Deceit

Cover up your face
With tons of makeup
To hide your nature
And wear a mask of
Eyeshadows and blushes.

Coat your fiery tongue
With saccharine lies
To woo your colleagues,
To coax your friends
And seal the deal.

Dress under layers
Of fashionable plumes
And build an armor against
The scathing attacks
Of your own insecurity.

Splash a myriad of colors
On your personality
And let the chameleon
Take over, pleasing anyone
But yourself.


-Katherine Lopez
20 March 2011

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I would like to thank fiveloaf, louisedouglas, and bendedspoon for giving me this award:

RULES:

1. Thank the person who awarded you and link back to them in your post.

2. Tell 7 random facts about yourself.

3. Pass the award on to 15 new found bloggers.

4. Contact each blogger you want to pass the award on to and let them know you’ve done so, and let the giver of your award know you accept it.

I won't pass this award yet. But I'm going to share seven things about myself. Here they are:

1. I love using organic beauty products. I love Human Heart Nature, but I hope more of their products will also be available in shops I frequent. :)

2. I haven't played the piano for quite a long time now, so now I'm a little scared to touch the keys because I'm afraid I won't be able to play good music anymore. But there's only one way to find out, and that's to sit down and play like I used to.

3. Friday is my favorite day of the week.

4. I love four seasons juice. That's my favorite juice flavor.

5. I love my wavy hair. I don't want to have it straightened.

6. Piano music, particularly Yiruma's, clears my mind and calms me down.

7. I can't swim. Haha! :))

Another photo with friends

Rummaging through my now neglected Friendster account weeks ago led me to this photo:

From Left: Me, Irene, and Alariz

The two girls who are with me in the photo are among my closest friends. In my high school barkada (group of friends), we are six, as I've mentioned in this post, but when all six of us aren't together, I'm with these two. We call ourselves The Fates, named after the trio in Greek Mythology who decide man's destiny. I can't remember why we chose to name our trio after them. I guess we were having a hangover from our literature classes when we came up with this name.

I seriously miss these two. They weren't with us when Monica, one of my friends, came for a visit last December, and we met in Trinoma, along with two of my other friends, Jessica and Maita. We all have different schedules that's why planning a meet up is difficult. Hardly all of us are free at the same time. One or two are bound to be not available.

This photo was taken on February 14, 2005, Valentine's Day on our senior year during the school's Bandfest. It was a night full of good music, groove to the beat, singing with the bands, and simply having fun. We didn't have a prom (even up to now, our school doesn't hold proms), but a night like Bandfest was just as memorable. We got to set aside our academic worries for a while, don our most comfortable attire, and dance the night away with our precious friends - people we would surely miss after graduation, like how I miss them right now.

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I would like to thank Furree Katt for giving me this award:



That's so sweet of you. You made my day. :D Thank you!

Conditions of accepting award:

1. Thank and put a link back to the person who so kindly gave this award.
2. Share a few things about yourself.
3. Pass the award onto some mighty fine bloggers.
4. Inform these mighty fine bloggers that they have received the award.

So here are a few things about myself:
1. My favorite ice cream flavor is cookies and cream. Next to that is mango. I don't like chocolate ice cream. I eat that flavor, too, but it doesn't count as among my favorites. It's too sweet.

2. I love Rugrats. My favorite character is Angelica even if she's mean to the other babies. She just has a strong personality, and she's smart. :)

3. I drink lots of water. I can't eat a meal without at least two glasses.

4. I'm not fond of wearing sneakers or rubber shoes. Give me flats or sandals anytime.

5. I would love to go to Paris and London someday. But before I visit those places, I want to go on a tour in my own country first, then Asia. Now if only I could have all that travel money in an instant... hehehe

Now, it's time to give this award to other bloggers. These bloggers never fail to show the beauty and goodness of life in their posts. And for that, congratulations to:

Al Ain City Daily Photo

Chase Beautiful Things

Jingle

i♥PD

Portia Silva

Toilet Thoughts of a toxic mind

Congratulations! And to everyone, have a great week ahead! :)

After Valentine's, what now?

So after posting 14 poems for 14 consecutive days, what did I gain? Materially, none. It wasn't as if those poems were for sale, and I wasn't asking people to buy them. All I wanted was to celebrate Valentine's in a special way, doing something that I love and happen to do pretty well (I'm not bragging. Please don't get me wrong). To celebrate the season of hearts, I wanted to create something from my heart.

And I think I succeeded.

I was overwhelmed with the response I got from you (yes you!) - the bloggers who read my every post, people who come here just to pass time, fellow poets who are with me in this craft, bloggers who never fail to leave words of encouragement in my comment box, words that say how much my poems moved them, how much they loved my pieces. You keep me going. You make me want to write and post more entries even if I'm tired from work at the end of the day. You make me want to take a break once in a while from my busy schedule and seek refuge in my online home.

Thank you so much for appreciating my works, especially the Valentine's Series. I thank God for giving me this talent and for guiding me as I took on this self-imposed challenge. And of course, I thank my dearest, my candle of inspiration that will never melt even when lighted for a long time.

Since it's still February, the love month isn't over yet. Haha. So I'm ending this entry with this cute song by Kiss Jane. Its title is Lagi, which, in English, means "always." In the chorus, the girl sings how her beloved is always in her mind and heart.




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I would like to thank Jingle for this award:













Your support to all poet-bloggers really means a lot to us. You rock! :D