Insults, putdowns, and teasing are all forms of disrespect.
That also includes digs about your race or culture or religion.
Can you be my buddy for life?

-Adisara

Reflections

When I shall have finally mustered the courage
to face the truth I shall peer into the water,
and hopefully find that I have become
the person that I wanted to be.

-Carmeli Chaves

A mighty nation
A mighty people
The wind echoes its legacy
The fading stones cries its beauty
What is left is a memory
Of a great civilization once stood.

-Therese Pearson-Neri

Drop your ‘S’ right here,
cause we know you better …
or do we?
Are you close for the day? …
or are you CLOSED?

-Andrew Tan

Faces of youngsters…
projecting a mask of manhood in their youthful images.
 
I wonder what they will be like 10 years from now
…an engineer? a finance analyst? a teacher? a well-travelled photographer?
Whoever they will become in the future,
each one of them will probably remember this one fine day in Indonesia,
where they gamely posed for this captive picture.

-Luchie Flores

According to the guidebook,
there’s a giraffe
living here somewhere…

-Jenni Flotmann

Blanket

(for D)

At the end of each long and tiring day

Your embrace is that place

Where my soul, like day, without drama

Peacefully surrenders itself to the night.

Fishing boats know this by heart

When the sea, a blanket of quiet and calm

Perfectly mirrors the uncomplaining sky

With its tangerine sun and cerulean clouds.

-Happy Ballesteros-Raagas

 Golden tassles

Soaring into the sky
Meeting the world of faith

Stylized naga
Quietly guards
Spiritual intruders

Surrounding bells
Ring inner stillness
By the passing wind

Structural serenity
Equates mindfulness
Peace and calm.

-Midnight Nike Panusart

 

Go out and live life!
Climb mountains, swim in the ocean,
and meet all kinds of people,
live! Life is what you make of it,
so go out and live life to the fullest with no regrets
and experiencing it just the way you want it.

-Jai-jai Vergara Estallo Maniri

Sorrow tires out life
of brute force…

One has to tolerate much in life…
There is always something
to look forward to everyday...
Life is a journey…

-Ryan Rivero