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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.

Friday, September 26, 2014

THE CONSUMMATION OF ECSTASY: A REVISED POEM

 
 
TODAY'S POEM. I revised a poem I wrote three days ago. Which format would you prefer as a reader? Which one as a poet or a literary critic? If you don't mind, please tell me why you choose one over the other. (The more readable and simpler, the better.) HELP!
 
 
A REVISED POEM
 
1. The Consummation of an Ecstasy


If the dreaded hurts we abandoned on the trail
were memories that needed to be closed like doors
that must not open again;


if they were cut up bodies of ghosts
whose bleeding were balm to raw wounds
we sport around as insignias of deathless lovers
guised in the defiant faces of lovelorn clowns
masked in scowls standing in for love and laughter;


if we are finally done, after all these years, with hate
as masquerades of despair and burning need;


if we swear here, now, and onto our dying days and death
that we will scrape our graves open with our fealty
to an unquenchable love;


then, let us die in this ecstasy.

---ALBERT B. CASUGA

 Revised, September 25, 2014 From the following version as part of two poems.


2. The Consummation of an Ecstasy

If the dreaded hurts we abandoned on the trail
were memories that needed to be closed like doors
that must not open again; if they were cut up bodies
of ghosts whose bleeding were balm to raw wounds
we sport around as insignias of deathless lovers
guised in the defiant faces of lovelorn clowns
masked in scowls standing in for love and laughter;
if we are finally done, after all these years, with hate
as masquerades of despair and burning need; if we
swear here, now, and onto our dying days and death
that we will scrape open our graves with our fealty
and unquenchable love; then, let us die in this ecstasy.



---ALBERT B. CASUGA

 September 22, 2014 From "The Final Conversation".
Glen Erin Trail, Mississauga





 

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