Students from Metro Manila visit the Mt Makiling Botanical Garden at UPLB Laguna, some 70 km away.
Ode to Mount Makiling
Sleep, sleep deep and well,
just snore gently through your fumarole,
bubbling the warmth of the earth,
and play a friendly role:
Creatures all you carry on your back and top,
birds too tired on their route come to a stop;
a sanctuary to them, and others in transience,
bringing them together in seasonal conference;
up north they return when their winter is over,
and down south others go for their summer;
Many tenants you care by your rules and game;
in Nature, each has a role whether wild or tame.
your trees catch the clouds coming drifting low,
and humble the wind to come in gentle blow.
sunrise comes in golden spears among the trees
that unveil the mist and dance with the breeze.
sunset comes early in the trees, it settles quick;
except for the many eyes, night is dark as ink.
night sounds are eerie - the language in the wild;
keeping campers stay awake and wide eyed.
at daybreak comes the roll call, each creature to its chore,
and the forest is alive once more.
cathedral of trees dwarfed only by the sky and sight
in ever increasing span of height and might.
in storeys and boundaries, each a niche, a territory,
where each kind live in family and harmony.
Don't wake up to soon, be that gentle mountain as long
as the children have not grown, and the grownups
coming along to catch the lost years to know you more,
away from the city, from malls and coffee shops.~
UPLB instructors conduct field lecture to their daily guests.
Author poses with officers and members of a local Rotary Club sponsoring field trips to the Garden.
Among them is Ms Citadel Panganiban, graduate student at the University of Santo Tomas.
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