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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.

Wednesday, April 10, 2013

THE BIG QUESTIONS, 10: LITTLE QUESTIONS? (WHAT ARE MY RIGHTS IN A SOCIETY? IS THERE SUCH A THING AS SOCIETY? AM I FREE?

This is Poem #10 in my series of poem responses to the Big Questions posed by philosophers, scientists, and even "village cranks", to celebrate National Poetry Month (NaPoMo, April 2013). Is there such as a thing as society? What are my rights in this society? Am I free? What does it mean to be free?
 




LITTLE QUESTIONS?

Is there such a thing as Society? What are my Rights? Am I free?---Simon Blackburn, The Big Questions, Philosophy*
 

There must be a little door
that will not end in a room.
Space is all. Is there an end
to these rooms? An exit
into a free space all my own?

I require a room-less door
to step out of when leaving
would finally mean being
unbound, no walls to fence me
in, no house to shackle a home.

For what would a sky be for?
Why would suns set over hills?
Suns rise from the edge of seas?
Why do springs expand to falls?
Why is beauty is own excuse?

Whence come this splendour,
what does it mean for a flower
to bloom? When all questions
have been answered, where
ends he whose end is a question?

Or are answers simply next door?

--- ALBERT B. CASUGA


*Simon Blackburn, The Big Questions, Philosophy, "Am I Free? (Choices and Responsibility)?". pp. 28 etseq., "Is There Such a Thing as Society? (The individual and the group), pp. 66 etseq.. Quercus Publishing Plc, London, UK, 2009.
 

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