Katharos: A Collection of Poems

By Paul Japon Paloma

Katharos (Greek for “clean, pure”) is a collection of poems portraying how poetry can become a cathartic experience to writers and readers alike. Exploring the multiple facets of being human in his everyday life, Paloma writes about various themes such as love, life, friendship, and nature. Katharos depicts the destructive imagery of fire as a metaphor for rampaging emotions left unchecked. However, utilized with care and creativity, the same destructive fire can purify and give life.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Partridge Publishing Singapore
• Release date: Jan 27, 2021
• ISBN: 9781543762273

Paul Japon Paloma

Paul Japon Paloma was born in 1999 in Maasin City, Southern Leyte. Growing up, he integrated and developed his passion for stories into the medium to express himself. He finished his degree in philosophy at Saint Joseph College and now teaches in the college level at Southern Leyte State University.

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Copyright © 2021 by Paul Japon Paloma.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

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CONTENTS

In Vino Veritas

Perfect Floes

In the Dark, In the Deep

Marina

Leviathan

Mirage

Endangered Abalone

Bring Froth

Waterlogged

Vanishing Point

Olympia

Iridescent in the Dark

City Escape

Sonnet on Sunsets

Dawn Hymn

How to Catch the Falling Sun

Rest Your Weary Head

Beyond Venus

Wielder

Winter Song

My Sun Flower

The Hundredth

Son of Minos

Autolycus

Callinicus

Atlantica

Bending Light

To Kill a Goddess

Sovereign

Avalon

Irreverent

Laws of Loss

Lullabies Past Twelve

Make Way for the Moon

The Sailor

Uranus in Retrograde

Meteorite

Sonnet to the Red Queen

Synapses

A Roar Forgotten

Star-Beats

The Penitent

Sonnet for Gaia

Albeit

Khione

Between Arms And Taking Arms

Sonnet to Calypso

Midnight Moon (Diana)

Mandibular

Whispers by the Grave

Sonnet on a July Eve

Sing To Me (Your Twilight Song)

Fleeting Starlight

Chinese Finger Trap

Grow (When The Rain Ceases)

As It Should Be

Chronicled

Dragon Matches

Familiars

Leaves, Leaving, and Left

Miracle

Name

Of Tranquility and Friendship

Peck and Sniff

Phoenix Abloom

Rental Nightingale

Solo Strides

The Earth, It Beats

The Evanescence of Sunlight

The Silence of the Stars

Wizened Wise Wood

Workers of Art

A Werewolf’s Last Hurrah

Blue Clouds

Clasped In Prayer

Find Me

Mine and Mine Alone

More Than Ever

Spitting Spiders

This Connection

Tigers in Confidence

To Fall So As To Fly

Trapped

Ventus

Warm Vices

Writ, Blot, Rot

A Drunk’s Poetry

Cloud Breaker

Give In Or Give Up

Nightly Downpour

On Jupiter

Pomelo

Stranger Stranger

Tracing Stars

Ain’t It Cold Tonight?

At The Storm’s Wake (Sadness Blooms)

By The Window

Lost Compass

Passed By Passerby

Smoldering

Beyond The Light

Martyrs, Hush

Red Rigor

Struck, Trodden, Spat

IN VINO VERITAS

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From both ends of the same thread, from both sides of the same coin,

Spanned the length of nine hours onwards to the land of sunrise,

For knowledge, for philosophy, for the love of all of these.

As Magellan sailed the seas in his voyage for truth

So we came, we saw, and yet we were conquered

By newfound brothers-in-arms in our chosen road.

As our forefathers spilled their blood in choice chalices

In a contract where sea and sky bore irrevocable witness,

So did we our inhibitions with the blood of scarlet stallions

In fragile glass we made a bond sturdy and strong

Beneath the dizzying, spiralling stars of green, of red, of purple,

Sons of the suns that lit up the nights of centuries long ago.

In vino veritas indeed, my brother. For truth did we come to know that night

Dancing to the beat-up tune of upbeat songs by drunken soldiers,

The mystery of oneness in difference transcending the barrier of words.

I realized, for one, that the field in which we raise our swords

Matters not, save for the prayers we invoke as we brave our storms.

Until we meet again next time the great doors open at Valhalla.

PERFECT FLOES

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What should seashells do

    When the sea has long ceased to sing?

When waves are but crashing water

    And the salt, bland and unfeeling?

Skipping stones do a better job than I

    In sinking when I become too tired

Of caring not to break the surface

    For fear of ripples I may have inspired.

But narwhals still cry and orcas, too,

    Calling for one more song to be sung

However deaf and mute the stars have become,

    Praying to dead souls, cruelly hung.

IN