Newest Haiku Series

Can you guess what the theme is? Most of the people that read this will already know but whatevs.


quick as silver light
though not cold quite hot its air
hot like blacksmith steel

love, twin of the earth
life devoid the shade doth have
release your arrows

life of the party
the spring of activity
o, busy blue sphere

the flames of war rage
beat the drums that call "BATTLE"
tainted scarlet stone

gargantuan gale
the willow's wisp so crimson
restless maelstrom sky

setting moons all day
and despite the company
she is desolate

dangerous dancer
a clock-work bull's eye turning
child of newer days

seas frozen in time
secrets of the great dark storm
grandiose tempest

the smallest has gone
no longer one of our own
a new family

© 2008 Emilio Gandara

contrast

I stood in utter darkness. Almost suffocated by the very density of the thick black shroud, I kept my eyes wide open. Then a distant glimmer with no warning and the breaking ocean of night crumbles as the shine washes over me, then through me and blinded by the light...

I sing a new song

scene of a morning treason

More random right-before-bed poetry! This one's a tad morbid...

shivers the air
throbs once more the wave
weakening seal

keep a watchful eye
o, hawk circling
this dawn awakens

tearing ribbons
piercing sharply
the blade has found you

haunted day, hunted prey
rings the breaking chalice fallen
death has reaped no finer spoil

© 2008 Emilio Gándara

Free Thoughts

Life is a complex mechanism. If one thinks of the human body, depending on how much head knowledge on the topic you may possess, you may name at the very least 2 or 3 intricate systems, all part of one single organism. All working in unison, all with a purpose. Yet, even within that marvelous complexity, living is a simple action. In many ways we choose to live, but at its core, we are alive subconsciously. In the same vein, there is a simple-complex analogy about the workings of our emotions. Some may argue that what we feel is no more than impulses within our brain, nothing but electricity running through connectors inside the gray matter. Be it that or not is outside of my authority to say, but I do know that emotions that carry names, such as anguish, love, happiness and the like, are as simple in their core as they are complex in their execution.

If we take the most popular, love, the average adult mind needn't go far to find a veritable library of memories upon which to draw conclusions with. Nevertheless, to take an unbiased view of love, while nigh impossible, may in fact reveal something unknown to even the eldest reading this. At the risk of sounding poetic, who can truly say that love is something that can fit inside a logical equation or that it is bigger than our imagination? Obviously these are rhetorical questions of quality, not quantity. What I may perhaps be getting to is that love may fit snugly within the confines of our understanding or reside squarely set on a shrine far beyond our reach at the other side of a limitless chasm. And even then, given the plurality of what people deem love to be: romance, sacrifice, determination, resolve, attraction, passion; a clear definition cannot possibly be given. Therein lies the complexity of this particular system. However, what I would like to clarify, if I may, is the simplicity of it.

Perhaps in a fit of naivete, or maybe a struggle with denial, I would almost blindly believe that there is a core facet of love from which all other complications arise. If only out of the natural pattern and order of things, perhaps, do I deduce that this exists at all. And yet, I insist that it does. It might not be the best approach but it may shed some light to strip away layers from the whole idea in search of an indivisible center. My first instinct is to remove romance although it may present me as some bitter commentator. Regardless, I would understand love to be far deeper than what most take romance to be. My short life has met me with little experience, but I'm an avid observer and have seen the many motions of others reacting to the motions of romance. I am convinced that love must be stronger, deeper, darker than something that brings two people together only to find them riven within half a month. Not to belittle romance, of course, truly a beautiful thing in its proper place and time, but truly, though romance may be part of love, love is truly a far cry from being nothing more than romance.

So then what is truly left? Ever since I was young I was taught that there were three kinds of love: agape, filial and eros. Eros being romantic love, filial being the love one feels for ones family and agape being the love we have for/from God. So would love then be trine and separate or a whole with three subsets? I would gamble to say it is a whole. Who's to say all three kinds of love cannot spring forth from the same essential source? Ultimately where does that leave us? After digging past the romantic layer, we can be met with either the filial or agape layers and honestly I don't believe it would be far fetched to consider love from God to go beyond what human love can conceive or offer. Truly the love of a mother towards her children surpasses the love of lovers on a merry day or the swelling heart of a father whose boy won the race weigh heavier than that of a woman being asked for her hand in marriage. Again these are situations begging for a quantitative measurement though never being conceded one and as such, my humble opinion is all I can muster to present. But I would like to believe that given a moderate amount of thought, many would agree with me.

