BIO
Felix Fojas is an internationally published writer. His works have appeared in such internationally circulated New Age magazines like the Magical Blend and Natural Health and Beauty Magazine.
An award-winning literary writer, Fojas’s works have appeared in Evergreen Review, Paris/Atlantic Journal, Anthology Magazine,and Writers’ Journal, among many others. A retired professor and advertising executive, Felix Fojas works for Bank of America Home Loans in Agoura Hills, California. He currently lives in Canoga Park, a suburb of Los Angeles, California.
The Secret Lives of Words
Words live secret lives–
Low-profile and unassuming,
Under fictitious names
That are tongue twisters
And deliberately misspelled,
With each letter having
A different font and size,
And each syllable muzzled–
Like a state witness who
Has been relocated to a
Remote state and city
Under a government witness
Protection program, and
Given a new occupation
And identity to prevent
A fatal retaliation from
A hitman contracted by
The mob for snitching
And breaking the sacred
Code of silence or Omerta.
Words live secret lives–
Neither writer nor reader
Nor nit-picking etymologist
Has any inkling about–
Lives muted and mysterious,
Ambiguous and inarticulate,
Words that speak in tongues
Of fire or in a Babel language
Redundant and highfaluting,
Beyond sense and sound,
So that they can breathe
Deeply in total anonymity
And undergo a profound
Change in idiom, syntax,
Context and meaning only
These stealthy undercover
Words can decode to keep
Hordes of cantankerous
Rabble-rousers, gossip
Mongers and poetasters
Disoriented, flummoxed
And permanently at bay
By meticulously reading
And rereading themselves
Between the ominous lines.
Hegalong
In Southern Mindanao
In the Philippines,
T’boli tribesmen pluck
A unique indigenous
Two-string guitar
Called hegalong.
Intrigued, a musician
Friend of mine made
A one-string version
That sounds as good
Or even better than
The vaunted hegalong.
Being a poet, I was
Inspired and invented
A stringless guitar
That’s guaranteed
To give listeners a
Most subtle eargasm.
If you can’t hear
Anything while I’m
Playing, you are
Either stone deaf or
Simply lack the rare
Imagination to hear
And appreciate poetic
License, if not the music
Of pure silence itself.
Diogenes In Search Of An
Honest Man And The Truth
Diogenes walks naked
Out there in the open air,
In the dark, harsh world,
Holding a flickering lamp,
In search of an honest
Man and the living truth.
Treading far and wide
Around the globe, he finds
No trace of an honest soul
And a single elusive truth.
Thirsty for pure wisdom,
He kneels down before
A cool, crystal-clear pool
Of water, gazes at his
Mirror image there and
Eureka! cynical Diogenes
Realizes that honesty
And the naked truth lies
Within and not without,
And is neither found
In others nor outside
The bright ambit of one’s
Very own experience.
At long last the sullen
Sage breaks into a smile.
*****
