On being there

When life deals you the worst hand,

And you feel you are alone,
Look within you and you'll know,
That I'll be there.

I won't fix what it is wrong,
I might not even lend you dough,
I won't get you what you need,
But I'll be here.

I won't take you in,
I might not be your ride,
I won't bail you out each time,
But I'll be there.

And just when you start to think,
What good am I to you,
I'll sit down and listen in,
And help you work things through.

Feel the music

Music is might.
It fills your mind,
Syncs your soul,
And commands you body to move.

It makes nods your head
Tap your feet,
Sway your hips,
And raise your hands.

It carries you away,
And makes you dance unashamed,
Be you in your room alone,
Or in the supermarket aisle.

Raindrops

Next time you're up and about,
And get caught in the rain,
Look about you.
Everything changes in the rain,
People scramble away,
Traffic slows down,
Puddles form,
Rivers flood,
Power fails.
It says a lot about the might of a rain drop.
By it self, it's just an orb falling thousands of feet.
But in a group, it changes the world.

Your eyes

What is it about your eyes,
That mesmerizes me?

Is it that I can glimpse in them,
The beginning of the universe,
The clashing of stars,
The birth of the world,
And the key to my existence?
As if I had been made,
With the sole purpose
Of looking into them.

Roots and Branches

Roots run deep beneath the earth,
They keep you steady through a storm,
They feed and nurture you,
Roots will tell you where you're from.

Branches grow far and wide,
They make you reach out and connect,
They help you breathe air that's fresh,
Branches will let you reach the sky.

Therefore don't deny your roots,
They made you who you are,
But make sure to spread as far and wide,
And reach out to the world.

Ode to the Sandwich

Oh great one!
My liege, whose breads span
A tasty universe of cheese and ham!
How grateful I am of your daily sustenance!
Of your simple fare,
Of your unassuming might.
There you are on my lunchbox everyday,
Biding your time until the first bite!
I'll see you tomorrow again!
Unless there is no bread or it has gone bad.
In which case I'll grieve my loss,
Dearly, oh so dearly,
And eat crackers instead,
Until we meet again!

Blazing Paths

If you decide not to try,
Just because you are not the first,
Or the best.
You fail to see the point of life.

You don't need to blaze the path,
Or carry the torch ahead,
You just need to do your best,
And make inroads on your way.

To dad

I wouldn't be half the man I am,
If it weren't for you, dad.
Even if I didn't tell you that.

My love of books,
Of time for thought,
I mimicked from you after all.

If I can cook,
And wash, and still do math,
It's because you taught me work and pride.

You taught me life goes one,
Even when we all had lost,
The woman we loved most.

But what I remember most of all,
Is how you carried on when we lost mom,
How you taught yourself to cook for us.
How you learned to do what must be done,
even when you had never done anything like that before.

I know, at times you must have thought,
That you had done the worst of jobs.
But I know you must now know,
That you made us better after all.

To mom

You taught me about giving,
And how it was better,
Infinitely better that receiving.

You taught me about kindness,
And love,
And how flowers made one whole.

You taught me about work,
And trust
And keeping your word at all costs.

You taught me about peace,
About hope,
And being thankful for us all.

You taught me about life,
And most of all,
About having the strength of letting you go.

Thank you mom.

On driving the countryside

I love the way the sun shines,
On the fields and open grass,
On the cleaved mountain pass,
As I drive past.

I can hear a soundtrack in my head,
That speaks of joy and escape,
Of rolling laughing in the grass,
Of great times present, future and past.

I take in the grand sight,
And remember that in the scheme of things,
We are all travelers,
Passing by.

The Germ of an Idea

How powerful an Idea can be!
It can level mortar edifices
By the force of its mere existence.
It can enthrall the wisest,
Subjugate the weakest,
Confound the brightest,
Consume the purest.
It is no wonder that our rulers,
Struggle against the great tide,
To destroy that sacred seed;
Or own it.

On taking what cannot be given back

How well a candle does explain,
The fragile nature of a life
Yet some do not, at all, refrain,
From blowing candles out each day,
With no regard, or thought, or shame,
As if life was theirs to take.

