How Poetry Grew in Emily's Garden

She knew a great deal about plants, and she grew them very well ... And what we found is that her poems are not sentimental valentines to flowers. They're serious poems, but they're tied to her great passion for plants and nature. So we decided, well, we should introduce people to Emily Dickinson not only as a poet, but as a gardener.

The New York Botanical Gardens pays tribute to the reclusive poet in an exhibition called Emily Dickinson's Garden: The Poetry of Flowers. You can take a look at the slides of the garden on the NPR website and listen to the radio programme.

I also came across a beautiful blog dedicated to Dickinson's garden.

Poet Agnes Meadows at Sunway

A message from Cindy Childress [via Facebook]:

Agnes Meadows, an internationally acclaimed British poet, is coming to KL this weekend--a trip made possible because at the moment she's in Singapore as part of a grant project with the LIT UP writing festival. Details about the reading are on the attached flyer, and I've pasted a link so you can listen to her poems. You can also browse two of her books, Woman and At Damascus Gate, on Google Books. I hope you can come to the event, and please feel free to help me spread the word about her reading at the Sunway International School this Friday evening at 7:00 p.m. She's a long-time friend of mine from the Austin International Poetry Festival and an established poet who inspires me.

(Click poster up to size to read.)

Eddin's Bloodlines

News of a very interesting event at CHAI House :

MIGRATION SEASON at CHAI April - June 2010.

MIGRATION SEASON at CHAI begins with poet and journalist Eddin Khoo's exploration of his family album.

~BLOOD LINES: Poetry, Memory and the family album~

"What began it all was the bright bone of a dream I could hardly hold onto..."

(Michael Ondaatje)

What is the nature of a family memory? How is that nature evoked in the encounter with a photograph? What do family histories conceal and how are family myths constructed? How is literature crafted from an unravelling of these?

For a decade, the writer has been collating photographs that piece together the family memory for a series of prose and prose poem remembrances.

In BLOOD LINES: Poetry, Memory and the Family Album he shares examples of photographs from his family album, explains the methods of use, reads excerpts from his assemblage of prose and prose poems and discusses the curious nature of memory and autobiography.

Eddin Khoo is a poet, writer, translator and journalist. Founder-Director of the cultural organisation Pusaka, he most recently collaborated with the late, critically acclaimed artist Ibrahim Hussein to complete the artist's autobiography, entitled IB: A Life ~ The Autobiography of Ibrahim Hussein.

Entry: Donation to CHAI Min RM10

Free Entry to CHAI- Wallahs*

* To find out more about how to become a CHAI-Wallah please e-mail us at chai@instantcafetheatre.com

Date : Thursday, 01 April 2010
Time: 20:30 - 22:30
Location: Instant CAFE's HOUSE of ART and IDEAS [CHAI]
Street: No. 6, Jalan 6/3, Off Jalan Templer, Section 6
Town/City: Petaling Jaya, Malaysia

Sad I won't be able to be there myself as I'm teaching ...

Poetic Courage

It

A Saudi poet courageously takes on repressive clerics on live TV Idol-type show.

According to The Huffington Post :

Hissa Hilal, only her eyes visible through her black veil, delivered a blistering poem against Muslim preachers "who sit in the position of power" but are "frightening" people with their fatwas, or religious edicts, and "preying like a wolf" on those seeking peace.

Her poems won her cheers from the audience ...but also death threats.

As Bookninja says :

Everyone involved in literature and women’s rights the world should be pulling for her to win and then offering her whatever help and/or shelter she needs to deal with the repercussions her win.

And there is a lesson about courage here I think for all of us to learn.

(Thanks Pang for sending me this story via Facebook.)

New Stuff from Asiatic

The new issue of Asiatic published by the IIUM English Department is out and includes articles about local literature, book reviews, new poetry fiction and even a short play by Kee Thuan Chye!

Don't forget, this is a good place to send your own work too!

