Endowed in perpetuity by the Glenna Luschei Fund for Excellence

Error message

  • Deprecated function: Return type of DateObject::__wakeup() should either be compatible with DateTime::__wakeup(): void, or the #[\ReturnTypeWillChange] attribute should be used to temporarily suppress the notice in include_once() (line 143 of /var/www/html/prairieschooner.unl.edu/public/sites/all/modules/date/date_api/date_api.module).
  • Deprecated function: Return type of DateObject::format($format, $force = false) should either be compatible with DateTime::format(string $format): string, or the #[\ReturnTypeWillChange] attribute should be used to temporarily suppress the notice in include_once() (line 143 of /var/www/html/prairieschooner.unl.edu/public/sites/all/modules/date/date_api/date_api.module).
  • Deprecated function: Return type of DateObject::setTimezone($tz, $force = false) should either be compatible with DateTime::setTimezone(DateTimeZone $timezone): DateTime, or the #[\ReturnTypeWillChange] attribute should be used to temporarily suppress the notice in include_once() (line 143 of /var/www/html/prairieschooner.unl.edu/public/sites/all/modules/date/date_api/date_api.module).

Sensing Life

Sensing Life

By Victor Penaranda

As the year branches to an end
Two woodpeckers work busily
On the dry bone of ilang-ilang tree
Zapped by lightning a few months ago.
I can taste the ruins of rainforests
While walking across an empty field,
My body burdened by thoughts of typhoon,
The burning pain of devastation.
I long to whisper to weeds gone wild
The marvel of sensing life in pulses,
Swelling from reason to rhythmic season,
Waking up intuitively with a blue whale
To overpower the size of ambition.
The mind learns to bloom and fade, regain
Dusk from dawn, be ceaseless as the universe.
During moments of weakness and beauty
My heart is a tree bewildered by starlight.

Biography

Victor  Penaranda

Victor Penaranda has published two collections of poems, Voyage in Dry Season and Pilgrim in Transit. His collection of poems and prose on his experience in Bhutan, Lucid Lighting (UST Publishing), is forthcoming. He works as a researcher and capacity-builder in community development projects.

Return To Table Of Contents