Sunday, April 23, 2006

bad. i mean bad bad.

supposedly, it was meant to be a lazy sunday.

well, at least the intentions were there and all was well till about 1 when johnson called to report on the little polycom disaster they had over at symantec's spanking new office at singpost. wasnt a big deal, and jon's not exactly well versed in setting up vc. truth be told, i think polycom's diagnostics and utilities are great but their obsession with passwords is majoro irritatingno.

oh well, no biggie. but it woke me up from nuahness and i dragged me over to the office to download the plans and look over the details for the new project i had to think for. monday morning deadline and i am still taking my time about it. hee. i am the king of procrastination.

anyway gave up at about 4ish (i.e. didnt do much) and went over to cy's to nuah. had a filling crab dinner at gillman seafood, which was good and free (sheo's promotion treat, so sweet!) but so wrong (fat! fat! fat!) had to wash it down with peppermint tea. considering the major peranakan feast we had the day before, am so not gonna drop any inch whatsoever in time for damien's wedding. no gain already um-chio (hidden giggle)

hey, who am i kidding? i = fat f-*

gaston went off early which is rare. hmmmm... female suspect.

anyhow, the cysheo machinery and i went over to borders to try see whether anything was worth wasting money on.

when u scan the poetry section, you typically run through everything, mentally cataloguing the interesting and the one you are not interested in. physically it's a sideways thing, so your mind is a little slower than your eye. anyways i was scanning and my mind caught a title called "rhapsody of a singapore muse" right after my eyes registered a bright pink and yellow book. i pulled it out, registered the author, one sim kian kok, and ran my four flip test.

(ok, sidetrack here, four flip test is where i decide whether i like the book by randoming flipping through 4 pages, the first flip is forgivable if the poem wasnt something i like, i start deciding on flip no. 2, flip 3 has be absolutely good, and flip 4 sells me the book. )

boy did this book score on major badness on the first flip. after that, the other flips were for laughs. the blurb behind announces that these poems will "...open the heart and feed the soul" if that sir, is the case, i would rather nail my heart shut, and starve my f-ing soul to death.

much later, after a deliberation on Kunitz's Passing Through, which i love, but have read so many times that if i bought it, it would be just to add it to my collection, i locked my eyes on... "if not, why not?" by vivienne yeo.

hahahahaaahhahhaaahahaha. 1st flip

hahahahahahaahaahhhhhaa, ouch, stomach. 2nd flip

hahahahahaa, you got to see this cyril, hahahahaha. 3rd flip

4th flip? please, i am not that crazy.

i wanna ask why. why publish when it is bad? why publish when you don't have an inkling of a midget little idea what good poetry is supposed to be like. self publishing can be so wrong.

why do this?

sigh.

it is the encounter of such books that makes me wonder how one can take the title "poet" for one self, i mean are these poets or poetry.com-ers? or am i too mean?

btw for evil fun, i placed a copy of cy's Below Absence next to the "rapsody of a singapore muse". hahaah.

had to wash my mind off residue badness with the purchase of two books that did pass my four flip test, Interrogation At Noon by Dana Gioia and Lavinia Greenlaw's Minsk (incidentally, minsk makes lavinia greenlaw my 3rd female poet in my collection, looks like i am softening my stance towards buying female poets)


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reading: minsk by lavinia greenlaw
listeningto: bob dylan and the band - i will be released


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Monday, April 10, 2006

spent.

a well spent day.



i just ordered this:



















drooled at the latest issue of this:
























spent rest of it reading this:

















excellent. :)



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listeningto: elton john: mona lisa and mad hatters
reading: all of us - raymond carver.

Thursday, April 06, 2006

getting into the mood.

Local Birds

Arrivals from the west,
a party of egrets strapped in white,
come to perch professionally in one perfect row
on the cold railings of the local canal.
They are early today, and the tide is still up.
Even the old men with their Tai-chi music
are not here yet.
So they check their feathers and rehearse their speeches.
On the opposite bank, a gang of crows
in gleaming black jackets and hungry looks,
gather with their loudhailer cries
eager to hurl vulgarities at the egrets,
intent on usurping their authority.
The egrets pretend not to hear;
they know with experience,
their beaks are no less sharp.
It was hard to tell in the early light,
with the tide not fully receded,
but already the guppies are herding
into separate shallow pools.
You can almost swear,
every single one has a ticket and a pencil,
ready to decide
which side to die for.


santa clara review summer '03

***
listening to: stereophonics - maybe tomorrow
reading: george mackay brown - wreck of the archangel



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