Young Asian poets woo with words

Chisato Hara, The Jakarta Post, Ubud, Bali

A smoky night sky punctuated by pin-prick stars set the mood as Southeast Asian poets released ballads over those gathered in the open-air courtyard of the Three Monkeys cafe.

Along with Australian poet Beatriz Copello, Felix Cheong of Singapore, Conchitina Cruz of the Philippines and Jerome Kugan of Malaysia -- the latter two as yet unpublished -- serenaded the audience with their takes on love in Tropical Heat Wave: Making Love Between the Lines at the recently concluded Ubud Writers and Readers Festival.

Fleeting encounters

Conchitina Cruz reads her prose poetry like it is constructed of run-on sentences, almost as though she is trying to capture and record a moment into memory before it disintegrates in the rush of passing time.

The collection from which she read, Dark Hours, is currently being prepared for publication -- her first -- and comprises poems of missed chances, brief exchanges and anonymous brushes with the possibility of romance.

"I mostly focused on living in a city filled with different characters," said the petite Filipina, who is assistant professor of creative writing at the University of the Philippines in Diliman. The setting is an unnamed metropolis that is "dreary and dirty and beautiful anyway, despite the mess".

Although her countenance is youthful, Cruz's poems of love center on the lack of it, as she elaborated, "on the grief, agony, absence, the longing of love ... which, I guess, is what most of us are going through. The anonymity and intersections."

One poem, for example, features the perspective of a medical student, who interprets love at one point as a scalpel drawn across skin.

As for becoming a poet, she said, "I didn't 'want' to become a poet. It just happened."

Cruz added after a pause, "Maybe I just had the nerve to make something, to create something."

This is the first time she has participated in a literary festival, and she has found the experience has opened her own horizons.

"It's great listening to other Southeast Asian writers and to find out that we have similar issues. Political issues, generational issues," she said.

"It's a comfort ... It makes the world so much larger, but at the same time, we're still one community."

Lover of muses

Of the three Asian poets, Felix Cheong is perhaps the most well-known, winning the Singapore National Arts Council's Young Artist of the Year Award for literature in 2000, participating in several Australian writers festivals and with three poetry collections in print.

The freelance writer contributes to Singapore's Today and The Edge tabloids, and is also a part-time lecturer of creative writing, journalism and communication skills.

Women of various types feature prominently in his work, such as in The Prostitute (Broken by the Rain: Poems, Firstfruits Publications, p. 29), in which a prostitute studies herself in a mirror, recalling all who had claimed some part of her body. Written in the first person, the prostitute concludes in almost seething triumph that her eyes ...I recognize/as wholly, entirely, completely/mine.

In his writing, Cheong says, "Usually, the trigger is a woman. Not necessarily (about) love, but they open the floodgates for different ideas. You know, behind the poet is the muse," and sums up his general attitude toward women: "I value them too much to demean them."

While he confesses to having "various muses", one who has had a fundamental influence on Cheong is Singaporean poet Lee Tzu- peng, who mentored him at university. "You could say, in a sense, I was molded by her," he said.

Cheong also writes prose, but "fiction is driven by the story. Poems are more intimate, more confessional. There are different voices, but all are expressions of myself".

"I also like the idea of shocking people, of turning heads ... I like to think of it as playful provocation."

Although he is of Chinese-Peranakan heritage, Cheong composes entirely in English. "I'm hopelessly incompetent in Chinese," he said, and described his cultural background as "a yellow-skinned banana".

This is also his first time at the Ubud festival.

"It's good to reintegrate with the ASEAN literary scene. I've been too Westernized ... when all the while, in my own backyard, more stuff is growing," he said.

Cheong is now working on his first children's book, commissioned by the Ministry of Information and Arts.

Writing the book, which features three teenage paranormal investigators, has been "a lot more difficult than writing poetry. You have to be a lot more savvy about pacing ... it has to be quite snappy, or you'll lose your audience".

"My 10-year-old is my consultant on the book. He's also my critic. He lets me know when something doesn't work," Cheong laughed.

Putting music to words

Instead of reading out his poems, writer and musician Kugan sang, strumming a guitar or performing them acappella, winning warm applause from the audience.

"I approach songs and poetry differently ... poetry is an intellectual exercise. And it's much easier to just sing them, no matter how corny they are," said Kugan, who has no formal musical training, and only picked up the guitar five years ago.

For this performance, he selected those pieces that might fit the venue and overall theme.

"I haven't got too many poems about love. ...Besides, I don't think my poetry is mature enough. They can get dark and abstract. So I prefer to sing -- it's nice to put smiles on people's faces," he said.

A subeditor of a Malaysian magazine, ghostwriter and contributor to several local magazines and websites, Kugan is also active in the Kuala Lumpur music scene. This April, he organized a regional singer-songwriter event, Troubadours, as part of the KL Sing Song Festival 2005, featuring musicians from Singapore, the Philippines and Thailand, as well as Indonesia's own Oppie Andaresta.

Kugan continues to write poetry with an aim to become published.

"But it's slow going in Malaysia. There's no national support -- at least, not as much as in Singapore," he said, adding that there was a tendency not to publish any non-Malay literature.

Kugan is half Chinese and half Kadazan, a minority group of Sabah state, and writes in English.

"So culturally, I'm 'in between worlds'," he laughed, referring to the Ubud festival's theme. "...I had a racist thing about Malay (before). I think Malay should be treated like a culture, and shouldn't be hijacked for political purposes."

The Ubud festival is the second one at which he has been a participant, following the Singapore Writers Fest 2005 in August, but Ubud organizers had invited Kugan after the close of their inaugural festival in 2004.

"I don't know why, though. I haven't published a book, I haven't done anything ... I feel really humbled, surrounded by really brilliant minds," he said.

"I think writers festivals are strange," he added. "I'm a reader of books, and like the mystique of not knowing the writer behind the words ... At the same time, it's quite enjoyable, mostly like a support group. I feel like a wide-eyed cartoon."