A Candle

I had written this poem way back 1995 when I was in first year high school for our school paper. As a freshman, I was really challenged to surmount the achievements of the so-called “older ones”. This poem is very special to me because it is the product of my desire to do things greater than what older people can do. The poem conveys that small things are not only bright and wonderful, rather, useful too. Its meaning is universal and multi-dimensional.


I made used of a very basic style in writing this poem. I observed rhyme and simplicity in language. To add a little twist, I personified the candle. Basically, the entire poem is a dialogue between the reader and the candle. The setting is in Bethlehem where baby Jesus was born. It was the very first Christmas, though, it’s not blatantly told. The context clues I had given say so.


Because of its simplicity, the poem was published in our school paper and in our yearbook. The poem too was published in Quill Books’s hardbound edition volume, A Time To Be Free, last 1998 in Harlingen, Texas.



A Candle

by Jocell Siyangbigay Maranan





O little candle in the night!!,

burning in the room very bright!!

Its head bows lowly,

pointing back and forth so slowly



Look outside the brick window!

See the stars shooting below!

See the moon and its lasting brightness!

Feel the night and its chilling coldness!



You are comparably smaller,

to those decorative celestial wonders

How could you make the darkness,

turned out to be the brightest?



Why do you have to sacrifice,

yourself so scarce to suffice?

Are you enough for the night,

to make the room very bright?

About the Author: Jocell Maranan's Short Biography: Jocell Siyangbigay Maranan was born on February 9, 1982 in Batangas City. He is the third of the five children of Mr. Juan A. Maranan (deceased), a public school teacher, and Mrs. Cecilia S. Maranan, a registered midwife. His father died at the age of 62 when he was 14 years old. Because of this, his mother struggled in raising him and his siblings solely. At an early age, he showed signs of eagerness to go to school. He spent his kindergarten days in Bauan East Central School, elementary in St. Theresa’s Academy and high school in Sta. Teresa College.

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