Ryan Gayagay | + Follow Poet |
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Of These Things I Sing

Ask me not to sing
of happiness, love, and pretty things
of freedom, justice, equality,
of wealth, even of friends’ loyalty.
Doubt me not. Like you
I have desired these, too, 
but their lyrics elude me,
or, I haven’t had my share
of whatever joy they bring.
Thus, try as I want,
I cannot compel my heart
to sing of things it hasn’t known
or it might go off-key
for attempting too foreign a tune.

Let me sing instead
of cloudy skies and violent winds,
of poverty, loneliness, cruelty,
of hunger, cold, and misery.
Believe me, these I am familiar with,
their notes embedded deeply
in the very fabric of my soul.
I can compose an aria
based on them which, when sung,
can bind the arena 
in a spell, and my heart need not be
impelled to do what it is most willing
to intone. Yes, of these things,
allow me to sing.

Copyright © Ryan Gayagay | Year Posted 2024

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Becoming trude from the ruins Date: 5/29/2025 7:22:00 AM This hits me right in the heart. I’ve lost friends I thought I could trust—people I believed in—only to be backstabbed and left with a silence heavier than words. It’s hard to sing about happiness or hope when the scars of betrayal are so fresh. The sadness you speak of, the loneliness, it’s like a song I know all too well. Sometimes, all I can do is echo those darker tunes, because that’s the truth I carry inside. Login to Reply Ryan Gayagay Date: 6/29/2025 7:01:00 AM Thanks for dropping by! Continue writing from the heart.

Becoming trude from the ruins Date: 5/29/2025 7:22:00 AM This hits me right in the heart. I’ve lost friends I thought I could trust—people I believed in—only to be backstabbed and left with a silence heavier than words. It’s hard to sing about happiness or hope when the scars of betrayal are so fresh. The sadness you speak of, the loneliness, it’s like a song I know all too well. Sometimes, all I can do is echo those darker tunes, because that’s the truth I carry inside. Login to Reply