Prayer

Two questions haunt us, daunting and profound:
From whence we came, and whither we are bound;
Too long a course on unfamiliar ground
For us to neatly wrap our thoughts around.

Yet there is One Whose lofty vision scans
A greater distance than collective man’s;
Both (space and time’s) infinities He spans
For both perform according to His plans.

Oh Lord, You see us as we struggle still
To find the righteous path upon the hill;
We pray You will our daily needs fulfill
And grant us the wisdom, strength and the will

To purge ourselves of our iniquities
So we are able to traverse with ease
This narrow isthmus ‘twixt two boundless seas:
The past, the future, two eternities.

The Silence Within, National Library of Poetry, Owings Mills, Md. 2001
Sounds of Poetry 2001, NLP, Owings Mills, Md. 2001

(c) Leo Toribio

First Meeting

(as it might have been written by W.B.Yeats or James Joyce)

Long chestnut hair to the small of her back, her denims were blue and her blouse was black. That’s the image that first caught my eye, drew my attention and forced a sigh. Then, when she turned I was stunned to see, brown eyes flecked with gold, gleaming at me, on a sweet round face with an elegant nose, and two lips like petals of a deep red rose.

Two rows of pearls, dazzlingly white, parted those lips and brightened the night in a smile as broad as the Irish Sea as she floated across the floor to me; on legs well-formed and athletically trim, she seemed to be dancing across the gym, moving with grace like a sinewy cat, lively and springy, not clumsy and flat.

My heart started pounding irregularly as I studied this beauty approaching me. Trembling, my knees felt weak and unsteady; I had no more time to make myself ready. But the look in her eyes was inviting and warm, broadcasting confidence, sentience and charm, it quelled my anxiety and soon put to rest the undefined fear that had lodged in my breast. And I knew at that moment she did understand, when she reached out, caressing my cheek with her hand, and suddenly, somehow I was finally at ease in my first meeting with Mary Louise.

Leo Toribio