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    Merlie M. Alunan: Autobiography

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    Merlie M. Alunan was a Filipina poet born in 1943 in Iloilo. She is known as the "Mother of Waray-waray Poetry" and focused her work on the Visayan islands. She has a Master's Degree in English with a focus on Creative Writing from Silliman University. Alunan taught creative writing and founded VisWrite at the University of the Philippines Visayas Tacloban College. She has received several awards for her poetry and writing. Some of her most notable published works include the poetry collections Hearthstone, Sacred Tree, and Amina among the Angels.

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    Merlie M. Alunan: Autobiography

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    Merlie M. Alunan was a Filipina poet born in 1943 in Iloilo. She is known as the "Mother of Waray-waray Poetry" and focused her work on the Visayan islands. She has a Master's Degree in English with a focus on Creative Writing from Silliman University. Alunan taught creative writing and founded VisWrite at the University of the Philippines Visayas Tacloban College. She has received several awards for her poetry and writing. Some of her most notable published works include the poetry collections Hearthstone, Sacred Tree, and Amina among the Angels.

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    Merlie M. Alunan was a Filipina poet born in 1943 in Iloilo. She is known as the "Mother of Waray-waray Poetry" and focused her work on the Visayan islands. She has a Master's Degree in English with a focus on Creative Writing from Silliman University. Alunan taught creative writing and founded VisWrite at the University of the Philippines Visayas Tacloban College. She has received several awards for her poetry and writing. Some of her most notable published works include the poetry collections Hearthstone, Sacred Tree, and Amina among the Angels.

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    2K views6 pages

    Merlie M. Alunan: Autobiography

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    淑敌
    Merlie M. Alunan was a Filipina poet born in 1943 in Iloilo. She is known as the "Mother of Waray-waray Poetry" and focused her work on the Visayan islands. She has a Master's Degree in English with a focus on Creative Writing from Silliman University. Alunan taught creative writing and founded VisWrite at the University of the Philippines Visayas Tacloban College. She has received several awards for her poetry and writing. Some of her most notable published works include the poetry collections Hearthstone, Sacred Tree, and Amina among the Angels.

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    MERLIE M.

    ALUNAN

    AUTOBIOGRAPHY
    Merlie M. Alunan was a Filipina poet. She was born on
    December 14, 1943 at the humble town of Dingle, Ilo-ilo. She
    has lived and worked all her life in the Philippines but not in
    Manila, a city she describes as a huge urban conglomeration.
    She was also known as the “Mother of Waray-waray Poetry”.
    While she has traveled a bit around the Visayan islands, she
    finally settled in Leyte in 2000. She has a Master's Degree in
    English, major in Creative Writing. By the time she was 26,
    she had completed her MA. She graduated in Silliman
    University with an MA in Creative Writing in 1974. She
    teaches at the Creative Writing Center, University of the
    Philippines Visayas Tacloban College. There, she founded
    VisWrite in the late 1980s, together with two literature
    professors and literary critics, Victorio N. Sugbo and David
    Genotiva. She was also a Professor Emeritus that was granted
    to her upon retirement on the year 2008. She has received
    numerous awards for her writing, including the Lillian Jerome Thornton Award for Nonfiction,
    Gawad Pambansang Alagad ni Balagtas, and the Philippines Free Press Literary Awards. Her
    books of poetry include Hearthstone, Sacred Tree (Anvil, 1993) and Amina among the Angels
    (UP Press, 1997). Her other works also include Kabilin: 100 Years of Negros Oriental and the
    anthology Fern Garden: An Anthology of Women Writing in the South. Once she started her
    family of five children, she no longer wrote. Also she had started on a Ph.D. but due to all the
    family pressure lost the momentum. She only resumed writing poetry in her early forties,
    beleaguered as she was with raising her children alone. She brought her five children through
    alone by holding down her job as teacher. In that sense, poetry gave her strength and sanity to
    see all these things through. She is currently residing at Caibaan Road, Tacloban City.
    WORKS
    Some of her most recognizable works include a collection of poems and non-fiction books such
    as;

    Hearthstone, Sacred Amina among the angels,


    Selected poems,
    Tree, Anvil, 1993 University of the
    University of the
    Philippines Press, 1997
    Philippines Press, 2004
    Pagdakop Sa Bulalakaw ug
    Tales of the Uban pang mga Balak,
    Spiderwoman, UST Ateneo de Manila
    Press, 2012 University Press, 2012
    SAMPLE WORKS

    Duwa-duwa, Wititk-Witik sa Hangin


    Ni: Merlie M. Alunan

    Sa bata pa ta, ato ang kalibotan sa dula.


    Tanang matang sa dula.
    Ginokdanay. Bulan-bulan. Siatom. Tatsi.
    Luto-luto. Pusil-pusil. Tagol-tago. Munyika. Yoyo.
    Gikan sa pagsidlit sa adlaw ngadto sa pagsawop.
    Bisa’g sa atong damgo nagduwa lang gihapon ta.

    Sa kita nagkahamtong, magaduwa lang gihapon ta.


    Basketball, football, tennis, ug unsa pa diha.
    Sa nagkagulang na, mausab ang atong pagaduwaan,
    unya usahay di ta kahibawo kun tinuoray ba gyud
    ang atong mga gipangbuhat o duwa-duwa ba hinuon.

    Tungod sa kalisod sa kinabuhi, tungod sa mga kakuyaw,


    kasakit, kabalaka sa mga panghitabo sa inadlaw-adlaw,
    makalimot na tang mokatawa. Di na ta kahibawo makighagwa.
    Sa atong kaugalingon ug sa atong mga minahal.
    Moaslom ang atong pagbati, masakit ta.
    Ang makatambal niana usahay, duwa.
    Di nato hikalimtan nga naay gamayng bata
    nikuyog gikan sa atong kagahapon, ug karon
    nagpahipi luyo sa mga kunot sa atong nawong,
    nagtago ilawom sa atong mga uban.
    Kining bataana mangita gyud ug lingaw,
    Ug kun malingaw siya, malingaw sad ta.

    Ang arte usa ka paagi sa pagduwa.


    Tihol-tihol, ambak-ambak,
    Kuris-kuris sa papel, witik-witik sa hangin,
    Duwa-duwa ni Kiti ug ni Merlie.

    Medusa

    You hideous fatal monster


    I have fled you long enough,
    scared of your sleepless snakes
    writhing without end, your stare
    stone-cold, mortal and afraid,
    fleeing your bones endless craving
    for a song's magic rage.
    Medusa, how should I know
    I would be driven instead,
    back to your lair,
    clasping to my bosom,
    my sharpest fear--love or doom,
    how could I tell?
    But yes, you old crone,
    I will sing your beauties yet
    your dark lays of guilt,
    of joy or despair
    Medusa, fatal sister, I will.

    WRITTEN
    REPORT
    ST
    IN 21
    CENTURY
    Submitted by:
    GROUP CHAMBEE

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