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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.

Sunday, January 16, 2011

4. A POEM TRIGGERED BY A GIVEN LINE (LIGNE DONNE): A PURLOINED SUNRISE

Exercises: Poem #4 in a series triggered by a given line (ligne donne).




A PURLOINED SUNRISE


The sky mimics a stage from this backrow seat,
All actors cued, primed for curtain call,
For some, their fleeting moment of fame, but
Encores are scarce before the curtain fall.

From this hammock, no struts or bellows
Supplant the sweep of silence cutting through
A valley rising from nights like strange bedfellows
Askance: What did sleep bring beside this snow?

A vast theatre, bands of blue move east before
The sun can enter them---denying a bravura
Of sunrise, and close just before the hapless actor,
Ripping through falling curtains, cries: Encore!

In the stirring valley, at the prompt of sunrise,
It is completely quiet. Then the wind dies.

---ALBERT B. CASUGA
Mississauga, 01-16-11


This poem "cut through" the morning stupor, triggered by Dave Bonta' s Morning Porch ligne donne (given line). (http://www.morningporch.com/) below:


Bands of blue move east and close just before the sun can enter them. Once, when the wind dies, it’s completely quiet for fifteen seconds. ---Dave Bonta, Morning Porch, 01-16-11

The exercises continue at the Morning Porch. A la prochaine.

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