I Wondered,Did You?

Let us try to analyse this new poem which is among the new poems,short stories and drama for Forms 1-3 students beginning 2010.

This is a poem written by Jeannie Kirby.

I Wonder

I wonder why the grass is so green,
And why the wind is never seen?

Who taught the birds to build a nest,
And told the trees to take a rest?

O,when the moon is not quite round
Where can the missing bit be found?

Who lights the stars, when they blow out,
And makes the lightning flash about?

Who paints the rainbow in the sky,
And hangs the fluffy clouds so high?

Why is it now you suppose,
That dad won't tell me, if he knows?

The poem frames a set of questions that a child may ask of his parents. An observant child has a way of interpreting things according to his understanding of things. The manner is at once simple and yet profound.

There are six stanza and each stanza has a couplet.

The questions asked by the child reflect genuine innocence. However, it is clothed in so much active imagery and in a methodological way,seeks answers and meaning to the mystery of nature.

In questioning mode, the child asks about colour, visibility,instinct,heavenly bodies and natural phenomena.

The interesting part of the poem is in the last stanza whereby they child is asking the 'mother-lode' question as to why his parents do not want to tell her the answers to the mysteries of nature. It is a naivety that is expected. After all, many parents would surely be hard-pressed to give correct answers to these simple questions when they themselves may not know after all.

The poem is imaginative,crisp and colourful and is reminiscent of the stage of sweet innocence every child will go through in childhood as they wonder about the world around them.

Wondering Why

Somehow the power to be in the government has decided to water down the quality of the literature component in the PMR Assessment beginning 2010. Gone from the list are the better books such as 'Dalat,The Pencil, Bunga Telor and Bally Shoes,The Phantom of the Opera and Dr Jekyl and Mr. Hyde' and such poems as 'Isle of Innisfree,The Dead Crow and Life's Brief Shadow'. These were better books and poems. The ones that are its replacements sounds more like nursery rhymes and primary school readers. Anyway, the poems are good nursery rhymes.

As for the 2 short stories and the drama, I think they could have been better chosen. 'Rumpelstiltskin' is certainly one bad selection and so is the truncated and convulated, "Flipping Fantastic". The other story,"One is One and All Alone' is somewhat acceptable though they could also have chosen a better short story that will motivate young readers in the lower secondary classes.

So, the question on most of the parents' lips are," Why?". How did the people who are in the know select such books? What are the criteria that have been used in the selection process? These books are such low quality text that are neither motivating nor challenging? Why are the administrators doing English a great disservice? Haven't they done enough harm?

So, can someone from the Curriculum Development Division or the Textbook Department of the Ministry of Education enlightened all the concerned parents?

Are you still playing your Flute?

What are your exact thoughts after reading Zurinah Hassan's poem," Are you still playing your Flute"? Is the persona reminiscing bygone times when there was a lover in a village who filled her heart with music and joy? Is she thinking that even as time passes by, that things have yet to change in the village that could be a disjunct and not in synchronization in time and pace with the rest of the country as it moves forward?

On another level, is it a juxtaposition of an art form onto the cruel realities of a nation in uncertainty of its future? Is it a message being masqueraded as a poem by the poet to reflect his political leanings upon a young nation trying to find its ethos amidst its many layered problems,dimensions and challenges?

Let us look at this poem and flesh out its hidden message,where we can.

Are you still playing your Flute

Are you still playing your flute?
When there is hardly time for our love
I am feeling guilty
To be longing for your song
The melody concealed in the slim hollow of the bamboo
Uncovered by the breath of an artist
Composed by his fingers
Blown by the wind
To the depth of my heart.

Are you still playing your flute?
In the village so quiet and deserted
Amidst the sick rice field
While here it has become a luxury
To spend time watching the rain
Gazing at the evening rays
Collecting dew drops
Or enjoying the fragrance of flowers

Are you still playing your flute?
The more it disturbs my conscience to be thinking of you
in the hazard of you
my younger brothers unemployed and desperate
my people disunited by politics
my friend slaughtered mercilessly
the world is too old and bleeding

All three stanzas started with the same query which is reminiscent of "Isle of Innisfree." It reflects a constant concern-a possible regretful fixation of sorts.

