News Archives ::: Wayang Kata IV, Star Mag

Sunday November 4, 2007

Poetry in action

By DAPHNE LEE

Think reciting verse is a genteel pastime for prim and proper ladies? You wouldn't think that if you had attended Wayang Kata IV last month. 

GUYS, you need to learn to speak blank verse. It's for sissies, you say? Think again. 

There is a scene in the biopic of Sylvia Plath (starring Gwyneth Paltrow) in which the poet and her soon-to-be husband Ted Hughes (played by Daniel Craig – yes, James Bond!) gather with fellow-poets and take turns to recite their poetry. Two men are grunting out their verses at a kitchen table while Hughes rocks Plath world by holding forth about poets as shamans and poems as incantations and spells. 

Priya K. (left) and Divya K.M. Jiwa weren’t as dramatic as Bathsheba Zlikha Arsalan (below, left) but won hearts with deeply personal poems. – Divya’s photo by DAPHNE LEE

Plath is asked to recite and she launches into a poem. The men at the table keep shouting, “Faster, faster,” which causes her to pick up speed. She’s word perfect and comes to a breathless stop without stumbling, not once. Hughes follows Plath’s performance by practically shouting, albeit expressively, his piece. He too is encouraged to go faster and he does, flapping his arms excitedly as he speeds to the end. 

The scene is emotionally charged, exciting. It ends with Plath and Hughes indulging in Shakespeare-as-sexual-foreplay. They end up having furious, passionate sex. Naturally. As we said: guys, you need to learn to speak blank verse.  

Poetry, as anyone who reads it voluntarily will tell you, can be a huge turn on. A good poem reveals the heart of the matter, the soul of its author. It engages its reader and listener, pulls him into a story both familiar and fantastic. It’s personal. 

When poetry is performed well (and especially by those who wrote it in the first place), it can excite laughter, tears, devotion, anger, even verbal abuse. I’ve been to a reading that ended in a member of the audience breaking a chair. Well, he said it was the poetry that led to this act of violence. 

No chairs were broken at Wayang Kata IV. There wasn’t any heckling either apart from the odd wolf whistle and entreaty for one of the poets to, “Take your top of!” The event, held at No Black Tie in Kuala Lumpur on Oct 24, was organised by the British Council and local music and poetry outfit Troubaganger. 

This was the culmination of a number of poetry performances (beginning last year) and workshops featuring British poets like Francesca Beard, Malika Booker and Jacob Sam-La Rose. The featured poets at Wayang Kata IV had all participated in the workshops and were competing for the chance to perform at the Singapore Writers Festival next month.  

Liyana Yusof, one of the three Wayang Kata IV winners, offered material the audience could relate to. – Photos by KAMAL SELLEHUDDIN / The Star
The judges were book critic and prolific lit blogger Sharon Bakar and Pang Kee Teik, manager of the arts space at the Central Market Annexe. Scoring was done based on the poets’ technical skills, their delivery of their poems, and the way they connected with the audience. This last category was all-important as the three winners were chosen based on audience votes as well (each member of the audience was allowed to choose his or her favourite poet). 

Of the six participants, Datuk M. Shanmughalingam was the only male. His poems were mostly about taking light-hearted digs at Malaysians, each one focusing on a particularly ridiculous racial stereotype.  

Bathsheba Zlikha Arsalan was melodramatic, eccentric and totally over the top. It was fortunate that she explained what each of her poems were about before performing them. Otherwise, the audience would have been lost. I’d like to see her in a Greek tragedy. Or ? something by Samuel Beckett. 

Patricia Low’s words hung like beautiful glass beads on a necklace, but they left the audience cold. She writes well, has a head-turning turn of phrase, but her poems need to be less about images and scenes, and more about people, life and emotions. Perhaps she needs more adventure in her life.... Perhaps a cad or two – a broken heart will warm up one’s poetry fast! 

What the three poets who won – Liyana Yusof, Priya K. and Divya K. M. Jiwa – had in common were accessible subject matter and the ability to touch their audience. 

When Priya performed her Love Poem, you could almost feel the crowd leaning into her, hanging on her every word, waiting to hear what they knew was coming. No, it wasn’t that she was predictable. It’s just that some of the most successful poems are those that seem to describe your own life. The audience could relate to Priya and her words. 

So it was for Liyana and Divya. Love, grief, anger, disappointment, loneliness – all too human emotions –described as though for the first time, heard as though someone had sneaked a peek into our journals and were revealing our secrets. 

Once the poets stopped speaking the spell was broken and words were just words once more. Shamans indeed. Wasn’t it Romantic poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge who said “Poetry: the best words in the best order”? Ah, yes, the right combination can be magic! 

***

Notes to Editors:

Wayang Kata began when British Council representatives approached local 'indie' gig and event organisers Troubaganger (Troubadours + Doppelganger) to collaborate in organising a spoken word event in 2005. Swiftly after an initial meeting with founder of Apples and Snakes - Geraldine Collinge and British Council representatives at a cosy cafe in Tengkat Tong Shin, the first event featuring British poet Francesca Beard welcomed a room full of eyes and ears at La Bodega KL's Tengkat Tong Shin outlet. Beard shared the stage with several local poets - Bernice Chauly, Rahmat Haron, Jerome Kugan, Nizam Zakaria, Fahmi Fahzil, Fairul Nizam, Jasmine Low to name a few.

Regularly hosted by Jasmine Low and Jerome Kugan, the people behind Troubaganger (a collaboration between two independent open mic and readings organisers - Doppelganger Open Mic - A Go Community Project and Troubadours). Both have been actively organising gigs and events in the Klang Valley since 2002 and continue to put together shows which unearth local bands, singer songwriters and poets. For further details, contact: Jasmine Low on jasminelow@gmail.com or Jerome Kugan on jeromekugan@gmail.com.