Carnival of Poetry (COP) is a monthly event organized by Migrant Writers of Singapore and supported by Sing Lit Station to establish bonding among the international community of poets and poetry enthusiasts. This event aims to celebrate the universality of literature, especially poetry, as a medium to communicate, unite, and celebrate humanity.
It was Sunday 25th June 2023 when the Carnival of Poetry’s 56th session was held at Sing Lit Station. It was a bright sunny afternoon and there was a warm atmosphere around the place among the readers and audiences.
The theme of this session was “Ringing Bells” and we had five amazing readers share their writing pieces. We had two rounds of reading and all the readers prepared two poems, one for each round.
Our first reader was Honey Lhet Dela Cruz, she delivered two poems about love, the most memorable lines of her writing piece for me and I believe also for all the audience is, “I love you, my man, it’s a promise and won’t vanish.” I remember how the audience in the room applauded and cheered when she was reading the lines, what a sweet feeling she delivered for her loving husband, lines to remember.
Our second reader was Li Ming, who delivered two poems about her observation and experiences when she was visiting Sicilia. I extremely love her writing, the way she brought every line of her writing pieces to the audience and it completed with her body language such a perfect packet. It’s like we are having a really fine dinner; attractive appetizer, delectable main course, and surprising dessert. I just love to have her in that session. “You can use any object to describe anything,” is was what she said when we talked about her poem “Mozzarella” that when we read or heard it the first impression is about cheese, but it wasn’t. (I wish I can write more about it!)
Our third reader was Annisa Nurjanah. She delivered two poems about her longing for spiritual life, a message to us that “whatever burden we have, we shouldn’t give up, keep on fighting, and don’t forget to come and surrender all our burdens to our God Almighty”. Her other poems tell us about how she lives day by day as a domestic worker with constant activities, like a robot “nonstop working” but she always finds things to be grateful for everything life brings her.
Our fourth reader was Misriyah, a smooth and soft woman with a very gentle gestures when she delivered her writing piece. Her pieces were mainly about her longing for her children and family, struggles, complicated feelings away from homeland where she faces uncertainties every day but she’s always keep her faith and hope that someday “the sweat turn to the sweet”. The pieces were very touching where I saw some audience shed their tears, it was also full of optimism despite all the obstacles she faces she still believes in a bright future that awaits ahead.
The fifth reader was Kumar Marimuthu, unfortunately he wasn’t able to physically deliver his pieces, we were grateful and thankful for him manage to record his recital so we are able to share it with the audiences. His pieces were about love; some lovely, painful and remarkable lines such as “twilight slowly eating the colors that is memory of you” are printed on my mind. I wished he attend the event so I could ask him more about his poems to get a better interpretation .
One of many interesting things is that I invited the audiences to ask questions to the readers in the Q&A session. There is much more sharing between us in a two way communication, it’s so wonderful to have some dialogue about their personal experiences regarding their writing journey.
This session was so outstanding where I feel a complete feeling when the readers delivered their poems; sad, happy, joy, fun, love…. magnificent.
It is always a pleasure and exciting to moderate a session of Carnival of Poetry. Huge thanks to Migrant Writers of Singapore who give me another opportunity to host this session and endless thanks to Sing Lit Station which always supports us and provides us with a comfortable place to run the session, last but not least bunch of love to all of you in the Carnival of Poetry team, and thank you to all the audiences and the readers.
See you again in another session of Carnival of Poetry, let’s preserve unity through literature world and make the bonding between poetry enthusiasts grow stronger and give positive influence to our society.
With love,
Indah W. Yosevina
