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This is the blog of Ian Rosales Casocot. Filipino writer. Sometime academic. Former backpacker. Twink bait. Hamster lover.

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Saturday, May 23, 2009

entry arrow6:08 PM | Ernesto Superal Yee, 56



Dumaguete poet and fictionist Ernesto Superal Yee died this morning in his bed in Tanjay, from what appears to be a heart attack. His wake will be in St. Peter's in Bacong, south of Dumaguete, starting tonight for two days. Only less than a week ago, he had finished paneling for the second week stretch of the 48th Silliman National Writers Workshop -- but missed the Fellows' Culmination Night in Lab-as because he was with Rosario Cruz-Lucero, in the lobby of her hotel, where, according to Ma'am Chari, he told her the story of his life. On our way to the airport, Chari told Susan Lara and me, "Kasi akala nya na di na kami magkikita." How eerily right she was.

In memory of Ernie, I am presenting a poem he submitted to the latest edition of Dark Blue Southern Seas...


Photo Albums

Forever fascinated in your collections of sepias,
black-and-whites, colored photos of silenced laughter,
stilled awkwardness of adolescents, the old leaning.
I remember watching you in that rocking chair
by the open window flipping the album, looking
for something you might have neglected or forgotten.
I waited until a smile slowly lit up your face:
found what you missed after so many pages.
I came to you. We searched in the tableaux
of dearest faces the gone, the ones still at the threshold
of living, the others about to leave the doors of home.
Time and again, reminded me to keep these albums.
After so many fires and storms, they have survived,
like you, who, through these silent pictures,
taught me that when heart and mind somehow falter,
bring these photographs to your favorite spot.
Open the book. Let the soft brush of light touch
these windows of the past: they offer a clearer view.


Clash of the Bull and the Frog has a good post about his memory of the poet.

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