We can also feel the mood of the three stanzas as if the poet is trying to convey to us that she has left the village and have matured out of the innocence of the rural psyche as "The Songs of Experience " of William Blake and she has moved on to something higher while the lover still lives within the blissfulness of the "Songs of Innocence"-footloose and fancy free; living in his own world, happy and undisturbed as he played the evergreen tunes of his flute.

The Green Times in Jamaica

Guango Tree

H.D. Carberry's visually exquisite poem," Nature",was written during those heady years after the 1930s when the winds of nationalism was strong and Jamaica's modem political and labour movements were about to put out shoots.

'Nature' is a poem that reflects self-discovery and self-awareness about Jamaica; put in the best of verse.It delves in things familiar;things we have taken for granted.

Logwood Tree

Let us appreciate the creative flair of H.D. Carberry.

NATURE

We have neither Summer nor Winter
Neither Autumn nor Spring.
We have instead the days
When the gold sun shines on the lush green canefields-
Magnificently.
The days when the rain beats like bullets on the roofs
And there is no sound but the swish of water in the gullies
And trees struggling in the high Jamaica winds.
Also there are the days when leaves fade from off guango trees
And the reaped canefields lie bare and fallow to the sun.
But best of all there are the days when the mango and the logwood blossom
When the bushes are full of the sound of bees and the scent of honey,
When the tall grass sways and shivers to the slightest breath of air,
When the buttercups have paved the earth with yellow stars
And beauty comes suddenly and the rains have gone.

Do not be Lured into Paradise!

This is a great poem from home-schooled Indonesian poetess,Bibsy Soenharjo. Let us interpret and appreciate it.

He Had Such Quiet Eyes

He had such quiet eyes
She did not realise
They were two pools of lies
Layered with thinnest ice
To her, those quiet eyes
Were breathing desolate sighs
Imploring her to be nice
And to render him paradise

If only she'd been wise
And had listened to the advice
Never to compromise
With pleasure-seeking guys
She'd be free from "the hows and whys"

Now here's a bit of advice
Be sure that nice really means nice
Then you'll never be losing at dice
Though you may lose your heart once or twice

We can approach the appreciation of this poem from two levels.

On the first level, on reading this poem, we are confronted by strong seductive language. We are confronted by the seductive nature of lustful love and its basic emotions. We shall not delve on that.

On the second level, we shall interpret the universal values of the poem as it explores the weakness and pitfalls of life for young ladies when they are accosted by men after their youth and bodies.

The poem focuses on the eyes of a man-the window to his soul. How alluring, seductive, dangerous yet quietly imploring are they. The poetess then likened the eyes symbolically,akin the the thinnest ice on a lake in winter. The beauty of the eyes of the man may beckon and you may weaken,but beware,it may be a trap that you will never get out from.Once you get into his trap of thin ice,it will crack and you will go under. By his ruthless nature, he gets what he wants and then leaves you at your own loss, being fooled by your very own feeble nature for a thing that you may physically adore.

So the poetess advises young ladies not to be gullible-to wise up and avoid pleasure-seeking guys and to never be caught in a compromising position which they will eternally regret.

The poetess advises that ladies can be nice to a charming gentleman but they are to keep a distance in space and time until they are more assured that these wooers have gracious thoughts. In parting, Bibsy counsels that the ladies may lose at 'false' love a few times but they should never lose in life when they found that special someone who truly loves them.

A Poem So Surreal

I think Salleh Ben Joned truly captured the mood of Latiff Mohidin's poem," In the Midst of Hardship," which was written in Bahasa Malaysia. The words used may not be the best but it brings to the fore the stoic nature of rural folks in Malaysia, perhaps in the early days where life was simple and greed was not strong.

The poem describes the humility of rural folks. The nature of their wealth is limited to bare essentials which include a few farm animals.Happiness is also easy to attain and pleasure comes just from joking and rolling home-made cigarettes and smoking in a social context between husband and wife. Despite returning empty handed, they did not show despair on their face;they accept the failure at face value.If they should lose their albino buffalo,they will take it in stride as fate.

As the title suggest, this poem is obviously trying to convey the hardship that a family in a village is facing after a big flood and how the family handle it. However, the big theme is not only the hardship itself but the optimism of the unfortunate”. Lines 6 and 7, "but on their brows there was not a sign of despair" reflects just this. This was accentuated by the happiness within the despair in the last 2 lines of Stanza 3 which reads, "now they are in the kitchen,making jokes while rolling their cigarette leaves".It takes a lot of courage and strength to see the silver lining and to move on after that. Yet, that is exactly what this family is doing. They’re spending time together, enjoying each other’s company and may be gratifying on the fact what they still have themselves against what was lost.