Reporting From The Front Line

Sorry for not blogging earlier, I was at a place called Frideswide on the Western Front attending to the casualties and dodging fire in the trenches. And I'm only half joking.

Two of my great loves, poetry and Second Life come together with Oxford University's new virtual simulation which places the work of the war poets (including Wilfred Owen, Isaac Rosenberg, Vera Brittain and Siegfried Sassoon) in a three dimensional, immersive environment that you can wander through and participate in. You can watch video, listen to readings of the poetry, read facimilies of documents, and watch video as you visit a training camp, communication trench, a casualty clearing station, and a front-line trench. You can wear (if you care to) the uniform of a soldier or nurse, and of course you can pose for and take pictures. I spent a couple of hours there and still have more to see and listen to.

It's a very relevant journey for me, as both my grandfathers fought in the First World War. One talked about the terrible things he'd seen all the time: the other couldn't bring himself to mention it at all.

One thing that made the experience special for me, last night, was having the opportunity to chat to one of the researchers behind the project who was able to explain how everything had come together. (Thanks Skanda!)

You can read all about the project here on Oxford University's website, and find out how you too can visit the battlefield and check out the possibilities of this new and exciting medium. Why Second Life? As the website explains :

Virtual worlds create opportunities to do things that are impossible in real museums. By simulating parts of the Western Front, the archive can embed an entire exhibition's worth of content within in the space. This can be further enhanced by placing digital versions of real archival materials and narratives along the paths that visitors take. The result is an immersive and personal experience. It's not 'real' but it does offer possibilities for understanding a part of history that is now beyond human memory.

Yasmin's Poetic Heart

Nothing is more beautiful than the written word ...

In today's Starmag, Abby Wong pays tribute to Yasmin Ahmad and her love of poetry, which she says :

... was endearing because it was a passionate, pure, spontaneous, crazy kind of love. Whenever she came to Kinokuniya Bookstores in Suria KLCC, where I used to work, she would look for me and read me a stanza or two from poems such as Nobel Prize-winning Mexican poet Octavio Paz’ The Tale of Two Gardens. ... As she read out loud uninhibitedly, the words would waft through the air and roll between shelves, intoxicating unsuspecting customers. She had a lilting voice, one that was filled with zeal and intelligence, but that was by no means ever pretentious. ... Some customers, the curious ones, would trace the words back to their source and find her in the poetry section.

When the Muse Strikes

Benjamin Zephaniah did it stuck in a lift with a drag queen, Phillis Levin in a car on the side of a mountain, Patience Agbabi 20,000 feet above sea level in a spasm of guilt about her carbon footprint, and Kenneth Steven did it in his head during a sermon in church.

Poets at the Ledbury Poetry Festival in the UK reveal the most unlikely places they have ever written, and as Maev Kennedy notes, they :

... don't need a tranquil room of their own to write ... they're far more likely to be inspired by being in a car than at sitting at an orderly desk or wandering among the dancing daffodils.

Another Serving of Mangosteen Crumble

From Amir Muhammed via Facebook :

1) One of the most interesting local poetry collections I have come across, Charlene Rajendran’s MANGOSTEEN CRUMBLE (1999, Team East) has been out of print for many years. I’ve decided to bring it back into circulation by turning it into a book that is not a book. (Eh, what talking me?) I am making the whole book available online, at the rate of one poem per day, starting today at noon, right up to May 8. Let Charlene be your day-time Sheherazade. Taste the words for yourself over at http://mangosteen-crumble.blogspot.com/ and if you like ‘em, bookmark the blog and spread da word. I also wrote about the book in my Malay Mail column today.

