Every so often, I like to reflect and hark back to what I would often do in my youth before age robs me of my memory. That is, when I am at a loss for spoken words, I sit down and scribble my thoughts in a poem as an expression of my true feelings.

This penchant for writing poems honed in my years at the Ateneo has apparently rubbed off on my grandchildren.

Today, allow me to share a few poems by my poetic granddaughters, Mayumi and Noemie, as they embark on their adventures that life has to offer. And with great humility, poems as well by me, in the twilight of my own journey.

My reflections of 2025 (December 2025)

With God’s grace, another year has passed

And 2025 will soon be relegated to the dustbin of memories of life’s past

As the clock ticks down on the remaining days of 2025

Memories have come flashing back to me, that will never be.

The year has been like a roller coaster ride

Of ups and downs, of lows and highs, of joys and angst

Which each of us knows in our hearts that it is what God has meant life to be

Our beloved country is again besieged by scoundrels of no morals

And gloom has once more descended on us

Because of the handiwork of an evil few

But I choose not to be in despair because

Of what the year has been for me.

I can only look back with a smile and with gratitude in my heart

For all the wonderful gifts that God has so kindly bestowed on me

The year started with newfound love and as 2025 comes to a close

Surrounded by loved ones and the LOVED ONE

I can only wonder in amazement at this miracle, for one as unworthy as me

Why this is so I often ask but until now I still don’t know

I can only look up to heaven and ask, God why me?

Love Ramblings of the Sea (Boracay, August 2025)

The vastness of the sea

Compares not to what you see

That only true love can see

For my love for her

Shall always be.

The moonlit sky of the night

Shines brightly amid the darkness

True love’s beams founder not

As my love for her will never cease.

Maker by Mayumi (April 2025)

My back softens when I feel You near

Like a stem’s bend without the break

In my clay, You’ve left prints

That stayed after the bake.

Gentler Water by Mayumi (April 2025)

If the riptide gets me and I’m pulled away

I will be scooped up

Gently, whole, in His density

What’s black is only blue

The roughness is fairing

And no sounds may hurt me.

I am kept within You like a pearl in a mollusk

In the belly of a whale

Possessed in Your ebb and flow

Like wind caught in a sail

May Your waves never let me go

May Your salt never leave my hair.

For my dearest Lolo by Noemie (December 2025)

Since I was small, the stories all began the same

"Ask Lolo – he'll teach you, poetry's his game"

Before I knew what verses might be

Poetry was already living in me—

It lived in your name.

Lolo, the first poem I ever learned

A word from my lips before meaning was earned

I spoke it with ease, never questioned the sound

Some words choose the heart before meaning is found.

And when paired with hers, the two names would sing

Falling like rhyme, like rhythm, like music and everything

I didn’t know they meant Grandpa, Grandma

Just names that lingered with me, like a mantra.

As I grew older, I learned what words could hold

Each year you told me, each lesson retold

How time had shaped the girl you once knew

Your steady voice always guiding me through.

So now I write the way you did

Because you showed me all words can give

That poetry is how love stays, outlasting time, outliving days.

Merry Christmas, Lolo.

A lesson I learned is that poetry, even as crude as mine, can be learned by anyone, particularly if one is as tongue-tied as me.

Happy New Year to one and all!

Until next week… OBF!

For comments, email bing_matoto@yahoo.com