Enrique Villasis reads his poem "White Birds Dark Shadows, 1962"...

Enrique Villasis is an award-winning poet and screenwriter from the  Philippines. He lives in Quezon City and currently writes television  shows for ABS-CBN. His first book of poems, Agua, was a finalist for  a National Book Awards. He is currently working on his second  collection of poems that are based on Vicente S. Manansala’s paintings. https://enriquevillasis.com/ https://poets.org/poet/enrique-villasis This poem, entitled "White Birds Dark Shadows, 1962", was translated into English by Bernard Capinpin...  "This is the moment of destruction:  light against light in an apocalyptic flame,  Incinerating the calm outline of morning.  It’s easy to say burning even  The wildfire.  The lesson of the chameleon vivifies—in times of bewilderment  All color changes: the blue sky yellows.  This instance,  A bouquet of birds snatches their shadows like soldiers  Evacuating the flag in the face of defeat.  They know they will be left as silhouettes In the mountainside  if they do not flee the labyrinth of the first petroglyphs:  Sketches of a once free spirit.  Watch: the resolve of their flapping  As it soars in the dissolving brightness:  the thinning feathers and fury appear like  Petals of jasmine wisping after being plucked by the wind.  Fervor Is learned first by those who want to live,  however their flight muscles boil,  The destination fading from view.  I wish to believe that paradise is there  But words have disdained me.  They have nothing to lighten the blast,  Perhaps, silence.  The silence after every prayer;  the silence after  The torn singing of migratory birds—reviving our devastated world."