Views from a Lighthouse

Cape Bojeador Lighthouse, Burgos, Ilocos Norte

Photos by Marlo R Rotor

   

Main tower of the lighthouse. The top can be reached by a one-way spiraling steel stair. The lighthouse and building, built in the 18th century and renovated during the Commonwealth era to guide ocean going vessels along the rugged western coast.

Views from top of lighthouse, South China Sea
 
Atop the lighthouse. Note giant solar battery powered lamp at right. 
Old original building made of bricks.
Ship, Ahoy!

The rocks, the rocks!

And the mariners of old,

guided by your eye

steer clear and free,

singing with the dawn,

Sail ho! Sail ho! ~

Texting on Tree

Dr Abe V Rotor

Etchings on the trunk of dita (Alstonia scholaris), UST Botanical Garden 

Whose names these are, I do not know

      In this age of cell phones

They dream to leave their message 

      to live on through the seasons.

Words they live – they die in cyberspace -

      in the heart of a tree,

Perhaps to a passerby, tired and weary,

     and longing to be free.

Home, Sweet Home

Dr Abe V Rotor

Brick House, acrylic by AVR

Home, Sweet Home
By John Howard Payne
Music by Henry Rowley Bishop (1786-1855)
(Arranged for the violin and piano by Henry Farmer)

‘Mid pleasures and palaces though we may roam,
Be it ever so humble, there’s no place like home;
A charm from the sky seems to hallow us there,
Which seek through the world, is ne’er met with elsewhere.
Home, Home, sweet, sweet Home!

An exile from home, splendor dazzles in vain;
O, give me my lowly thatched cottage again!
The birds singingly gaily, that came to my call –
Give me them – and the peace of mind, dearer than all.
Home, Home sweet, sweet Home.
There’s no place like Home! There’s no place like Home!

Home Sweet Home is one of my favorite pieces on the violin. My daughter would accompany me on the piano in my lectures, and on one occasion, in a concert. The arrangement made by Henry Farmer is made up of three variations revolving on the popular melody of the song. Home Sweet Home was popularized by the pioneers who left their homes in the Old World and settled in the New World - America.

One of the lessons I discussed lately on the school-on-air program - Paaralang Bayan sa Himpapawid - is about home and family. It was one of the liveliest lessons ever conducted on air with many enthusiastic callers who shared their concepts and views about a happy home. Here is a short list.

1. Home is a roof for everyone, residents and guests.
2. Home is a wall with large windows that let the sun and the breeze in.
3. Home is where fish in the aquarium sparkle in the morning’s sun.
4. Home is a baby smiling, of children playing.
5. Home is a faithful husband and wife.
6. Home is a “place for everything and everything in its place,” but not always.
7. Home is dad and mom waiting for us from school.
8. Home is a workshop for hobbies and inventions.
9. Home is where our dog lies on the doormat waiting for its master.
10. Home is a litter of puppies and kittens.
11. Home is a rooster crowing, nature’s alarm clock.
12. Home is a house lizard’s crispy announcement of a guest coming.
13. Home is a frog croaking in the rain.
14. Home is a safari of wildlife – from insects to migratory birds.
15. Home is a warm embrace of a cat.
16. Home is a cup of coffee, a sip of wine, a newspaper.
17. Home is a warm bath, a cold shower, a bath tub.
18. Home is National Geographic, Time Magazine, Daily Inquirer.
19. Home is ripe tomato, succulent radish, dangling stringbeans,
20. Home is a brooding mother hen in her nest.
21. Home is fresh eggs everyday.
22. Home is the sound of birds and crickets.
23. Home is the sweet smell of flowers, falling leaves, swaying branches in the wind.
24. Home is the sweet smell of the earth after the first rain in May.
25. Home is a singing cicada in the tree.
26. Home is a swarming of gamugamo in the evening.
27. Home is a sala too small for so many friends.
28. Home is a cabinet of books, a study table, a computer.
29. Home is Beethoven, Mozart, Abelardo, Santiago.
30. Home is Charlotte Church, Josh Groban, Sharon Cuneta.
31. Home is Amorsolo. Picasso, Van Gogh.
32. Home is potpourri of appetizing recipes, of the proverbial grandmother apple pie.
33. Home is pinakbet, lechon, karekare, suman, bibingka.
34. Home is a garden of roses, a grass lawn to lie on.
35. Home is an herbarium of plants, a gene bank.
36. Home is home for biodiversity, a living museum.
37. Home is doing repair that has no end.
38. Home is disposing old newspapers, bottles, metal scraps, used clothes.
39. Home is a midnight candle before an exam.
40. Home is a shoulder, a pillow, to cry on.
41. Home is Noche Buena.
42. Home is fireworks on New Year.
43. Home is general cleaning on weekends.
44. Home is a soft bed that soothes tired nerves and muscles.
45. Home is a fire place, a hearth, which takes the cold out of the body and spirit.
46. Home is a Prodigal Son returning, Good Samaritan.
47. Home is a round table where thanksgiving prayer is said.
48. Home is laughter and music, prose and poetry.
49. Home is forgiving, rejoicing, celebrating.
50. Home is angelus and rosary hour.

To sum it all, Home is Home Sweet Home.~

Magnificent Balloon

We see happy kids in the past, no other than us, in sweet passing review.
Dr Abe V Rotor

Balloon peddler on Quezon Ave., MM

"Fly me to the moon (with these beautiful balloons)

and let me be among the stars,"

 a song that raise us up in dreams and adventure

around the world and Mars.

We wonder where balloons take our children now
with make-believe heroes,
creation of the computer, fast foods and malls,
leaving tradition in throes. 

But Jules Verne's Around the World story lives on,
and the Gossamer, too;
we see happy kids in the past, no other than us, 
in sweet passing review.~

Tabon Cave - Cradle of My Race

Dr Abe V Rotor

Tabon Cave, Palawan

More than your name,

you are my father's home,

and his resting ground;

link of darkness and light,

window to the universe,

source of song and verse,

treasured niche in space,

the cradle of my race.

You weaned my forebears

from flint and fire,

bow and arrow to wheel,

to become hunter and farmer,

tame the sea and land,

the air and space,

build megapolises,

explore the mystery

of creation.

Would you outlive my lust,

my progeny gone stray,

the deadly mushroom,

litters of my technology;

would you accept my poor art

of postmodern living,

if I renounce them all

when my brothers are gone - 

Would you be the cradle

of my race once more? ~

Mythical Living Rock

"It speaks of an allegory and history where man was born; when man lived a simple life and was free, happy and at home." avr

Dr Abe V Rotor

Batungan,a rock formation in Mandaon, Masbate.

I entered the heart of this living rock,

hollow and eerie;

bats and strange creatures lurk in the dark;

it's a scary story.

Years after I visited this scene once more;

and stayed longer;

I saw shadows moving in the rock's core;

it's a story to wonder.

It speaks of an allegory and history

where man was born;

when man lived a simple life and was free,

happy and at home.