2. Ahem! I will, of course, be publishing Charlene’s second book, TAXI TALES ON A CROOKED BRIDGE, her non-fiction book based on her conversations with the taxi drivers of Singapore, where she now lives and works. It’s not a book of poetry although there are some pointed poems. It’s a quirky, lively take on all kinds of politics, and is in a rather unusual shape too. (No, it’s not shaped like a taxi). It’s about to go to the printer and will be launched 9 May 4pm as part of the 2nd KL Alternative Bookfest (KLAB) at The Annexe, Central Market, KL. Charlene will be in KL for that whole weekend (9/10 May) so if you’d like to interview her for your newspaper or magazine or blog, do let me know, and I will make sure you get the book in advance.

3. The editors Jerome and Pang are almost done with the selection for BODY 2 BODY, the first Malaysian anthology of queer writing, where you don’t even have to be gay to take part! They will pick 20 out of the 59 submissions. There are enough good entries, so we don’t have to extend the deadline. The successful writers will be informed by 7 April, as will the ones who didn’t get chosen.

4. PEKAN SEHARI SHAH ALAM. Matahari Books has a booth at this new monthly event, which takes place Saturday 25 April at Laman Menara Jam, Dataran Shah Alam, from 3-9pm. As the place-name suggests, just look for the clock tower. The very next day, we will be back at the Amcorp Mall flea market, 10am-6pm. When we were at Amcorp last month, we had buyers from as far away as Mexico! 5. BUKU UNTUK FILEM:ESTET is done but can’t be released as the film does not yet have a confirmed release date. And the book has to come out at the same time. We can wait. Have a good month ahead, yawl. regards, amir. 012 2311 584 matahari.books@gmail.com

Hmmm ... taxi driver conversations have also of course been served up quite recently by Khaled Al Khamissi (his book Taxi was republished here last year by ZI Publications), and of course in the form of poetry by Chris Mooney-Singh in a really fun collection called The Laughing Buddha Cab Company. Taxi drivers in Malaysia and Singapore are a breed apart - though I personally don't think anyone else's match up to this one! (But then, I'm biased.)

Aren't you impressed with the publisher who sets up table in flea markets to sell his books? I really am.

I've been meaning to blog about Amir's reviews again for a while. Every week they appear the The Malay Mail and every week they are really interesting reads - especially for me as many of the books he reviews are out of print or in Malay. Do go spend some time browsing them on his blog.

Oh darn it, why not put up a picture of Amir since I'm in his fan club? Here he is (right) with Reza Rosli at Readings@Seksan on Saturday and the picture is stolen from Azwan's Facebook page.

Advice for Poets

I found a link to this great list of advice for poets on Leon's blog. It was originally on Harriet's blog at The Poetry Foundation website (but seems not to be online any more).

I think much of this applies to all kinds of creative writing :

1) Write everyday. It's easier than it sounds. Make time everyday to write SOMETHING. Even if it's one line scribbled into a napkin on the subway or the bus, or a whole precious early hour in the morning. This practice lets the mind know that everyday we must be observant, that we are paying attention, always.

2) Learn poems you love. Read whatever poems you can get your hands on. Not just the classics, but those poets who are writing today. Pick up journals, magazines, and anthologies; search for the poems that break you open. Read those poems over and over again until you have them memorized in your mouth. Don't worry about mimicking them, just accept them as your teachers and hold them close. Become an expert on the poems you adore.

3) Cultivate silence. Silence is essential in order to hear your own voice. Especially nowadays when we often have the television on, the radio on, or music playing all day long, it is essential to find some silence to listen to your own voice. Your own voice is the only thing your poetry needs.

4) Embrace revision. Revision might be the hardest thing that writers have to do, aside from battling our own internal demons, because it means admitting that we are wrong. Sometimes we are so wrong that we need to start all over again, and it's embarrassing. Sometimes we only need to change a comma, but listen, every poem needs revision and every poet needs to learn humility.

5) Practice gratitude. Cherish those friends and colleagues who care enough to read and comment on your work. If you truly pursue writing, you will come to realize how enormously important these people are to your writing life and therefore to your making of a "real" life. Make sure you read their work with the same care and closeness they offer you. And buy them coffee and cakes when they return a manuscript with pencil marks on every page. It is a true act of kindness that should be greeted with great gratitude. And be thankful that you want to write at all, what a powerful art to devote a life to, how lucky we are to love such a wild untamable thing.

