I was in high school when I started to try my hand at poetry. It was the age of my puberty at its peak --- I was in love with love and every crush I’d have on someone back then would be reason enough to ink in some words that rhyme. What better way to jumpstart my thoughts than to listen to my kinds of music. I think most of the romantic poetry I have made were done during my high school days.

One evening, Barry Manilow was singing When October Goes and I instantly fell in love with it. I grew up with Barry’s songs and like almost every hit he made, so supposedly I’d get numb with this one. But I was wrong --- this is something that especially struck a chord on me. If you look at my poem below while you listen to When October Goes, and when you happen to be in high school, you will get the picture.

When I’m Alone…

Lonely
Forlorn
I remember the past
and your memory
Lives on

You are like a dream
An interlude
to a quiet night
You came out right
but you can’t stay
for dreams have to pass away
just like the music’s serenade
that will soon fade

And as I see you go
Looking into your eyes
There’s still lot’s of things
I want you to know
Finally, I realized

But then you’re gone
As love is freak…
I dare not speak

[Composed by Denice Christine Garcia-Pilla in the 1990s; this appeared in “Channel,” the official publication of Fellowship Baptist College]