“Why would you want to do something everyone else is doing?” – Marc Nair
As I raised my pencil to prepare and take the usual notes, Marc Nair asked us this question. Perhaps, he was referring to his unique, ironic style of writing poetry, or perhaps he was criticising our tendency to blindly follow any crowd. Regardless, he continued the session by sharing a few of his own poems. I grew surprised at his uncharacteristically bold and candid manner of critiquing overlooked political and social issues in our society. These issues varied from our over-consumption of plastic to the misuse of “pan-asian” models for advertisements. It was a refreshing change to hear a poet use their gift to shed light on relevant issues in an engaging and thought-provoking way.
Marc Nair’s enthusiastic presence on stage was contagious and I couldn’t help but agree as he shared his outlook and observations of our world, simply through poetry. Going forward, I’ve decided to investigate further into this genre of “poetics of the present” and experiment with it for my future poems. This session has revived my desire to write creatively and I aim to push the boundaries of my writing, just like Marc Nair is doing.