And of course, do go visit out Puisi-Poesy blog for discussion of poems that mean a lot to us. There are some very good new posts from Leon and Hazlan. You are welcome to contribute to it too!

Sylvia Plath's Son Kills Himself

It was very sad to read today that Nicholas Hughes, son of poets Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes, has committed suicide at the age of 47.

The Guardian reports that he had carved himself out a successful scientific career, but :

... ultimately he could not escape the legacy of being the offspring of one of the most famous and tragic literary relationships of the 20th century.

Sylvia Plath was famously very ill with depression and also died at her own hand. Depression often runs in families, and Sylvia had at least one other close relative who suffered from it (according to Kay Jamison's Touched with Fire). But Judith Flanders in The Guardian quite rightly has a go at those who would sensationalise these deaths, calling them a kind of curse of poetry.

The picture shows Sylvia with baby Nicholas taken from The Daily Mail which has a very good piece.

Nicholas was immortalised in his mother's poetry, including in this poem, Morning Song written just months before she died:

Love set you going like a fat gold watch.

The midwife slapped your footsoles, and your bald cry

Took its place among the elements.


Our voices echo, magnifying your arrival. New statue.

In a drafty museum, your nakedness

Shadows our safety. We stand round blankly as walls.

Alina's Beloved

Alina Rastam launches a new collection of poetry Saturday 21st March at 6.30 p.m. at Central Market. (For full details click the poster up to size.) Here's my review of her previous collection, in case you missed it.

The launch is open to all but please do let Alina know if you are coming so she can estimate refreshments.

More Christmas Fiction

Here are some very nice Christmas related reads for you to enjoy.

You all know the story of Scrooge in Dickens' A Christmas Carol, but did you know that he had a wife? Poet Carol Ann Duffy tells the story of Mrs Scrooge, and Posy Simmonds adds the charming illustrations.

The Times has a couple of very nice Christmas short stories, Arvind Adiga's Last Christmas in Bandra, while Rachel Johnson writes about a Notting Hill yummy mummy who unwraps the truth in Severely Gifted.

In the Telegraph Justine Picardie tells the tale of The Little Cigarette Girl, and Jane Gardam the story of The Virgins of Bruges.

But any thoughts of fiction at Christmas lead back to Dickens, the man who invented the holiday in the form in which we know it (with turkeys and trees and all that marvellous good will and merriment floating around). Michel Kenny in the Boston Globe looks at the circumstances which lead Dickens to create his Christmas classic (and in just six weeks!). You can read the full thing here and listen to it here. (Another nice piece about Dickens and Christmas by John Walsh appears in the Independent.)

Meanwhile Edward Champion at the Guardian has some great online reading suggestions to save you from an overdose on Christmas kitsch.

A very happy Christmas to you all!

Postscript (26/12/08) :

Let me add one more story : A House by the Sea by Helen Dumore appears in the Independent.

So Who's the Victim Now?

It seems that Patrick Jones' controversial collection of poetry Darkness Is Where The Stars Are will now have a reading hosted by Lib-Dem AM Peter Black and Cardiff South Labour AM Lorraine Barrett, and Jones has been invited to read his work at next year’s Hay-on -Wye festival.

However, something that does rather weaken Jones' case that that he was an innocent victim of a Christian hate group is the fact that he actually e-mailed his poems to every nutcase extremist group he could think of in order to "spark debate". Clearly this publicity was something that he deliberately courted and presumably relished. Christian Voice duly rose to the challenge and inadvertently gave Jones the best advertising blast he could have dreamed of.

(So interesting that in the BBC radio interview Jones actually denies having sent them to Stephen Green! Why on earth does he chose to lie?)

