I want to be a Poesiaeuropa 2023 Fellow too
Poem in English, written at Poesiaeuropa 2023
And you can be!
If you just give up the sad, pathetic way you think about anything literary
and realise it was never about who you know
or whose ideas, or symbols, or stories you went to, uh, borrow
but mere shining, beautiful quality.
Patronage is nice, but so is calling yourself, for a change,
mestri. It's not that your writing does not have merit,
but how many of your readers can really
relate? Justu bos, kung tudu jenti
ta dah doi, kung forsa, kung ngua kara mutu alegri
kung bos? Isti sorti di poesia
saudi?
Yo ngka sabeh. Mas agora, yo fikah
ngua Network Partner di Researching Phenomenological Psychopathology,
so, I think I can say with quite some certainty
that the collective SingLit ego-pattern is Type XII, or ENFP.
That means an inner critic of Fe,
about respect. And persuasion. And worrying that the image
will break.
I'm not breaking it,
but remaking it.
The projection I keep receivng is that I have no substance. That I am fake. A poor example. A nobody, whose charisma is too impure, insignificant and unhealthy
for me to be the only Singaporean and Southeast Asian at Poesiaeuropa 2023.
But honestly,
I also understand
it's not so much about that,
as that my verse and universe are untouched and free.
You keep expecting me to beg,
as if I owe you any of my hard-won gay creole Kristang dignity;
nah.
The only thing I owe you
is unstoppable, magnificent and absolutely independent excellence
in drama, prose, song and poetry.
And I'm quite sure
my debt has been paid
since A Merlion for His Majesty
became this Dreamtiger
and a living, breathing new Singapore story.