All that I love
 I fold over once
 And once again
 And keep in a box
 Or a slit in a hollow post
 Or in my shoe.

 All that I love?
 Why, yes, but for the moment --
 And for all time, both.
 Something that folds and keeps easy,
 Son's note or Dad's one gaudy tie,
 A roto picture of a queen,
 A blue Indian shawl, even
 A money bill.

 It's utter sublimination,
 A feat, this heart's control
 Moment to moment
 To scale all love down
 To a cupped hand's size,

 Till seashells are broken pieces
 From God's own bright teeth,
 And life and love are real
 Things you can run and
 Breathless hand over
 To the merest child.

(1972)

Being from a small archipelago with such a bounty of poets writing in English, I have always wanted to share Philippine poetry with Minstrels. But I never summoned the courage until now, when Poem #1927 (Lowell Parker’s “The Bee Box”), reminded me again of this poem and the beautiful but simple images of love and the human experience “scaled down” into this classic example of Philippine Poetry in English.

I was packing up my things a week ago in preparation for moving to another country and the rote action of putting things away reminded me of the imagery in this poem. “All that I love/ I fold over once/ And once again”. Now that I am far from home, I feel that sharing this with others will make me a little less homesick.

It is a universal human trait to gather all the important memories and attempt to condense these metaphysical things into tangible bits and pieces that one can carry around. Thus, no matter where a person might be, one can always be reminded of home and the things they love.

— Genevieve

Links

Edith Tiempo is a Philippine National Artist for Literature.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edith_L._Tiempo

A collection of Tiempo’s poems:

http://www.geocities.com/icasocot/tiempo_poems.html