Wednesday, February 28, 2007

Jacob's Manifesto

I unashamedly nicked this from the British Council website, knowing that it will disappear in a few days time. This is Jacob Sam-la Rose's poetry manifesto:
It has to be music.
Has to scream out from the shelves and never allow dust to settle.
It has to shake loose from the page,
stop conversations at the bar,
leave trails of itself hanging in the air
like ribbons of spot-lit cigarette smoke
It must be capable of writing itself on walls,
able to paint city skylines in glorious technicolour, or
a million shades of gray.
It has to take root in the cracks between paving stones
and spread its fingers out against the canvas of the sky.
It has to keep rhythm,
everyday rhythm.
It has to keep time.
It has to make news rhyme with actual fact
and truth rhyme with beauty.
It has to speak
Has to put words in peoples’ mouths
Make new shapes for tongues to hold
Open tired eyes to new ways of seeing.
It must birth its own language with lips capable of kissing scars
and it must stand
It must stand as testament to the fact
that words can draw blood
and make that blood sing

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

This is really good. Very tempted to go for the reading! Thanks for the info, Sharon! I'd only been to No Black Tie once for some jazz gig a few years ago and I really loved the venue. Not sure if it still looks the same-when I went it was very cozy and just right for a small event. Would be perfect for a poetry reading!

bibliobibuli said...

it is a lovely venue, janet

Nandre The Legend said...

book book book...
wah, i'm in a business of book, book for life, book for the future...
i have to buy books for my library.

Nandre The Legend said...

books on leaders and malaysiana.. that we are concentrate more...

Anonymous said...

Hi Sharon,
Its Jamal here, I posted to you a few weeks back asking on when is the next creative writing class. I hope you will not forget to inform me through my email at jamalafique@yahoo.co.uk. Im sorry if the way I correspond to you is inconvenient but the only way I way I think I could reach you is through here, unless you can give me another alternative. ok. till then.thank you.

always for the better,
Jamal

bibliobibuli said...

jamal - date still not set yet. i have to finish my present class and then make sure i give my previous groups of writers a couple of workshops to keep them going ... am aiming for april. you can also contact robina at british council ...
Robina.Abdullah@britishcouncil.org.my

Anonymous said...

That's what everyone SAYS.. everyone says it has to scream out from the shelves, but when it actually does everyone wants to shut it up and pretend it doesn't exist. I think personally people like poetry they can identify with. In short, it has to mirror the reader's worldview, otherwise they get uncomfortable. If this actually happened I think a lot of people would be uncomfortable with it. They like their world to be predictable, and for everyone to agree with them. If one day they woke up and the sky was say green, there'd be widespread panic.

You can say a lot of that, but the fact I think remains that people are afraid of change and prefer predictability and a sort of general slow progression.