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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, July 8, 2014

THE HABIT OF MOUNTAINS

 
 
THE HABIT OF MOUNTAINS



It was his grief pursued the habit of mountains:
It moved his world. Quietness moved them.
There is no dearer madness than this desire:
A will to perish in time and manner he chose.
It could not have been any kinder than this falling,
A manner of bargaining one’s way into a choice
between a kind of dying and being dead, no option
for us who learn, too early perhaps, that death
prorogues dreams or prayers of willing our pain
stay the ramrod poised to rend out days descending
foglike upon us, decreeing silence for our bed.
 

 --- ALBERT B. CASUGA

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