Taburos Han Dagat

The Red Sea and the desert were my environs during my writer’s retreat at El Gouna. The cool night wind of the sea and the cawing of black crows in the desert reminded me how far I was from home. I realized how it was to be an exile, the apprehensions I carried with me when I went to Egypt armed with only my deep faith in the letters of my hosts whose names I could not pronounce properly. Though I had never heard their voices, their words I always trusted. Something inexplicable pulled me to Egypt, and for this reason, I made my resolve to leave Tacloban, throwing all my cares away yet ready to face whatever uncertainties I would encounter. Once in Egypt, Cairo, Hurghada and Alexandria, I never felt I was a stranger among the locals. I felt safe and was able to write my poems there.

About the Author

Victor N. Sugbo lives in Tacloban City. He writes poetry in English and Waray. His poetry have been published in national periodicals and anthologies and have appeared in Sands and Coral, Poetry Monthly, Likhaan, The Missing Slate, and Taj Mahal Review. He teaches Communication and Literature at the UP Visayas Tacloban College. He holds a PhD in Communication from the UP College of Mass Communication and has edited books for the National Commission for Culture and the Arts. He was a member of the National Committee for Literary Arts and is currently an ExeCon member of the National Committee on Communication of the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA). His poetry in English won first prize in the Lillian Jerome Thornton International Competition in Poetry in 1997. His poetry in Waray have won him recognition from the City of Tacloban, Maharlika, and the 2013 Taboan Writers Festival.