No, I am not getting over someone. Â I am happy and very much in love but I am posting this poem because this is one of the things that is reminiscent of my high school life. Â I remember my Speech teacher (who is also our principal) required us to memorize it and recite it infront of the class using any prop that we want for an additional production value. Â If my memory is still clear I think I brought a picture frame with a photo of me and my mom during my graduation. Â I used that to force my lacrimal duct and produce tears for drama. Â The result: it was a huge success.
I don't know the background why Rolando Carbonell was able to write such a sad and melancholic piece at that time (parang may pinagdadaanan, lol) but that pain made him write such a beautiful and timeless piece of literature that will always be remembered.
Beyond Forgetting
by: Rolando A. Carbonell
For a moment I thought I could forget you.
For a moment I thought I could still the restlessness in my heart.
I thought the past could no longer haunt me—nor hurt me.
How wrong I was!
For the past, no matter how distant, is as much a part of me as life itself.
And you are part of that life.
You are so much a part of me—of my dreams, my early hopes, my youth and my ambitions—that in all my tasks I can’t help remembering you.
Many little delights and things remind me of you.
Yes, I came.
And would my pride mock my real feelings?
Would the love song, the sweet and lovely smile on your face, be lost among the deepening shadows?
I have wanted to be alone.
I thought I could make myself forget you in silence and in song...
And yet I remembered.
For who could forget the memory of the once lovely, the once happy world such as ours?
I came because the song that I kept through the years is waiting to be sung.
I cannot sing it without you.
The song when sung alone will lose the essence of its tune, because you and I had been one.
I have wanted this misery to end, because it is part of my restlessness.
Can’t you understand?
Can’t you divine the depth and the tenderness of my feelings towards you?
Yes, can’t you see how I suffer in this even darkness without you?
You went away because you mistook my silence for indifference.
But silence, my dear, is the language of my heart.
How could I essay the intensity of my love when silence speaks a more eloquent tone?
But, perhaps, you didn’t understand...
Remember, I came because the gnawing loneliness is there and
will not be lost until the music is sung, until the poem is heard, until the silence is understood....until you come to me again.
For you alone can blend the music and memory into one consuming ecstasy.
You alone...