Laguna

RJ Marmol — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 09:01:21 +0000

Videos and photos of Nacionalista Party and Manny Villar's campaign kickoff in Calamba, Laguna.

Today is day one of the official campaign period for national elections in May 2010. All roads leading to the main venue of Banga Plaza were decked with orange ribbons, flags and campaign posters. The venue itself which is the common poster area in Calamba was decorated with posters of the Nacionalista Party's senatorial slate. Wowowee TV show host Willie Revillame arrived around 5pm. The event was hosted by Wowowee's Valerie Concepcion and Raymond Gutierrez of GMA 7. Other performers who came to entertain the crowd were singers Yeng Constantino and Bugoy.

Villar's viral campaign jingle "Naging Mahirap" plays in the background alternatively with another jingle "Akala Mo".

How much is your vote?

RJ Marmol — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 05:43:37 +0000

Well, former president and 2010 elections presidentiable Joseph "Erap" Estrada thinks your vote costs anywhere between 20 or 50 pesos. Not.

Photo by שאול חנוכה Shaul Hanuka

That supposed "vote-buying" photo published on the frontpage of the Philippine Daily Inquirer yesterday is funny at best and cheap at worst. I will have to agree with Erap's spokesperson, Margaux Salcedo's comment -- "Get real."

If the cost of a vote can go as high as P500 on election day, then why would anyone think that Erap is "vote-buying" in that recent campaign sortie in Tondo, Manila. It could well be considered alms if you ask me. That's what politicians think we poor dumb voters need anyway -- alms . It's demeaning because we never needed alms. All we need are competent leaders. But I guess that's too much to ask for. Or maybe we haven't been working hard enough.

So if you want to charge him with something, maybe you can invoke the "Anti-Mendicancy" law. Lame.

I could not even say for sure if if that "tightly-rolled paper" is money. But if it is, who cares?

COMELEC? Jimenez himself said that "it's nothing" and yes it is! It's nothing because when the SC ruled that there is no such thing as electioneering prior to the official national campaign period which starts next month, we relinquished our right to complain about "catchy" informercials, building-sized tarpaulins and whatever else that this multi-billion peso campaign fiesta is generating and will generate further as we near the 2010 elections.

You, the voter? After the same also ruled that there is NO NEED for a current government official (who is a candidate for the upcoming elections) to vacate his/her post prior to elections we abandoned our claim to being "swindled" by smooth-talking trapos who may well be "cooking us in our own lard".

We want to complain but can we?

We want to claim our right to clean, transparent and honest elections but do we, after all this non-vigilance and complacency deserve it?

How much is your vote? Or better still, how much does that one vote mean to you? You don't have to tell me. Tell that to your kids.

When they go asking you for food you cannot provide. When they go asking you why they're not in school. When they, as adults end up slaving-off in some hostile country so far way from home in exchange for meager salary, if you can even call it salary -- tell it to them.

Tell them how much your vote costs and you'll never have to answer a tougher question from them for the rest of their vote-bought lives.

Our present -- this life we now live and everything that's in it is not ours. It is a borrowed life -- from our children, from our grandchildren. Don't think that we can just squander it as we please. We will have to return it someday. I know we can't return it now in its pristine state, specially because we've been careless and irresponsible with it most times. But please, let's pledge to return it "mended" if not whole.

You wouldn't sell your kids or their future. I bet you wouldn't even want to sell yours. Don't sell your votes. Vote-buying is illegal and immoral but more importantly, it's stupid. Period.

Suggested Further Reading:

How much is your vote? is another original post from: adayinthelifeofrj.com
If you are not reading this blog post via an RSS reader, this content is stolen. Please contact the site administrator at stolen@adayinthelifeofrj.com. Thank you.

Thoughts that keep me awake at night

RJ Marmol — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 18:06:18 +0000

Photo by BrittneyBush

No Escape

by: RJ

There are thoughts that keep me awake at night

And keep me absent-minded in the day --

Gliding on a golden field, endless heaps of hay

Thoughts about what is and what was,

But never of what could be.

They haunt me of a past long gone and never will be,

They nag me of a present so persistent, a routine that I always see.

They remind me of a palpable sign,

Of shackles that bind me here,

In a place where wishes are bane and hopes are nil.

I climb so high, I fly, I sigh

I stumble yet again in this effervescent sky

I lift my arms and reach as high as I can

But I hear weeping and wailing from where I began

This dream I write, forget this I might

These thoughts I hold, it numbs my soul,

It's so cold, I feel old

In May whisperings, "strengthen thy heart", I was told

So I flutter, I mutter..

