Sadness
by Bienvenido Lumbera
Sweet little songs I make,
Tunes so pure and full of love.
When lovers are timid and mute,
I give them voice, I make them bold.
Once I bid a word to come
And help me put together a poem.
From far and near, from wherever,
The word brought the poem warmth.
Each word I painstakingly refine,
And I wash the impoverished tongue.
I soothe and salve the cry of pain,
I banish any trace of tears.
But sadness I cannot send away—
Its little waves lap and leave,
Lap and leave the shore of the heart,
This moment a whisper, next a storm.
