Magnificence is another masterpiece by world-famous Filipino poet, Rolando A. Carbonell. Since I have already given a background on him, let me instead share what he wrote on my book:

Dearest ***  ****,

Am so very grateful for your selflessness and congeniality in relating to me.

I love and admire you,

Rolando A. Carbonell

Great man that he is, bestowed with riches and fame, he remains humble and he continues to relate to people on a “soul level.”  This is why all the words that he has written for me [there were three short notes he gave me on different occasions], have remained as a huge inspiration for me to always follow my heart… he is living proof that following one’s heart and listening to one’s soul will always get you where you want to go… because where you want to go and where you should go will be in sync when you heed the voices of the heart and soul.

Here are a few of my favorite poems from the book:

A Remembered Face Among the Crowd

During a wake, among the motley crowd,

She suddenly appeared like a dream smiling

Fleetingly in my direction through the camera’s eye,

And I caught her in a flash to forever stay

In my remembering mind.

The fresh language of her young gestures,

The flashing of her pearly-white teeth…

And her soft, tender lips ripening

Into a kiss.  Ah, what bliss even just to dream

That she were mine, indeed, O what miracle!

The memory of her presence still engulfs me

Like a dream, and like the bird of paradise

She came into my life uninvited, unknown,

Yet she already belongs to me

In some magical, inexplicable way.

Remembrance

I remember you once with starlight in your hair,

And blossoms of roses breathing down your face.

We were both young, and love wafting in the air;

We were both innocent then and in state of grace.

Now that destiny has pulled us apart,

Each with a secret, unhealed wound in the heart,

Life has made us both more distant than strangers –

No longer even friends, surely, no longer lovers.

Yet in my heart I carry so many blissful memories

Of you, and the many journeys we have taken,

The fusion of our hearts and souls, the bliss

We experienced remain still pure and unshaken.

Perhaps, it’s better this way for us to evolve separately;

Grow in greater freedom, and be enlightened ultimately!

A Quantum Leap of Faith

Like a flight of birds across the windswept sky,

Memories come piercing through the curtain

Of my mind.  There’s a storm.  Oh, what a time to cry!

Indeed, in love and life, there’s nothing truly certain.

Tears of loneliness well up from my eyes.

Where is my true love?  And, oh, how time flies!

Soon this borrowed life is gone –

Still so many things are left undone.

It’s no use now for worries, tears, and fears –

Instead I must go on writing the songs of my years;

To go on dreaming of white light and God’s grace,

And dare to live fully here now, beyond time and space.

Even as time and memory draw me towards Death,

I shall go on living in love, hope, and invincible faith.