Just finished reading Merlie Alunan's fourth book of poetry, Tales of the Spiderwoman (Manila: UST Publishing House, 2011), which includes the collection that won her the 1st Prize for Poetry in English in the 2010 Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards.
Most of the poems in the collection display a different voice than the one readers of her earlier poems may be familiar with. Here one may be surprised, as I was, by the lighter tone. Check out the first and last poems, which sort of bookend the collection: "Chasing the Rain" and "Chasing the Rain, the Sun at Our Heels." There's some sort of come-what-may abandon in the lines from the latter poem: "wind stinging our faces / overhead the birds / shrieking turn back / turn back turn back // behind us, look, / bright fields, the sea / glinting gold! // we've come this far / chasing the rain, / the sun at our heels."
But this seeming impulsiveness also reveals an acceptance of a full life lived, and the wisdom such living has bestowed. And so this voice says in "Second Spring": "World and time have other uses for our lives, / raising more reasons to whirl us away / from what our hearts know simply-- / mapping their own spaces, their own / strange season, this second spring, / this rare loveliness, impossible epiphany." A rare revelation that the speaker is determined to savor and treasure in her heart, but also a gift she knows the universe may take away from her.
This acceptance is perhaps best evoked in a stanza from "Hedgebrook": "Moss springs back under my steps / On the path to the spring-- / quickly the woods are cleansed of my presence."
Such wise words indeed.
P.S.: The cover design and art work by Merlie's daughter, Mayanne, completes the book.
Most of the poems in the collection display a different voice than the one readers of her earlier poems may be familiar with. Here one may be surprised, as I was, by the lighter tone. Check out the first and last poems, which sort of bookend the collection: "Chasing the Rain" and "Chasing the Rain, the Sun at Our Heels." There's some sort of come-what-may abandon in the lines from the latter poem: "wind stinging our faces / overhead the birds / shrieking turn back / turn back turn back // behind us, look, / bright fields, the sea / glinting gold! // we've come this far / chasing the rain, / the sun at our heels."
But this seeming impulsiveness also reveals an acceptance of a full life lived, and the wisdom such living has bestowed. And so this voice says in "Second Spring": "World and time have other uses for our lives, / raising more reasons to whirl us away / from what our hearts know simply-- / mapping their own spaces, their own / strange season, this second spring, / this rare loveliness, impossible epiphany." A rare revelation that the speaker is determined to savor and treasure in her heart, but also a gift she knows the universe may take away from her.
This acceptance is perhaps best evoked in a stanza from "Hedgebrook": "Moss springs back under my steps / On the path to the spring-- / quickly the woods are cleansed of my presence."
Such wise words indeed.
P.S.: The cover design and art work by Merlie's daughter, Mayanne, completes the book.
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