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ALBERT B. CASUGA, a Philippine-born writer, lives in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada, where he continues to write poetry, fiction, and criticism after his retirement from teaching and serving as an elected member of his region's school board. He was nominated to the Mississauga Arts Council Literary Awards in 2007. A graduate of the Royal and Pontifical University of St. Thomas (now University of Santo Tomas, Manila. Literature and English, magna cum laude), he taught English and Literature (Criticism, Theory, and Creative Writing) at the Philippines' De La Salle University and San Beda College. He has authored books of poetry, short stories, literary theory and criticism. He has won awards for his works in Canada, the U.S.A., and the Philippines. His latest work, A Theory of Echoes and Other Poems was published February 2009 by the University of Santo Tomas Publishing House. His fiction and poetry were published by online literary journals Asia Writes and Coastal Poems recently. He was a Fellow at the 1972 Silliman University Writers Workshop, Philippines. As a journalist, he worked with the United Press International and wrote an art column for the defunct Philippines Herald.

Saturday, May 25, 2013

A SYLVAN WHISPER OF GRACE


 
A SYLVAN WHISPER OF GRACE

Of what use is a tree if it did not give solace?
She hugs the first one she meets on the hill.
Would she hear its sylvan whisper of grace?

Why can’t a man be like a tree? It is as still
As it should be having listened to all the pain
From that first time he felt her rise to fill

A space that must not be there, a little gain
From what was promised at that first garden:
Loneliness shall not grow where he has lain.

Why can’t a woman be like a tree? It is when
She shelters all from the injury of struggle
That staying alive is the least worry of men

Who must strive to enliven a home for all
As a tree is to a nest or a kite’s port of call.

---ALBERT B. CASUGA
 

Photo Credit: Joanna Allas, Philippines


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