When will we ever learn,
That, what we cannot give back,
We mustn't take.

Sun Kissed

There is something about feeling the sun in your face,
As you close your eyes to take in the rays,
What is that you see through your eyelids?
Are those stars and galaxies?

Behold the Universe

We are lucky in that,
Unlike an atom,
We can ponder about our minisculeness,
In the vastness of the universe.

If you lay under the stars,
Still enough,
You can feel our planet hurtling,
Across the vastness of space.

Give it a try tonight,
But hold on tight.

Channeling Voltaire

Never pass the chance to have your say,
To express yourself,
To decide,
Even when others with you disagree.
Because many have sacrificed their lives,
For your right to say what you want to say,
However wrong or right they'd think you'd be.

Look Again

Each day I must remind myself,
To look beyond the obvious view,
To see all things as if anew,
Even when I know them well.

For in the obvious often dwells
A wondrous story to be told,
A hidden magic to behold,
That I've always overlooked.

So Each day I must remind myself,
To see all things as if anew,
To look beyond the obvious view,
For there is nothing I know well.

Smile

In this world, I don't know much
Yet there is one thing that never fails,
And that is the warm, loud, sudden touch,
my heart gets when you smile.

Colorblind

What does red look like,
If you cannot see it well,
Through eyes that are colorblind?

But who is to say,
Whether yours or my red,
Are the right one?

What if, out there,
There is a higher veil,
That makes us all colorblind?

What would red, reall, really look like then, among the fallen trees that no one heard?

Great travelers' souls are also worn

It's another day to build memories

Remember when you wake,
That another day has come to be,
To wash away the remains
Of any grief that was yesterday,
While laying fresh plaster at the end
Of yesterday's grand edifice of memories,
For the ones that'll come today.

FSMA

Hard to Sleep

Don't you just hate the nights,
Where you are only light a sleep,
But your mind is wide awake,
Running close to light speed?

I dreamt of loved ones gone away,
I dreamt of friends I hardly see,
I dreamt of duties I need do,
I dreamt, and dreamed but couldn't sleep.

I know it's just a little stress,
Of getting back to work today.
But it still leaves me with a heavy heart,
That's hard to lift.

So, I just smile and think about
All the blessings I have here,
The love and trust of my wife,
And my daughter's morning kiss.

I know tonight I'll sleep,
The better sleep.

To my elder brother.

Oh brother, how I love thee,
Even when I hardly call;
I think of thee constantly.

I know you must seem strong,
And show us just how well,
You handle life.

But I know, we know, that you need
A helping hand from time to time,
To get by.

Don't be ashamed to call on me,
For any sort of thing you might need,
I'll answer back.

I will never think of you less,
For you are an amazing man,
In good and bad.

So on this day I wish to thee,
The most happiest of time,
Oh brother mine.

Love
Fernando

Ode to London

Oh London! How mighty you are!
Even with your battle scars still raw
Along the river Thames!

I witnessed your thatched face,
Where old and new uneasily congregate,
Along the Mall and Saint James Park!

I traveled through your sunken veins,
within your beating, beating heart
Along the Circle Line!

I stand in awe to you, London.
For you, I'll be calm and carry on,
Along my bettered life.

Love Letter

I can be a fool a times,
When I take for granted what we have.
I just hope you realize,
That without you, I'd be lost
And would wander like a ghost
Through a lonely, wretched life.

I must remember all the time,
To make time for what really matters,
Which is you my love, my wife.
And to forget that, is a sin
That can hurt your heart within
And that, I do not want.

Can you forgive this fool,
that loves you with all his heart?

Can you forgive this man,
That, from you, can't be appart?

Can you find it in your heart, my love,
To forgive this fool of a man?

On the properties of time when you await a big event

When you await a great event,
Time can get a little weird.
It will go both slow and fast
And bend your days a great extent.
For example, here I'll say,
That an hour has slowly passed.
As I pondered just how far
That great day to me appeared.

Yet, quite fast, this last week went.
Seven days just disappeared,
As if in a cute, yet baffling way,
Time made close what then seemed far,
And what was far, it has just neared.