My photo
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.

Thursday, October 24, 2013

EMPTY VESSELS

 
 
EMPTY VESSELS

By the time I fill up to the brim,
I‘d have coughed up sediments
Of crushed stones, jagged pebbles
And the craw-sticking bone chips...

That remain from downstream,
Sieving for the one golden nugget
That was never there. I thirst still.

But the summers of our pine city
Refuge have come and gone, too,
With our windy spaces, now left
As frozen wind tunnels when you
Abandoned the cone-strewn trails
For your will-o’-the-wisp: a full
Bowl of nectar laced with laughter.

---Albert B. Casuga

No comments: