宣佈

由2011年開始，Kubrick Poetry得到香港藝術發展局的支持，現正收集各方的詩作，語言不限，藝術家黃懷琰利用你的詩句，創作板畫，並製作限量的手製卡。 收集詩句的截止日期為2011年1月20日，並於23日詩會朗讀。參加者請把詩作寄到 kubrickpoems@gmail.com 。

Kubrick Poetry祝願各位有一個奇妙的2011年!

Announcement

Starting from 2011, Kubrick Poetry receives support from the Hong Kong Arts Development Council. We are calling for poems from you and create limited handmade cards. Our artist and designer, Wong Wai Yim, will create wood print based on the imagination of the poem. Thus poems in any language are welcome! The deadline for submission is 20^th January 2011. Submitted poems will be read and shared on 23^rd January at our regular reading. Interested people please send your work to kubrickpoems@gmail.com.

Kubrick Poetry wish you an awesome 2011!

(photo from Active People in Switzerland)

Kubrick Poetry • 一月 • 半存在

時間 Time：2011/1/23 (Sun) 5:00pm-6:00pm

地點 Venue： 油麻地 Kubrick(next to Broadway Cinemathèque, 3 Public Square St.)

主持 Moderators：Polly Ho, Adam Cheung, Florence Ng, Wong Wai Yim

詩人來賓 Guest Poet：吳耀宗 (Gabriel Wu)

1965年出生於新加坡，吳耀宗擁有新加坡國立大學學士及碩士，美國西雅圖華盛頓大學碩士及博士學位，從事中國現當代文學研究，現於香港城市大學任教中文､翻譯及語言學。

詩集《半存在》得到2010年新加坡文學獎華文組獎項，此詩集收錄了1995年至2007年創作的詩，在他即將40歲的時候，他看了電影「兩生花」(The Double Life of Veronique)，感觸很大，人不可能是單獨的存在，而所謂的偉大或渺小，其實未必是自己完成，而是另一個地方的另一個生命在成全著我們。

試問有多少人可以擁有一個完整的人生呢？

A Happy Poet

(Polly Ho)

The Mental Life of Cities is Eddie Tay’s third poetry book published by Chameleon Press while his previous two poetry books, Remnants published by Etho Books and A Lover’s Soliloquy by the Sixth Finger Press.

This third poetry book is on the theme of “meditation on the modern city and creative life”. How does living in Hong Kong contribute to creative writing? Living in the city is the source of Eddie’s writing. Even nature is part of the city in his perspective. The Mental Life of Cities is a bilingual attempt of Eddie’s writing. Born in Singapore, Eddie is more comfortable in speaking and writing English than Chinese yet he wants to experience embedding Chinese in his writing. Chinese characters and short phrases have rich meaning. A good example is “十年樹木，百年樹人” but it take fourteen words to explain the meaning in English “It takes ten years to cultivate a tree, a century for a human being”. Language reveals our history. The moment we speak, our education and background are unveiled simultaneously. Being ethnically Chinese, Eddie is not totally confident in writing Chinese poems for the reason he does not know the history and Chinese literature enough to write it. This is a very humble and demanding requirement of a poet.

Eddie shoulders many responsibilities. He is an assistant professor in Chinese University of Hong Kong teaching children literature, poetry and creative writing. More, he is a review editor of a online journal “Cha”. How can he maintain his creative writing among so many responsibilities? He honestly admits the fact that he does not believing in muse. He believes in solid hard-work, meaning he would sit two hours by the desk in his office in front of the computer and write. Eddie may have disillusioned the typical image of a poet who should be drunk in the night club and whispering lyrical romantic lines. Not only that, Eddie also changed the typical image of a poet who is often frown and sad and living in a poor miserable life. Eddie leads a happy and abundant life with his wife, son and daughter.

A happy poet is one of the finest gems on earth: rare, special and treasurable!

Quiet Night Thoughts

(Adam Cheung)

Kubrick Poetry celebrated November by bringing together familiar faces and new participants.

Adam started off the session by posing some questions about home. He talked about the idea of having two homes, and he posted a picture of his home in Hong Kong juxtaposed with a picture of his home in Canada. Then he followed with readings from City Voices (an anthology of writings from Hong Kong) and Invisible Cities, Italo Calvino’s well-known work. To him, home always has a connection with the city.

Joy returned to Kubrick Poetry after several months’ absence. This time, she was dressed for the occasion, wearing a t-shirt with the name of her hometown written on it. In addition to reading a poem of her own, she also produced an English translation of Li Bai’s “Quiet Night Thoughts” 《 靜夜思》Several participants admitted that Li Bai’s poem is the first poem that comes to mind when they think of home.

Lou entered the discussion by talking about how home seems to be something distant even when he lives with his family, and yet, during his journey to South America, he was amazed by the way the local people received him as though he was a member of their homes. Lou went on to share a Chinese poem he wrote for a friend’s wedding. This was followed by Florence’s reading of a poem by the legendary Polish poet, Wislawa Szymborska.

Crystal, in her first time participating in Kubrick Poetry, began by sharing Angela Aki’s song, 手紙 ～拝啓 十五の君へ (A Letter Written to You Who is Fifteen). Crystal invited us to think about what things we would like to say to those who are younger than us, who are about to experience what we are experiencing. We also had the pleasure of seeing her picture diary, a small sketchbook that pulls open like an accordion. The diary reminds us that poetry is composed not just in words, but also in drawings. We were moved by her ability to record everyday experiences in quick and small sketches.

It was in this fashion that Kubrick Poetry said farewell to November.

(photos by Polly Ho)

Kubrick Poetry‧ December ‧ The Mental life of Cities

時間 Time：2010/12/26 (Sun) 5:00pm-6:00pm

地點 Venue: 油麻地 Kubrick (next to Broadway Cinemathèque, 3 Public Square St.)

主持 Moderators：Polly Ho, Adam Cheung, Florence Ng, Wong Wai Yim

詩人來賓 Guest Poet：Eddie Tay

Born in Singapore, Eddie Tay is a long time resident of Hong Kong. He is an assistant professor at the Department of English at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, where he teaches courses on creative writing, children literature and poetry. Tay is the reviews editor at Cha, An Asian Literary Journal.

Recently, he published his third poetry collection, The Mental Life of Cities. The collection is "a meditation on the modern city and creative life" and the poems are inspired by "the ways in which the English and the Chinese languages intertwine and take root in the Asian cities of Hong Kong and Singapore". He has authored two collections of poetry: Remnants and A Lover’s Soliloquy.

You are welcome to bring your own work to share, as always.