(To a wonderful father, Mr. Pacifico Manuel - Ate Joy's dad. Adapted from his note 'YOURSELF')
Posted last June 23, 2010.
Youth is slowly passing me by,
thirty years of my existence
teaches me so much things about life.
Indeed, life is but full of “LIEs”, conditions and alibis –“IF”,
When we scrabble that life into something different
It will create vast “FILEs” of sorrows and pain”.
I’ve been through a lot of sorrows and pain
Yet I know that I AM NOT SCRABBLING OUT OF MY SHORT LIFE.
But, that’s life.
Bumping into people like you, Sir
makes me feel that this life is worth living
despite those vast files.
Your experiences, struggles and deficiencies
and how you stay strong with your ups and downs
are worth looking at.
How great it is to know someone just like you
in my life’s journey
through your daughter's eyes.
I still have a lot of things to learn,
of battles to win
of struggles to overcome,
But simply looking at people like you…
Those vast files?
Are now just a piece of cake.
Thanks for writing about YOURSELF Sir.
Now I know how good it is to be
MYSELF.
(I was checking my FB friends' status when I saw Ate Joy's wall post, a note from her dad. Then, I suddenly miss my tatay. He's as wonderful as her dad. I read the note and I was deeply touched, I couldn't help but write this for him. "Sir, I quoted po some of your words.")
After posting, I got this reply from him. :)
To: Marilen Tavera,
When I wrote that piece ”yourself”, I was not expecting comments from other source except maybe from Joy and her siblings, because I made it not just a tribute to myself as a loving father, but it also serve as simple commendations to my children . Indirectly it might as well act as a simple advice to young people who might be able to read it, like my grandson Vans, who seems not seriously concerned about the future.
You’re about twice my age and may not have heard about a song entitled “YESTERDAY WHEN I WAS YOUNG” originally sung by Roy Clarks and adapted by most famous artist Like Glenn Campbell and Andy Williams as well as our very own Nora Aunor in the late 60’s.
That’s one of the oldies song favorites in my list and its lyric is hereto attached to give you additional simple understanding about life. The writer/ composer obviously scrabbled his own life into something different. He wasted much of it for his self “pride, fame and materialism” that’s why he ended up alone with bitter taste of tears, because he didn’t make good use of his short life … when he was young. TALAGANG NASA HULI ANG PAGSISISI.
Joy is right when she said you’re an intelligent person. What you
wrote speaks for itself. I am not a writer like you. I can only speak and write about my own just “once in a blue moon”. I am not capable of composing or writing any poem or other topics. This is just I am.
Go on with what you are doing. Your files of poems and notes
were wonderful. You’ve got talent and your works need to be published for others to see. You have a bright future as a poet/writer.
Congratulations and thank you for your adaptation to my “YOURSELF”.
YESTERDAY WHEN I WAS YOUNG
Andy Williams
Yesterday when I was young
The taste of life was sweet like rain upon my tongue.
I teased at life as if it were a foolish game
The way an evening breeze may tease a candle flame.
The thousand dreams I dreamed, the splendid things I planned
I always built to last on weak and shifting sand
I lived by night and shunned the naked light of day
And only now I see how the years have ran away
Yesterday when I was young
So many happy songs that waited to be sung
So many wild pleasures lay in store for me
And so much pain my dazzled eyes refused to see
I ran so fast that time and youth at last ran out
I never stopped to think what life was all about
And every conversation that I can now recall
Concerned it self with me and nothing else
Yesterday the moon was blue
And every crazy day brought something new to do
And I used my magic age as if it were a wand
I never saw the waste and emptiness beyond.
The game of love I played with arrogance and pride
And every flame I lit so quickly, quickly died
The friends I made all seemed, somehow to drift away
And only I am left on stage to end he play.
There are so many songs in me that won’t be sung
I felt the bitter taste of tears upon my tongue
The time has come for me to pay for yesterday,
When I was young.
From: Mr.Pacifico Manuel (thru facebook)
