While it has been a blast answering all the inquiries and issues from your support tickets.  I have decided to take some time off this week to pursue my hidden passion, performing my poetry to a public  audience! I have been writing poetry ever since I was in highschool, but mostly I am a closet poet-wannabee who hides his works in his back pocket, so to speak.

 I have fallen in with some rowdy poetic types of late, folks from the "Poetry Underground" From the Malaysia Network on Facebook, and have been inducted into the ancient art of  poetry performance. I have had my virgin entry into this art last Saturday at a "Readings @ Seksan" session with some local Malaysian authors and a visiting Kunal Basu of "The Minituarist" and "The Opium Clerk" fame at "Seksan's" a local art gallery. "Readings @ Seksan" is a monthly affair organized by local literary figure Sharon Bakar as a place for local and regional authors to gather, network and read from their literary masterpieces. I was nervous and only managed to put on a passable read of my "To Thee O! Sweet Angel", a poem about my first love. Though honestly, I and my poet friends were only called upon to perform to fill-in the time for some absent authors. But that is fine with me!

Spurred on by this, I have signed up for a poetry performance workshop to be conducted by Britain's Jacob Sam la Rose courtesy of British Council, Kuala Lumpur. I shall be attending the workshop on the 24th and the 26th. I have also registered  to enter the KL"Go Green" Poetry SLAM, so named in honour of Earth Day. I shall be competing with other performance poets in a SLAM style poetry recital. It shall also be on the 26th, after my workshop. I would like to beg your forgiveness if I may be a bit late in replying to your tickets from during that time (24th - 26th April. Though as always, Mark and Azrul himself will be online and on duty.