It Takes So Much to Be Nothing: Pomes 2018–2024

JACK MALIK is a poet-essayist from Ipoh, Perak and one of the recipients of the Selangor State Literary Prize 2020 for poetry.

Maya Press (First published, 2024)
xii + 95 pages

RM25.00

In stock

ISBN: 9789832737759 Product ID: 47891 Subject: Poetry Sub-subjects: English poetry, poems

It Takes So Much to Be Nothing: Pomes 2018-2024 is both playful and sober, hopeful and despairing, walking a fine line between Bukowski-esque grit and Salleh Ben Joned-ish nonchalance. In this latest collection, Jack Malik refers to his poems as “pomes,” reflecting the transient nature of language as material and the evolving spirit of a fellow poet as seeker. Reading Jack is akin to reading Rabak, Kerouac, Kaufman, Mojgani, and Akbar. It’s a gathering around the bonfire with Wakefield, Williams, Nye, Ghafar Ibrahim, Asghar; a sembang session at the kopitiam with Ben Joned, Blake, Koch, Neruda, and Parra.The strength of these poems lies in their ability to navigate the space between text and performance. They pose questions and respond with more questions, reminiscent of the Academy, through experimentation with form, space, and sound. They offer both fragmentation and cohesion, inviting readers to engage, reflect, and immerse themselves in an interactive and rebelliously prismatic book.

Foreword(s) by Sheena Baharudin

PART I
Holy Nothing
Portrait of a Poet Practising Being Himself
Burgerlab OUG, 17 October 2023
Another Day in Petaling Jaya, Section 14
A Sonnet for my Damansara Riot Grrlll
Home
Bedroom Thoughts
But Ain’t This A Pome Too?
A Poem in Progress or “I’m Making Something Out of Nothing”
Where Go, Kid?
Politicus Domesticus
Satori in Mutiara Homes
On Hearing Two Lofi Albums
Satori in Section 14, PJ
Holy Hibiscus
Perak State Railway Dreaming
Footnote to GAMPANG!

PART II
A Bored Poet on a Train to Ipoh Writing a Dadaist Pome
Ipoh Stop Pushing, I Know What I’m Revising
Ipoh, City of Love
16 July 2016
LDP Blues
Every Pome is a Spoken Word Pome
Book-Date at a Cafe in Muar
Chilling at Chiling or Satori in Kuala Kubu Bharu
Monsoon Fables
Monsoon Fables
Monsoon Blues: Sonnet
Ars Poetica
Bladi Bastat Mixtape (Take 1)
Unfinished
My Gag Reflex
Deliverance
A Pome in Progress or “I’m Stuck like that One Spongebob Squarepants Episode”

PART III
A Pome in Progress or “I Can’t Go On. Continue for Me, Dear Readers”
Laundry & Taxes
Three Bags Minimum: Ghazal
Ars Poetica
Ars Poetica
~~Anger~~ Sadness
Blessing
The Matrix of Patience
Listening to The Mountain Goats in the MRT on a Saturday Night Heading Toward the Water
Ode to TTDI
Procrastinations = Rehearsals
On Crafting
Ars Poetica
Malaya(n) Twin-Cinema
No Moolah Mo’ Sorrow Perlis Blues
Driving From Puncak Alam to Bandar Sri Damansara to Damansara Perdana
It Takes So Much To Be Nothing