Books from Plantation Bay Resort in Mactan #Cebu #Philippines #travel

I love Plantation Bay in Mactan, Cebu. This seaside resort and spa allows me to relax and commune with my Muses. When I'm there I feel refreshed, regenerated.

When I was last there, Manny Gonzalez (Founder and CEO of Plantation Bay and my cousin)  gifted with two handsome coffee table books, Tales of Plantation Bay and The Many Moods of Plantation Bay.  

Both books have gorgeous pictures taken at the resort. The first one, Tales of Plantation Bay. include anecdotes related to the resort.  The second, The Many Moods of Plantation Bay, include poems by Manny Gonzalez.

Here are some pages with the writings. These poems are my Manny Gonzalez.

PAST IS THE ONLY TENSE OF HAPPY

               Past

Is the only tense of happy

we never have to leave.

Just a frame for frozen moments,

a web of images we weave.

               For present-happy

is a shortened season

that drifts upon us during night,

to wake the earth and grow new leaves,

and bathe our fertile fields with light.

Swept on swiftly by a nameless current,

we hasten through the splendor of the trees

and somehow never recognize the moment

that only

                                       past-tense happy

               ever sees.

But what is past becomes for always,

Which makes sufficient reason

       To take my happiness from remembered days

        From when was my Moment,

                   And You were my Season.

QUIET

As the days grow dark

     And your memories dim,

Quiet souls still shall mark

          This moment:

When all the years behind have been,

And all our fancied joys turn silent

     Once in an epoch

     There is a season

     When reason melfs,

     And mind must yield to blood.

     The paler shade of sunset

     We see through eyes

     Time has touched with flame --

     A sparkling instant when seasons bloom.

And your proferred toast

drifts softly to me now,

uttered finely

in the summer of our season:

     Quiet cheers

     for quiet tears,

     through the long and lonely 

     quiet years. 

NIGHTFALL

Tonight

is the grey, grim

solemn night

we have dreaded -

tinted with silent

numb delight,

and smothered

with despair

for pains past but no less

lovely in our hearts -

as even now the gentle, soft caress

of virgin wonder fast departs

and leaves us, wiser,

                             in the dark.

MOMENTS

Like glistening leaves on country streams

the finite moments of our Time

                                             slip by,

deftly weaving mid-day dreams 

     of sweetest gossamer light,

          then drifting onward into night.

     Moments imagined, moments true -

                       To hide within my heart.

     Moments missing, somehow found in you.

          Always together.

                                     Forever apart.

The top picture was taken at Plantation Bay. It shows l-r: Chona Bernad, Terry Manguerra, Cecilia Brainard, and Chinggay Utzurrum.

The next picture shows me with Manny Gonzalez.

The rest are pictures of pages from The Many Moods of Plantation Bay.

Read also

A Weekend Retreat at the Plantation Bay (Cecilia has many pictures of Plantation Bay in this link)

Barcelona by Bar, by Manny Gonzalez

The Sensual Pleasures of Bordeaux

Manny Gonzalez Reviews Paris Restaurants

 Crypto Resurrection by Manny Gonzalez - Guest blogger 

Bitcoin - The Emperor Has No Clothes by Manny Gonzalez 

My Cousin, The Wiz Biz, Profile of Manny Gonzalez by Cecilia Brainard