Ma. Lourdes Yuzon-Cortes, commonly known as Manette, is the youngest child of Fortunata Aquino and Amado M. Yuzon, the founder of the United Poets Laureate International. She is married to Eduardo J. Cortes with whom she has three sons, all of whom are married. She finished her degree in AB, Child Study at Maryknoll College and her graduate studies in MS, Guidance and Counseling from the De La Salle University. After her studies, she trained at the Teacher’s College in Columbia University, NYC for the intervention of language learning disabilities. She put up her private practice as an educational therapist, and as a counseling psychologist in Manila from 1993 to the present. Manette was one of ten Awardees “Amazing Alumni Achievers” for Distinction for her work with children from Maryknoll College in 2003. Writing poetry came rather late in her life as dancing has always been her passion. Her inspiration to write poetry started two years before the demise of her older sister, Maria Remedios Yuzon-Brown. After that, it was further spurred by the loss of her sister in 2017. From then on, poetry has become “my line.”
We’ve come a long way
From an eventful and colorful childhood
That led to a most challenging adulthood!
The heart is life’s storeroom of memories
With multiple chambers and pages.
It has roads which are its arteries
Telling stories throughout life’s strategies.
Will it be a day, a week, a month?
Or, by a miracle, a few years more?
I do not know what God will grant
I pray my life will reach its core!
Material things I have none to leave
From this earthly life of mine.
A lasting legacy I want to give
If time would be on my side.
The simple skill of teaching
Those with difficulties to learn
Would surely go a long way
If only I had time to spare.
God-given skills in other things
Business opportunities for the family
And to those who are in need
I would gladly spare and share
Happy to give indeed!
Often times we think that
Time will always be there
Waiting for us to give up
And to say that we are done.
Alas! We find out that this is not so
There are blocks along the way
Life’s journey is unpredictable
Our plans could be left undone.
There is no need to despair
If the frame of time falls short
For what is most important is the
Sincerity in giving one’s all.
The frame of time should not limit life
Each heart beat should exude one’s love
Although it may not be perfect
This is the true purpose in life!
At the end, the question that will be asked:
Have I left any stone unturned
In loving others unconditionally
This is a Legacy and the best inheritance
Only a heart of gold can give
The spirit of the wind
Is within each of us
Beautifully choreographed
Motions bewitch everyone!
Free flowing and gentle,
Movements are in every soul.
We are created dancers,
As the wild wind blows, we sway.
How can we not follow this instinct
Only humans possess,
To express their feelings in swirls
In steps and chasses!
Rhythm and beats fill our universe
The moon and the stars and
All cosmic bodies
Dance in Divine choreography!
The rhythm of a mother’s heartbeat
Is music to her baby’s ears.
The swirl of her blood
Puts him in a dance of sleep!
So from the womb we start to dance
In life we follow the beat, then
Dance with life’s music and learn to live.
Indeed, we are dancers of the universe!
