Diwata Barbara Jane Reyes is a fiction book that brings together character, conflict, and storytelling. It may appeal to readers looking for a character, conflict, and storytelling reading experience.
Diwata by Barbara Jane Reyes is in the public domain, so you can read it online here in short, easy pages or save a copy for your phone, tablet or computer.
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Tagalog is a language spoken by twenty-two million people in the Philippines. Diwata is a Tagalog term meaning "muse." Diwata is also a term for a mythical being who resides in nature, and who human communities must acknowledge, respect, and appease in order to live harmoniously in this world.
In her book Diwata, Barbara Jane Reyes frames her poems between the Book of Genesis creation story and the Tagalog creation myth, placing her work somewhere culturally between both traditions. Also setting the tone for her poems is the death and large shadow cast by her grandfather, a World War II veteran and Bataan Death March survivor, who has passed onto her the responsibility of remembering. Reyes' voice is grounded in her community's traditions and histories, despite war and geographical dislocation.
From "Estuary 2":
She was born with fins and fishtail,
A quick blade slicing water.
She was her father's mermaid child,
A river demon, elders...
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