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