Singapore Writers Festival Book launch: INDONESIA AND NOT: POEMS AND OTHERWISE: Anecdotes Scattered Author: Max Lane DATE / TIME: 6 Nov, Sun 11:30 AM – 12:30 PM VENUE: The Arts House, Gallery II, Singapore This is a collection of poetry, prose pieces and short stories inspired by the experiences of Max Lane, translator of Pramoedya Ananta Toer’s Buru […]
POEM: Kelud’s Grey Beauty – by Max Lane
Kelud’s Grey Beauty Unheard here, Kelud erupts and its fine grey anger reaches for space. Its chariot, the streaming wind currents, carries its message afar, to the west. Grey beauty settles across a city, fogging the air, snowing the trees, caking the asphalt. Through open windows and vent holes. invisible snakes of dust sneak inside. […]
Poem: Alive against the blue
A brushed sketch against the blue A perfect canvas in plain pure hue Unadorned by green or yellow or red Quiet in its beauty, still but alive not dead
POEM: Big bang in the universe
There was no big bang out there in space Reality always was and will be Never ending distance, never ending time One more orbit by less than a spec around a glowing dot A raised fist by a smiling heart for a future freedom Fills the infinite void, explodes more brilliantly than any big bang […]
POEM: TRAVELLING HOME FROM FLINDERS STREET, MELBOURNE NEW YEARS EVE WITH FAIZA MARDZOEKI
The trains are the chariots of the peopleCarriages ripple with tired tongues of many landsA lonely man sick with nostalgia for fireworks in the darksits across from us and talks intenselyA head on my shoulder whispers new year love talkThe train jerks forwards, happy new year chattily announces the driverHands squeezeYoung people hugWorkers sleepy, gazeStations […]
POEM: Fried Rice (Nasi Goreng).
We were talking about food last night and a memory came back to me – for the umpteenth time. Narrow and dark and most of all hot. If I ended up at a back table, 3 or 4 metres inside, the sweat would pour from forehead and my hair would be wet enough to comb […]
ON BALI: four pieces (2 poems, 2 essays).
BALI, INDONESIA Green, deep green Chlorophyll blinds the eyes keen Black earth, brown aches Sticky mud between toes cakes. Tears irrigate the picture painted under the labouring harvest’s stricture Paddy, palms, coconuts, frangipanis Creations of peasant hands canny. Rice sold and eaten Suffices to keep deep want beaten But for the future there are no […]
Poem: Cold Outside
Wet, cold, wind, nighttime quiet and darkthe outside makes the loneliness starkWarmth inside, heater but also long embraceNothing less lonely than the message on a lover’s face.
Poem: Jakarta from the skyline.
New York middle upper ambiance,Laptop monitors light up tables,Office staff pop in and order water in bottles with fancy labels,I can’t see the bajaj* below.++++++ bajaj – small, motorised, smoke belching, tin-can motorised trishaw used by Jakartans for cheap transport
Poem: Singapore Morning
Sandwiched between pipe-embroidered ceiling and shiny floor, I have a coffee and eggs for breakfast underground in Singapore, muzak vibrates through the air-conditioned atmos, suffocating consumption among the franchised dross. Haven from asphalt shimmered steaming heat, From steel roach road rage trumpet bleats, Muzak rattle strangely soothes the soul, Outside, reality only reality to us […]
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