As a plantation boy, I can associate with the poverty of rural life and the difficulty of looking beyond the monotony and hopelessness of each passing day.

Let us appreciate Latiff Mohidin's classic, "In the Midst of Hardship"

At dawn they returned home
their soaky clothes torn
and approached the stove
their limbs marked by scratches
their legs full of wounds
but on their brows
there was not a sign of despair

The whole day and night just passed
they had to brave the horrendous flood
in the water all the time
between bloated carcasses
and tiny chips of tree barks
desperately looking for their son's
albino buffalo that was never found

they were born amidst hardship
and grew up without a sigh or complaint
and they are in the kitchen,making
jokes while rolling their cigarette leaves.

Singapore: Luxury Homes on the Rise

If property tycoon Kwek Leng Beng is right on the money, then the prices of prime luxury homes could charge back to their dazzling 2007 highs by the end of this year or perhaps next year. This is the report from the Straits Times today (16 January 2010.

'This ultra-rosy outlook assumes the world economy continues to improve, the City Developments’ executive chairman said during an interview in response to a question posed by The Straits Times.

Of course, his forecast that high-end prices will rise is not new. Plenty of property consultants have been tipping a rise in the high-end sector this year.

But the degree of optimism of an industry leader such as Kwek could turn heads — and he insists he is not simply talking up the market for his own ends.

“People say I like to talk up the market. It is not that I like to talk up the market. It is that more often than not, I would say I am 90 per cent correct in predicting the market,” he said.

“This can only arise from my many years of experience, from the mistakes I learnt from, from the intuition that I have. I also understand the psychology of people.”

In fact, he does not want to see prices rise too rapidly. “I hope the increase will not be so dramatic as to provoke concerns,” Kwek said.

A return to the previous peak levels is possible by the end of this year, and if not, then by next year, he said.

“My reading is that the rich Chinese buyers will come one day,” he said.

The integrated resorts (IRs) will help to draw many foreigners here, and some of them may decide to buy a home here if they like the IRs, said Kwek.

Last year, it was the turn of mass market and mid-tier properties to rise — driven largely by demand from upgraders.

In contrast, the high-end sector witnessed an exodus of all-important foreign buyers and has yet to get on track for a significant recovery despite some tentatively good signs.

Kwek feels luxury home prices can easily jump by more than 10 per cent this year as they are still about 25 per cent off the previous peak.

The higher the market goes, the greater the number of buyers, he said. Conversely, when the market slips to a low point, many will not want to buy, he said.

Kwek’s views were, to a certain extent, shared by Colliers International director of research and advisory Tay Huey Ying.

She believes luxury home prices could reach or surpass the previous peak by the end of the year on an average basis.

“Our basket of super high-end or luxury homes peaked at $$3,174 (RM7,617) per sq ft (psf) in late 2007 and early 2008. As of the end of last year, our prices were only 9 per cent off the peak,” she said.

“However, this luxury segment is not likely to achieve another record price this year, given the expected modest growth in the global economy.”

Indeed, there are still downside risks to reckon with, said Jones Lang LaSalle’s head of research for Southeast Asia, Dr Chua Yang Liang. For instance, the speed of economic recovery in the sluggish United States is uncertain, he said.

The high-end market will not necessarily move as one, and some projects may outshine the rest.

“Selective luxury projects with a good location and finishes may attempt to puncture the previous peak levels when our economy further improves in 2011,” said Chua.

Naturally, Kwek hopes to be among those to stand out from the rest. He is preparing to introduce a new brand in possibly the next three months.

He said he is still tying up loose ends on the 228-unit W Residences project on the Sentosa Quayside site, where a W Hotel will also be built.

The residential part of the project could be priced from about S$2,500 psf to S$3,000 psf, and will be his second branded project here, after St Regis Residences.

Other projects that his Hong Leong group and City Developments intend to push out soon include Cube 8 on Thomson Road and 76 Shenton on the former Ong Building site.'

So,what do you think? Will this enthusiasm and talk of a regrading of luxury home prices in Singapore impact on Malaysia's 'My Second home' programme with the coming on stream of the 2 IRs?

We will see.