Post by thepoetslizard on Oct 10, 2008 15:52:21 GMT 2
Gladys Lyn Teves Lapuz was born in Catanduanes, the most typhoon-beaten island in the Philippines, but grew up mostly in Manila, reared by a former USAFFE soldier-turned-dentist father and an enterprising mother who edited her children's works for their school publications; she was schooled by Augustinian Recollect nuns, studied Asian Studies in college and some graduate courses in the same, and worked as a historical researcher at the National Historical Institute. She has owned a bookstore and music studio (Legato Books and Music) with her husband in Baguio City, and now lives, draws, paints, and writes in San Francisco Bay Area.
"Seashells"
In the event of my death,
gather all my letters and let the sea take them.
My words borrowed from corals,
hidden rosaries in old women’s purses,
wrap around these typhoon-beaten islands,
ancient and naked.
My thoughts bubbles that fish make,
fill with cold air, glowing
pearls of emptiness,
from the stillness of depths.
My joys steal from the swell and crest of broken waves.
My tears, scooped out of troughs, are thrown,
harden into dunes.
My fear is nothing but
the darkening horizon that will soon
Break into soft light of endless days.
Let there only be the absence of remembrance
in my wake.
***
Some of Gladys Lyn Teves Lapuz's artwork may be viewed at Flickr
www.flickr.com/photos/uluruminambulate/sets/72157602817455230/
