December Palm

Tall, dark-outlined against the clear-starred
      sky,
Sudden and skyward-straight ― the Palm
      It seemed
My heart arising, all the dreams I dreamed
Bodied in sharp slim trunk and leaves that
      sigh!
For this the palm tree is a voiceless cry
A yearning for the stars, and one that gleaned
One song-filled night upon a cave,
      Star-beamed.
O Palm, you charm the stars with fantasy,
Of fronded sighing, as though your lone soul
      burned
For things we know not what, but passionate
      fan
Would have lucent desires but half-discerned
In charact'ry of stars, longings of joy and
      pain
That strain the spirit ― as though, O Palm,
      you yearned
For God, descended, to be born again! 

― Horacio Luis de la Costa y Villamayor, A.B. 1935

Guidon, Ateneo de Manila

Manila, 22 December 1932

Christmas postcard. c. 1960s.

[Image source: Pinoy Kollektor]