When I was a kid, my grandmother wouldn’t allow us to play with other kids on the street. So my sister, cousins and I would just use our imaginations and play on our own inside the house. We loved to pretend like we were in a market and we’d buy and sell stuff. We would get leaves from my dad’s plants and pretend they’re vegetables and we would cut old newspapers and use it as money. Another game we loved to play was dress up games using Barbie dolls. My guy cousin would also join us with his Ken and then afterwards we’d play Lego with him. My Aunt, who is a dressmaker, even made dresses for our dolls.

Now that I’m already a grownup I found an excuse to still play dress up games but this time, it’s for my avatars that I use in the forums that I frequent. If you want to create your own doll avatar, check out The Doll Palace. They have a wide variety of avatars like angels, princesses, pirates, goth, mermaids, hippies, divas, celebrities, and a whole lot more. They also have holiday specific themes like halloween, thanksgiving and christmas. They even have avatars for guys! Now, isn’t that fun? And they constantly update their site so there are always new items and features to check.

Here’s another poem by Pablo Neruda titled Puedo Escribir Los Versos (Tonight I Can Write)

Tonight I can write the saddest lines.

Write for example, ‘The night is shattered
and the blue stars shiver in the distance.’

The night wind revolves in the sky and sings.

Tonight I can write the saddest lines.
I loved her, and sometimes she loved me too.

Through nights like this one I held her in my arms.
I kissed her again and again under the endless sky.

She loved me, sometimes I loved her too.
How could one not have loved her great still eyes.

Tonight I can write the saddest lines.
To think that I do not have her. To feel that I have lost her.

To hear immense night, still more immense without her.
And the verse falls to the soul like dew to a pasture.

What does it matter that my love could not keep her.
The night is shattered and she is not with me.

This is all. In the distance someone is singing. In the distance.
My soul is not satisfied that it has lost her.

My sight searches for her as though to go to her.
My heart looks for her, and she is not with me.

The same night whitening the same trees.
We, of that time, are no longer the same.

I no longer love her, that’s certain, but how I loved her.
My voice tried to find the wind to touch her hearing.

Another’s. She will be another’s. Like my kisses before.
Her voice. Her bright body. Her infinite eyes.

I no longer love her, that’s certain, but maybe I love her.
Love is short, forgetting is so long.

Because through nights like this one I held her in my arms
my soul is not satisfied that it has lost her.

Though this be the last pain that she makes me suffer
and these the last verses that I write for her.

We used to live in Malabon. That’s where I grew up. The place is known for always being flooded and believe it used to be fun playing in the waters. Malabon is surrounded by rivers that’s why when the tide is high, some areas get flooded. When I was still a kid the rivers were not yet polluted and we were allowed to play when it’s high tide. We would catch fish and tadpoles and my tito even built a small yellow boat for us to play with. it was really and I couldn’t really imagine my childhood without it.

But there was this time that it was high tide and at the same time there was a storm and the flood waters went inside the house. That’s what made my parents decide that we couldn’t let that happen again and it’s about time for us to move. So, in December of 1993, we moved to Quezon City.

I miss Malabon! Not the flood of course… I miss my friends there. I miss the fact that everything seems to be near our house… market, church, school, my friends’ house, my mom’s office, etc. And I especially miss the food… kakanin, boneless na tinapang bangus, bagoong, fresh seafood… I even miss street food like barbecue, isaw, taho, binatog, fishballs, dirty ice cream… haaay…

Here’s another favorite of mine. The House At Pooh Corner was first released in 1972 by Loggins and Messina from the album Sittin’ In. Kenny Loggins re-recorded it, altered the words a little bit, changed the title to Return To Pooh Corner, and it was released in 1994 in an album with the same title. And look at what I found at YouTube… a live video of the song by Loggins and Messina. Don’t you just love Kenny’s beard? LOL.

Christopher Robin and I walked along
Under branches lit up by the moon
Posing our questions to Owl and Eeyore
As our days disappeared all too soon
But I’ve wandered much further today than I should
And I can’t seem to find my way back to the Wood

So help me if you can
I’ve got to get back
To the House at Pooh Corner by one
You’d be surprised
There’s so much to be done
Count all the bees in the hive
Chase all the clouds from the sky
Back to the days of Christopher Robin and Pooh

Winnie the Pooh doesn’t know what to do
Got a honey jar stuck on his nose
He came to me asking help and advice
From here no one knows where he goes
So I sent him to ask of the Owl if he’s there
How to loosen a jar from the nose of a bear

Help me if you can
I’ve got to get back
To the House at Pooh Corner by one
You’d be surprised
There’s so much to be done
Count all the bees in the hive
Chase all the clouds from the sky
Back to the days of Christopher Robin
Back to the ways of Christopher Robin
Back to the days of Pooh

Have you seen the movie The Postman? No no not the one starring Kevin Costner but the other one also titled Il Postino.

It is a romantic comedy about a poor and uneducated fisherman who learns to love poetry through the famous Chilean poet Pablo Neruda who helps him win the heart of the woman he loves. It is a nice movie and I was able to rent a copy from ACA Video a few years ago.

Also check out the soundtrack which probably got famous because of Neruda’s poetry being read by celebrities like Julia Roberts, Andy Garcia and Sting but I also like the film score. The music of Luis Enrique Bacalov is really excellent. I looked for it everywhere and it took me weeks to find a copy of the CD and I’m so glad I did!

Anyway, here’s one of the poems by Pablo Neruda. The original spanish version is titled “Si Tu Me Olvidas” and the english version on the soundtrack, “If You Forget Me,” was read by Madonna.

I want you to know
one thing.

You know how this is:
if I look
at the crystal moon, at the red branch
of the slow autumn at my window,
if I touch
near the fire
the impalpable ash
or the wrinkled body of the log,
everything carries me to you,
as if everything that exists:
aromas, light, metals,
were little boats that sail
toward those isles of yours that wait for me.

Well, now,
if little by little you stop loveing me
I shall stop loving you little by little.

If suddenly
you forget me
do not look for me,
for I shall already have forgotten you.

If you think it long and mad,
the wind of banners
that passes through my life,
and you decide
to leave me at the shore
of the heart where I have roots,
remember
that on that day,
at that hour,
I shall lift my arms
and my roots will set off
to seek another land.

But
if each day,
each hour,
you feel that you are destined for me
with implacable sweetness,
if each day a flower
climbs up to your lips to seek me,
ah my love, ah my own,
in me all that fire is repeated,
in me nothing is extinguished or forgotten,
my love feeds on your love, beloved,
and as long as you live it will be in your arms
without leaving mine.