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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, March 23, 2013

A VALEDICTION


 
A Poem for Lent. A joy to nurture, a covenant of the purest love. Lest we forget.

 A VALEDICTION


"Is my gloom, after all, shade of His hand outstretched caressingly?"---From "The Hound of Heaven" by Francis Thompson
 

All that it takes to remember that I am still with you
is this morning’s sun, glaring from a clear blue sky,

and I have never absconded, never left your side
even when I found myself at the edge of the field

merely a part of your life’s curious appurtenances,
someone you’d remember when the muezzin calls

from his minaret, or angelus intones from emporia
microphones, or when the dry season lends penitence

its hauteur from random worshippers of a crucifixion
forgotten in the hill of skulls, a mocking flagellation.

I will be there when litanies of pain fill your evenings,
I will be there when you lose all faith in love or dreams.

At the edge of the field, I will be there, waiting for you
in the shadows, until you finally stop running away .



 —Albert B. Casuga


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