THE JOURNEY from girlhood to womanhood takes center stage in “She Who Grows Wings,” a debut poetry collection of dancer Rina Angela Corpus.
Written over two decades, the collection traces the poet’s evolving sense of self while exploring what it means to be a human and to be a woman who blooms in silence.
The 47 poems were structured into sections that mirror the stages of life: girlhood, adolescence, adulthood, and eventual return. This sequence form lends the collection a sense of rhythm and movement, which seems to be a nod to Corpus’s own background in dance.
One of the standout poems in the collection, “Tomas Morato,” elicits the tension of a woman finding her footing in a culture that commodifies desire and disposability. It’s a struggle that accompanies her coming of age.
Corpus’s poems honor the resilience of women, the grace found in their daily lives, and their capacity to nurture.
A subtle feminist aesthetic, central to her scholarly works, runs through the collection.
The poem titled “For Lola Rosa, Comfort Woman” is dedicated to Maria Rosa Henson, the first woman in the Philippines who came out publicly as a victim of wartime sexual abuse.
In “Grandmother,” Corpus recalls the warmth of her grandmother’s home as part of her childhood memories.
For Corpus, poetry serves as a way to document her own experiences and reflect on how her life unfolds across its many phases.
“Through these poems, I celebrate the strengths of womanhood and the experience of being a woman through many different phases of my life,” she said.
The title was drawn from the final poem of the collection, which is a meditation on stillness, healing, and self-renewal.
It reminds readers that to grow wings is to know stillness, and to learn to embrace the weight and wonder of living.