Mr. Guo sent me a link to the poems Green is reacting to on the Forever Delayed forum. I'm sorry, I'm all for Jones' right to put them into a public arena ... but these poems are so utterly banal (think Vogon!) one wonders how they even got published in the first place!

It's sad when battles about freedom of speech (which have to be fought ... against those who would silence voices, against the bookshop which doesn't defend its authors) serve the interests of the mediocre writer.

Update 12/12 :

Patrick Jones read his "blasphemous poems" from Darkness Is Where the Stars Are at the Welsh assembly, and about 250 Christian activists (predictably) turned up to demonstrate by singing hymns and praying outside. Said Liberal Democrat assembly member Peter Black :

I felt very strongly that no organisation should be able to intimidate and force the cancellation of a reading of this sort. ... This is a democratic society, with freedom of speech and freedom of expression, and people shouldn't be intimidated into giving that up. The Welsh Assembly is the home of Welsh democracy, so it seemed highly appropriate to do a reading here. ... My view is that freedom of speech is also the freedom to offend – once you start trying to limit [speech] on the basis that you find the view offensive, you start on a slippery slope towards dictatorship and losing your rights. That's why we staged the event.

Poetry Underground @ Readings

I have so many photos from our Saturday's Readings@Seksan's that I've decided to put them up in a couple of batches.

The enthusistic young poets of Poetry Underground were launching their new collection of poems - Voices from the Underground - and we got everyone (except the very shy Nurul and Pey who is in the UK) reading one of their pieces and proving that this group is going from strength to strength.

Reza was first up and had the audience holding their breath (!) while he read a poem about a diver going deeper, deeper holding his breath. Amazing how this little ploy makes you really concentrate on the words!

Sheena Baharudin read her Dialogue in 3 Tongues - a love poem for God in English, Arabic and Malay.

Catalina Rembuyan.

Evanna Ramly read Emeralds and Sapphires - a beautiful piece spoken by a betrayed woman after the break-up of a relationship.

Hazlan read a powerful piece called Kabur, in Malay.

Kathleen read one of my favourite poems from the book - asking why people are afraid of poetry. Very apt and very true.


George read a poem that was NOT about all the controversial Malaysian issues he wanted to talk about and it ended up of course being about all the great unsaids.

Congrats to Kathleen Choo for getting this project together and for being prepapred to put her own money into the publication. No doubt it will be sold at gigs and I hope you will soon find it in the local bookshops, so do pick up a copy of this limited edition book so they can afford to publish the next one along.

Poetry Underground are loooking from fresh talent, so if you are a poet who would like to work at your craft, both on the page and in performance, please contact Kathleen via the Facebook group.

Chapbooks, Chaps!

What do ... Francesca Beard, Sharanya Manivannan, Jasmine Low, Priya K, KG, Liyana Yusof and Poetica and others have in common?

Poetry? Yes, okay.

But something more. Each of them embraced the chapbook, a simple handmade publication to put writing out into the world - given away free or sold for a nominal sum. It's a simple way of being published, showcases your best writing, and often acts as a stepping stone to flashier publishing.

Lee Rourke on the Guardian blog waxes lyrical about the chapbook and reminds us that this form of publication has been around since the C16th. He particularly praises Blackheath Books for their series of poetry chapbooks and links to this video of how the books are lovingly made by hand. (See this in the video below.) In a world where big business interests control publishing, I find this a refreshing and inspiring reminder of how the little guy can be independently creative.

It's almost the print form of busking while you wait to be discovered, isn't it?

Nic for Tea

Young poet Nic Wong has been doing a writer's residency at Rimbun Dahan, working on pieces about Malaysian flora and fauna, as part of his first poetry collection. (I will demand a percentage of any profits from the sale thereof, having been Nic's personal library service!)

Tomorrow afternoon (Monday 25 August) at 4p.m. he will be reading his work at a tea and poetry event held in the underground gallery, and you are all invited. More about both Nic, Rimbun Dahan and the event here.