Finally, can we say that there is nothing left but God's love? My perspective being that of the Christian faith, that along with my rearing and development, I know this would be a point of careful study and scrutiny and it very well ought to be. Regardless, this is the point to which I have gotten to: at its simplest, the very fount and source of love is none other than God. If one were to believe God's words then it is as simple as this: we love because He first loved us. Far be it from me to try to convince anybody of God's love for us or His sovereignty therein. And so, what does that truly say of love? Given the traits of God, we could say the love we have is limitless and powerful, among too many things to mention in this short analysis.

Conclusively, the simplicity of love lies in the overwhelming sense that it springs forth from our souls fed plainly from the everlasting source. Whether we love our brothers and sisters or lovers and friends or return as much of it as we may to whence it came, we can rest assured that if there is any complication in what we call love then it is simply the human element adding onto a pure essence. The clarity through which we can observe love comes at the price of the conscious disregard for ones own preconceived notions and learned reactions to what it truly is.

Some of that non-sense

So last night I wrote another poem hehe. Seems like that's what happens nowadays: I'm about to go to sleep and tired yet a good line pops into my head and I can't let it go to waste so I make a whole darn poem from it. And here it is...

a separate life
so eagerly lived
misty eyed and mystified
a torn canvas full of white

a gift given bitterly
no drop of light for morning
blooming dreams
the shattered sunrise

a crashing voice
surpassing fates
opening deaf ears
and the sea of washing memories

© Emilio Gandara 2008

Disclaimer: It doesn't make any sense, I know, but it doesn't bother me because I enjoy form more than meaning at times and that's just how I felt last night. I don't care if it makes sense to anybody or if anyone tries to make sense of it, I just wanted to write something I could think was pretty. Oh, and I think I called it 'Separate Life'.

Hooray!

I'll try to keep this short as it's during the morning and I don't have a lot of time to waste. In any case, here's how it goes. I was working out in the gym as usual "just workin on my fitness" when suddenly one of the trainers along with the lady that gives you the keys to the individual lockers (and whom I assume is in charge in the gym, to a degree) approach me. Basically, to be to the point, they asked me if I would agree to be Mr. June! Haha. I'm sure this requires some context so here's a quick explanation. In the gym, along the hallway where all the lockers are, there are a few bulletin boards along the walls. One of them is like an article about exercise or good dieting, another one is usually about how to have a healthier lifestyle (like what not to eat out and what are healthy options when eating out) and the one in between those two is the Member Spotlight. In the Member Spotlight, every month they select a member of the gym who apparently has a story to tell and they do a feature on that person.

Ever since I first saw that board, I think I secretly aimed to be in it some day. I'm more than honored that I would be asked! It's truly thanks to God! I wouldn't even be here without Him. I'm really excited but I think it's good to stop here. More details possibly coming...

Rubik's Fun

Just sharing something cool: ^^

storm

Hey y'all, here's a little gift (too bad only like 1 person ever visits this blog lol). This morning I opened photoshop and was noodling about and made this little number. I call it 'storm', or arashi, as the character so plainly reads XD.

Oh, it's 1024 x 768 btw, sorry if your resolution's not that...

2 things, real quick

1: Last night right before I went to bed I felt like writing a new away message and this came out:

I surrender my mind
as I lay myself down
all the strength that I have
is worth nothing

I enter a world
that is bound by my soul
a limitless void
full of visions

so whatever may come
be it friend, foe or fiend
will be welcomed by me
though not wanting

and when the dawn glows
with a rousing mystique
I will leave those worlds
naught but forgotten

© 2008 Emilio Gandara

2: With my recent discovery that my name in Japanese should be エミリョ instead of エミリオ, I looked up new kanji for it and I think I've come up with two cool combinations:

会美侶 - meet beautiful companion
彗弥旅 - comet increasing travel

Which one do you like better? I like the fact that the first one has easier to know kanji but I like them both about the same anyway. I'll probably decide on my own but I have to make it to work today and so I can't stare at it too much for now. I'll probably come back tonight and choose.

Wow, just wow

I got a surprise phone call today, as in, I had no idea who from New York was calling me. When I answer it I'm pleased to find out that it was Sensei calling me! And I'm like, yay sensei, and she's like, hey how are you and then I suddenly hear everybody singing Happy Birthday to me. It was a bunch of people from the advanced japanese class. Many of them friends I've been taking the classes with. As it turns out, I believe today was the day the Advanced Japanese 3 class does the play that is part of the curriculum and they were out eating after the performance. Well Sensei called me and had everybody sing and I'm just taken way way aback by the moment and soooo happy. I could barely believe it happened. After everybody sang I spoke a bit with Sensei and she asked me what I'd done today and whatnot. In any case, it was awesome and now I can't wait to go back and have some more fun in my japanese classes. Too bad most of my friends from class will be done this quarter but at least Corey will possibly be taking it with me... and he better *death threats* haha.

Point in case: Sensei rocks!!! XD