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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.

Tuesday, June 19, 2012

A DEATH IN EDEN



 A DEATH IN EDEN


“…turning course of a river that goes curving,/ advances and retreats, goes roundabout,/ arriving forever:”--- Octavio Paz, “Sun Stone”



 What is he looking for? Why does he want?
 Is it the unfinished in him that wants
 to be whole when there is nothing
 to build from: are their dreams there?
 How often do they come true? Do they?


 Or is he perhaps like the river course,
 streamed where water may over stones,
 debris, carcasses, and carrion of the dead,
 forever moving to the mouth of the sea
 always arriving where it will never return.


 Why does he want to return where he
 cannot? The dirt of his tomb is real enough.
 What does he want beyond the hole where
 he will lie dead as dead can be? Her body.



—Albert B. Casuga
 06-19-12

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