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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.

Monday, April 22, 2013

THE BIG QUESTIONS, 26: WITH THIS TOUCH, WE KNOW (IN THOSE HOUSES WHERE WE GREW, HOW SOULFUL ARE THOSE MEMORIES STILL?)

This is Poem #26 in my series of poems in response to the Big Questions to mark National Poetry Month (NaPoMo April 2013). Why do we need to touch those that have touched us? When do know when we must let go? In those houses where we grew, how soulful are those memories still?
 
 
 
 

WITH THIS TOUCH, WE KNOW

 “We tore down the ancestral home. It had termites all over.” –Letter from Home


We go in and out of the chambers of grace
and afflictions in the heart of things at our
own peril. These are houses we scarcely know,
but before long we think we have known,
and cried at every mention of how things were
in those days in those houses where we grew.


We have known them all: the familiar songs,
the loves gone by, the pains forgiven, the hurts
that linger, and all that has touched us we now
want to touch, maybe not with caressing hands
but certainly with steady and soulful embraces
that know how to let go when things must go.


We have known them all already, we have touched
them all. With each touch we have learned to pray.

 -—ALBERT B. CASUGA
 

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