Presented By: Rhea T.

Casuncad
EMMANUEL TORRES
Emmanuel Torres
◦Is a poet, art critic, professor of English and
Comparative Literature at ADMU and curator of its
art museum.
◦He was born on April 29, 1932.
◦He finished his BA in Education in 1954 he received
the Joseph Mulry Award for Literary Excellence at
ADMU.
◦In 1957, he obtained his M.A. in English at University
of Iowa where he enjoyed an International Scholorship
in Creative Writing.
◦He joined the Ateneo Faculty in 1958, and since 1960
he was the curator of its museum.
◦In 1961, he was one of Ten Outstanding Young Men
(TOYM Awardee for Literature)
◦ He has also been a member of several committees on
art exhibits across the globe.
IT IS DIFFICULT TO
SPEAK OF SAINTS
By. Emmanuel Torres
 Because I no longer worship the saints
With beautiful faces and hands of ivory,
I do not despise them. I still envy
Their graceful gestures, their cool brows.
O companions of my childhood, it was easier then:
The air browsing on your gold-leaf halos
Had no rumors of a rumbling life.
 Now it is different. I stumble into asperities
Of having to keep sanity and breath together,
Always into this banality of haste
And the sham smile of my employer.
There is, constantly, this waking into strange,
Unsilent wants of women without end
To whom it is hard to say no with a bald face.
Thus do I encourage the praying of women
Lest my neglected saints still have power
To curse my fortune, such as it is, in envy
Of my potency and laic love of marriages.
If only I could lock them up in the gilt
Of missals forever. It is not that simple.
One of them on a sill of silence smiles,
 Eager for reconciliation with my
worldliness,
Wishing to speak with me, but only
In beautiful Latin I have since forgotten.