JOHN DENVER: IN MEMORIAM Part II

I am currently somewhere in Europe partly for business and partly for pleasure. I do not know if I will always be enthusiastic to go to an internet shop while there are sights to behold and places to explore. Envy me. At least I am taking a respite from having to know about the wrong turns being taken by The Queen and her ilk, and the massive corruption further burying the Filipino nation into the muck and putting the Philippines on the brink of political collapse. (But the truth is I just have to know. Everytime I have access to the internet, I find out the latest happenings in The Queendom. Chismosa talaga.)

She was reportedly distressed over all the briberies. So upset she was that she ordered an investigation to get to the truth. Talaga? She is upset over the briberies or she is upset that her bright boys and girls did not do a clean job? Nabisto tuloy. The investigation must be for the purpose of identifying those whose head must be axed from her holy inner circle. Imagine bribing Crispin Beltran and Ed Panlilio? There is an Ilocano word for those who had the stupidity to offer money to Beltran and Panlilio: Tabbed!

Anyway, since I am supposed to be on vacation, let me do a Part II of a topic that brings me nothing but a light feeling: John Denver. Let me share you my poem in his remembrance.

For John Denver (In Memoriam)
by Cheryl Daytec

The sweet voice that spoke for them without tongue
The courage released where there was almost none
The saber that could pierce apathy and ire
The shield from a rain of bullets gone haywire
The unguent that calmed weeping broken hearts
The refuge of them whose sapped life lost all art
A candle illuminating in the dark
Jasmine strewing fragrance in a stinking park

You asked, What are we making those weapons for?
So much money to waste! Why not feed the poor?
Why do we exile the feeble refugees
When our gluttony forced them on bended knees?
Why do we have three worlds- first, second and third?
Let's tear down the curtain,for there's just one world
Women everywhere must have bread and roses
Wind down their toil from years of powerlessness

A small garden snail is a creature to defend
What more human infants unable to fend
For their own survival? Pity them sans power
Life is so sacred, protect it no matter
The cabbage and tomatoes complete life's circle
Honor their significance; respect their innate worth
Creation's a gift; every death must give life
Death that spells more death gives birth to more strife

I listened to you, a child I may have been
I had been repeating your questions since then
You made me imagine a night in the forest
Afterwards, I nurse no dread of snakes and beasts
As I have of men whose hands pull power's trigger
Whose callousness push the world into danger
So what is wealth when it renders others poor
What is an open gate when there is one closed door?

Your songs are in my soul, they are in my bone
You showed how a flower could shatter a stone
Your music is part of what I have become
Searching for fairness in places where's none
Your sweet voice summons, and not just the ear
It nudges the conscience to submit to fear
Of virtues such as love, virtues such as justice
Oh, these we must serve; oh, these we must please

I look for the rhyme and reason in your death
There's none I can see; but I still feel your breath
You had so much to share, and your all you did give
No grave lies in your name; and long you will live!

I wrote the poem while listening to John Denver one day in September. I sent it to my siblings, all John Denver admirers. My sister Betty (not just an admirer but a possessed fan) emailed to say the poem should reach people and John Denver's family. I posted it on Bread for the World. Carlos Navarro of the Bread for the World Movement said that he passed the poem on to Hank Bruce, author of the book Peace Beyond All Fear: A Tribute to John Denver's Vision. Bruce's wife Tomi Jill Folk said to me in Carlos Navarro's blog: "My husband Hank Bruce and I will be meeting John Denver's mother Erma and first wife Annie Denver at the Windstar Foundation gathering Sunday, Oct.14th, and will bring them each a copy of your poem, so it will indeed reach his family. We will be presenting them with Hank's book "Peace Beyond All Fear, a Tribute to John Denver's Vision." Two thousand people from all over the world are expected to be meeting in Aspen, (Colorado) to honor the memory of John Denver; your poem will tell his family that his influence extends to those not able to be present at the event."

I was floored. I told Betty. She was more floored.

I just thought you should know.

I'll be back in November.