Edith L. Tiempo
Edith L. Tiempo, poet, fiction writer, teacher and literary critic is one of the finest Filipino Writers in English whose works are characterized by a remarkable fusion of style and substance, of craftsmanship and insight. Her poems are intricate verbal transfigurations of significant experiences as revealed, in two of her much anthologized pieces, "Lament for the Littlest Fellow" and "Bonsai." As fictionist, Tiempo is as morally profound. Her language has been marked as "descriptive but unburdened by scrupulous detailing." She is an influential tradition in Philippine literature in English.
Together with her late husband, writer and critic Edilberto K. Tiempo, they founded (in 1962) and directed the Silliman National Writers Workshop in Dumaguete City, which has produced some of the Philippines' best writers.
She was conferred the National Artist Award for Literature in 1999.
(from wikipedia.org.)
“Love is many and truth is just,And so we are; Both What we choose,And we refuse.”
“For when down on the kneesThe man (or god) stretches the armsIn giving,It is no accident the handsAre curled like bowls or cups,For he offers self, yetBegs it back again.”
“True that life is given,And received. But truer still:The single-act of givingMakes the offerer the beggar, too—”
“It’s utter sublimation,A feat, this heart’s controlMoment to momentTo scale all love downTo a cupped hand’s size”
“To scale all love downTo a cupped hand’s size”
“All that I loveI fold over onceAnd once again”