Malaysian Poetic Chronicles

Leon Wing sent this little ad for his new website The Malaysian Poetic Chronicles which gives the poets and short short story writers among you a place to post your work:

Do you possess verses which are,
worse, not chronicled and not even
perused through a monocle?
Do you ache with want for any place
To berth your poetic eggs?

Look no more.

The Msian Poetic Chronicles will give your poems – and even short shorts (stories) – a home.

We can even talk about your poems and short shorts (not the ones you’re wearing, mind. Just the stories behind them).

We’ll feature your work online, if we feel they need eyes to see them and lips to read them.

If you are in FaceBook you can message Leon Wing, and copy and paste your poem or short story into the message. If not, do the same or attach a Word document to chiefchronicler@gmail.com

And, write a little about how you created that piece.

Include a short bio, with links to any of your sites.

Chief Chronicler
Leon Wing

Some pieces are already up including poems from Leon and Ted and a short short from Yusuf Martin.

Thumboo Talk and Reading

Professor Quayum has just sent me information of a couple of events taking place at the International Islamic University to which all of you are invited (and please pass the information on).

The first is a public lecture by Dell Visiting Professor, Edwin Thumboo (who is sometimes described as Singapore's unofficial poet laureate!) :

Tilting Paradigms: Creativity in Englishes

Abstract: The decision to write poems, plays, short stories and novels is a personal one. If we are bi- or tri- lingual by the time we decide, it is our main – or strongest – language that chooses us. Few have the ability to create in two languages, let alone three; it is difficult enough in one. For the ex-colonial, it is either the language of one’s race or the language of former colonisers. If we chose English, as many have, we face a number of challenges. What English and why? What shapes the substance of our experience behind our writing, and to what extent? And how is that substance influenced by the history and the politics of national recovery and nation formation? Issues such as those arising from the fact that English is the leading international language, the influence of literary traditions and content of other languages, and the relationship between the various national literatures, will be noted as well as discussed in terms of their creative and critical implications. The language in this case is English and the focus is on poetry.

DATE: 12 AUGUST 2009
TIME: 10 AM – 12 NOON
VENUE: HS SEMINAR ROOM, IIU

Professor Edwin Thumboo is a distinguished poet and academic who has been teaching at the National University of Singapore (NUS) for over forty years. His publications include six volumes of poetry, two collections of nursery rhymes, over twenty academic books, and articles in leading literary journals around the world. He has received several literary awards including the Singapore National Award for poetry (1978, 1980 and 1994), the Southeast Asia Write Award (1979), the Singapore Cultural Medallion (1980), the ASEAN Cultural and Communication Award in Literature (1987), and the Raja Rao Award (2002). Currently an Emeritus Professor, Professor Thumboo was the Head of the Department of English Language and Literature, NUS, for sixteen years (1977-1993) and Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences for eleven years (1980-1991).

The second is a poetry reading. (Click on the poster to read the details.)

The Road Retaken

How's this for poetic justice?

When a group of more than two dozen young people broke into a former residence of poet Robert Frost (an old farmhouse in New England which belonged to Middlebury College) for a drinking party and trashed the place, the problem was to find an appropriate "punishment", The Burlington Free Press reports (found via The New York Times).

The Addison County state's attorney decided that instead of a jail term or community service, the offenders should go back to the classroom to study - the poetry of Robert Frost. And what poems more appropriate than The Road Not Taken and Out, Out? And who best to teach them than Jay Parini, a Middlebury College professor and Frost's biographer?

Parini of course underlined the relevance of the words to the offenders' own lives :

Believe me, if you're a teenager, you're always in the damned woods. Literally, you're in the woods -- probably too much you're in the woods. And metaphorically you're in the woods, in your life. Look at you here, in court diversion! If that isn't 'in the woods,' what the hell is 'in the woods'? You're in the woods!