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Love wins UWRF grand (poetry) slam
Features - October 15, 2006


Kadek Krishna Adhidarma, Contributor, Ubud

Expats often jibe that "Balinese never sweat when they work; only when they're eating".

But this must hold true for other cultures as well -- that is, food as one of the great universal loves -- and Vietnam-born poet Mong Lan tantalized the third Ubud Writers & Readers Festival (UWRF) Poetry Slam with her odes to caf‚ au lait, green tea, red chili peppers, spinach and shiitake mushrooms.

Lucky last, her poetry seduced the audience and the judges to award her first prize, the first time pure poetry won the coveted title normally taken over by loud performance antics and comedy.

African-American rapper Kamau won the top prize two years in a row with rhythmic Bush-bashing hip-hop, always using at least 2 minutes and 58 seconds of the 3 minutes allowed. And what a punch-packed performance he always delivers!

Sydney writer-performer Jan Cornall won the people's choice award at the inaugural poetry slam with her hypothetical longing for a Bali she was yet to leave, titled When I Go Home.

This year's slam at Casa Pasta on Monkey Forest Road in Ubud, Bali, was hosted by Sydney hip-hop artist Morganics, kicking off the evening with a tour of the world in rhythm, rhyme and sound effects.

First up was the very brave Sandra Thibodeaux of Darwin with her tongue-in-cheek tribute to Steve Irwin, parodying the Australian obsession with the late crocodile hunter: He caged our culture/protected our endangered language/even the Americans/couldn't have made a better Aussie bloke.

The poem went on to refer to a great Australian writer, Colin Thiele, who had died in the same week as Irwin, but did not make the headlines.

She was followed by fellow Darwinian Richard Creswick, who preferred his "poetry in the classical style/iambic pentameter and lines that rhyme".

His barrage of classical first-line quotes playfully degenerated into "that annoying rhymer, Dr. Seuss", which had the audience in stitches.

Battling for the home team, Cianjur-born Ervin Ruhlelana mesmerized the audience with his dramatic performance of Pseudo-intersexuality of Consciousness: We do not want to be worshiped as Gods/Because Gods no longer incarnate...

Utilizing the metaphor of male-female relations, the 27-year-old traveling bard from Bandung expressed his ardent desire for the divine and tumultuous journey to God.

Established Balinese poet Ikranegara recounted his favorite childhood memories of treks to mountain temples through his poem Hening (Stillness), combining poetry with meditative sounds.

From such lofty heights, depths were dredged as an aspiring Balinese poet (namely, this contributor) chose to underline a recent ludicrous bill debated in the legislature with a poem that upped the ante in anti-pornography: Deem thy own body unworthy of sight/let alone touch!

Then descended still further, exposing the darker side of self-repression: Time to punish/the stirring offending member/rising for the occasion of carnal guilt/Spank the monkey!

Though most in the audience caught the joke, the shock for the prudish was softened by a Balinese beauty true to her name, Ayu, who sang a poem on the purity of love, followed by a lullaby by Cornall singing Sitok Srengenge's Lover of the Sky: He falls in love with the sky/the unfathomable width height wherein mysteries dwell, telling of a boy's longing to be reunited with his mother who has gone to heaven.

There were many more contestants, and the judges -- volunteers selected from the audience by host Morganics -- had a tough time selecting the winners. By chance, all three judges were tourists visiting Ubud.

Nevertheless, they took their job very seriously and requested interpretations of poetry delivered in Bahasa Indonesia, and each explained how they were won over before presenting an award to the three winning poets.

It was perhaps no surprise that love was the winner for the evening: Ervin in third place with his not-so-platonic love for the Divine, Ikranegara with his love for the Bali of his childhood, and Mong Lan with her obsessive serial affairs with food, even spinach: Your large/dark-green juicy/edible leaves are beacons/sending tremors through my body.

Mothers having trouble getting their children to eat their greens may visit www.monglan.com for inspiration on falling in love with the elegant "Spinacia oleracea, of the goosefoot family".

Ethnic and fusion foods from around the world can be found in Ubud to satisfy the most worldly traveler, but the Balinese stay true to their spices. If perspiration isn't pouring from the top of one's crown, it's not yet a meal for a Balinese -- for the faithful lover of their palate is the red hot chili pepper.

Thanks to Mong Lan, this phenomenon is finally beginning to be understood.

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