But when I utter, I stutter

Hard as I grasp every word, every syllable and letter

I am left without tomorrow, the future no brighter

Be banished you drifter! Rot away you squanderer!

Know that time is no kinder to neither miser nor spender

So I slouch, pretend to nap

Barely a moment's passed

I snicker, I snap!

Not a pen was moved, not a firefly in sight

As I hold on tearfully and oh so fearfully tight

To these thoughts that keep me awake...

And kept me awake tonight.

Suggested Further Reading:

Thoughts that keep me awake at night is another original post from: adayinthelifeofrj.com
If you are not reading this blog post via an RSS reader, this content is stolen. Please contact the site administrator at stolen@adayinthelifeofrj.com. Thank you.

Gone too soon

RJ Marmol — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 22:49:04 +0000

: Image via Wikipedia

"Like a comet blazing 'cross the evening sky gone too soon...
shiny and sparkly and splendidly bright... here one day gone one night..." -- Gone Too Soon, Michael Jackson

I want to slap my face for every star that fell last night and the other night that I missed -- the Leonid, and now, the Geminid -- all gone in a day or two. My fault entirely. I knew exactly when they'll show up, I knew exactly what to do to see them but I missed the fireworks for sleep and other matters in a span of hours I couldn't even account for.

I'm starting to ask myself now whether I'm actually asleep 'round that time or was simply busy whiling the hours away doing I don't know, something.

Are there those who pity people like me who have lost their sense of time for having either too much or too little of it?

The most rewarding and gratifying events in life happen in between both ends of the spectrum -- and surprisingly enough, most times, it takes a whole lifetime for a person to realize that. You can't blame them. All their lives they were told the pot of gold is at rainbow's end, light is at the end of the tunnel, the best view is from the top and that the most interesting sea creatures live in the abyss.

We do not seize the day -- or at least whatever seems ordinary, mundane. We prefer to archive the ones that has some sort of fireworks attached to it -- anything shocking, surprising, magnificent, marvelous..historic.

And we think it makes sense. After all, why bother keeping track of routines that don't even change by the day. Newsflash: Celebrating mediocrity is mediocrity.

We do not bother to appreciate a "starry, starry night" as Van Gogh or Don McLean did. What's so special about a night full of stars? We see that almost all the time, don't we?

We patiently wait for that meteor shower. We wait for the spectacular. We utter a wish for every star that falls..and we do so with so much hope, with so much confidence..because only falling stars can grant wishes anyway.

What is it with falling stars that regular stars don't have?

Maybe it's the thrill. Maybe it's the lost chance finally found?

Maybe it does have a difference when you wish on a falling star.

Nah. It doesn't have the slightest difference. You just choose to believe it that way. Missed another falling star? Don't fret. Hope springs eternal for the impossible optimist.

Best Meteor Shower of 2009 Peaks Tonight (space.com)
Geminids set to give skywatchers a starry treat (news.bbc.co.uk)
Utah Meteor Shower: Western Skies Light Up (huffingtonpost.com)
Leonid Meteor Shower Peaks Early Tuesday Morning (science.slashdot.org)

Suggested Further Reading:

No related or similar posts found for this entry.

Gone too soon is another original post from: adayinthelifeofrj.com
If you are not reading this blog post via an RSS reader, this content is stolen. Please contact the site administrator at stolen@adayinthelifeofrj.com. Thank you.

Love, Rules, and That Gray Area In Between

RJ Marmol — Sun, 10 May 2009 02:28:02 +0000

What's love got to do with it? Everything. What's culture got to do with it? Everything. Love is love. We may express it in myriad ways, but we all feel the same high and the same low it brings. Photo credits: @virb
Suggested Further Reading:

Nacionalista’s Manny Villar kicks off campaign in Calamba, Laguna

Love, Rules, and That Gray Area In Between is another original post from: adayinthelifeofrj.com
If you are not reading this blog post via an RSS reader, this content is stolen. Please contact the site administrator at stolen@adayinthelifeofrj.com. Thank you.

adayinthelifeofrj.com » Quickbytes

Woe to the Writer

Nacionalista’s Manny Villar kicks off campaign in Calamba, Laguna

How much is your vote?

Thoughts that keep me awake at night

Gone too soon

Related articles by Zemanta

Love, Rules, and That Gray Area In Between