GEMBUN ANTHOS – the cherita

G E M B U N A N T H O L O G Y G U I D E L I N E S

i read more than once the entire mail strewn with such beautiful works . There is a marvelousness that seizes, strikes, and inflicts sensations .
(i think even the imperfections––play a role in this shock appeal).

Vijay Prasad

Yes!
Gembun terbalik is addictive!

Kala Ramesh

I am going through the Gembun in the anthology ‘evening’. It’s a beautiful collection of poems.

Thank you

Regards,
R. Suresh babu

I would like to extend my heartfelt thanks and congratulations to you for beautiful and evergreen creative endeavours and support. I am honoured and humbled to receive the Gembun award and hope to keep contributing my writing efforts to the creative world.

Richa Sharma

FEBRUARY 2022 UPDATE :

Gembun Terbalik [3-1 or 4-1] now joins this genre. Please read on below.

This is an open invitation for lovers of short form genres to submit Gembun/Gembun Terbalik for the proposed Gembun Anthology. All submissions will be selected, collated and edited by ai li, creator of gembun and cherita, and the anthology will be published by the 1-2-3 Press which publishes the cherita.

We invite you to submit your best Gembun/Gembun Terbalik for the Gembun Anthology. There are no deadlines. Submissions are on an ongoing basis.

There are now two Gembun Anthologies available for reading or research into the genre on Amazon in paperback and kindle, and they are snow clouds and evening, both selected and edited by ai li. Each Anthology showcases 92 timeless virgin Gembun.

ai li, the creator of gembun and cherita will read, select and edit all gembun submissions for the anthology.

looks like rain

bringing in
laundry
and dreams

dark night

let there
be lanterns
of fireflies

penny lane

will it ever
grow old
in song ?

swaying lanterns

those shanghai nights
when red was the colour
of a mouth

the skipping rope in a cul-de-sac

a child
who looks like me
becoming dusk

Midnight…

the ouija board
spelling out
shadow

ai li

Gembun Terbalik :

porchlight
on
an autumn evening

moths are home

the
love letter
never sent

chanel no. 5

the storm
within
never heard

zazen

how
we have aged
come winter

how white the snow

petit fours
to sweeten the dark
of an urban cage

one songbird barely alive

a taste
of
borrowed honey

bee mine

ai li

all gembun copyright ai li 2023

For more examples of Gembun, please visit www.aili.co.uk/gembun/

Alternatively, ai li’s two books on Gembun, the weight of rain and blank screen, and two Anthologies snow clouds and evening are all available on Amazon in paperback and kindle, and can be used for reference if you are new to the Gembun genre.

OCTOBER 2022 ANTHOLOGY UPDATE :

Three Gembun Anthologies have now been published and they are snow clouds, evening and paper talisman. These books are available in paperback and kindle on Amazon and from the Bookshop link on this website. To date, these books have been well received.

Anthologies 4 and 5 are very nearly there with 6 and 7 filling up fast too. It is likely that 8 and 9 will soon follow suit as it seems a shame not to showcase fine work when they come in.

Please do not send run-of-the-mill, conveyor belt, journal entries, religious or angry, political poems. There is always a place for these but they are not for this anthology.

Please send me your Gembun/Gembun Terbalik gems on Life, Love, Loss and Renewal

if you would like to see your accepted Gembun/Gembun Terbalik
published one to a page
in paperback and kindle
for maximum stillness
and impact.

Your Gembun/Gembun Terbalik is allowed to breath in all that space
and allows the reader to slow right down to appreciate
all your timeless stories.

They can cover births, deaths, anniversaries, betrayals, disappointments, abortions, bankruptcies, joblessness, vendettas, suicides et al; and also about travel, work, hobbies, light and dark passions, eating disorders, night shifts, cross dressing, the erotic, mindfulness and any other subject matter that I may have missed or forgotten. The list is endless.

Send your Gembun/Gembun Terbalik submissions to ai li at [email protected]
Please double click and use the standard submission email above. Thanks.
Please do not copy and paste this link elsewhere to use as this will not work.

All poems must be the author’s original work. We prefer previously unpublished poems. We will consider previously published Gembun/Gembun Terbalik from print or online journals, Facebook, twitter, blogs, social networking sites, personal websites, etc., only if you include appropriate acknowledgments and credits with these submissions.

We will disqualify all previously unpublished submissions which are under consideration elsewhere, or entered into competitions.

The Original and Official Guidelines

G E M B U N [1-3 or 1-4] [pronounced Gem-Boon]

A Gembun is made up of either a one-word first link or anything up to one sentence, to be capped by a haiku of up to four lines.

The Gembun has to include an element of suggestion in either the opening sentence, the haiku or in both. It was created by ai li on the 12 June 1997, inspired by Larry Kimmel’s TIBUN.

G E M B U N T E R B A L I K [3-1 or 4-1] – inverted gembun [pronounced Gem-Boon Tur-Bar-Lake]

Gembun Terbalik now joins this minimal form and is an inverted Gembun. It is written with a haiku of 3 or 4 lines as its opening stanza and then capped by a one liner.

The Gembun and Gembun Terbalik have to include an element of suggestion in either the opening sentence or haiku, the haiku or opening sentence or in both. Gembun was created by ai li on the 12 June 1997, inspired by Larry Kimmel’s TIBUN. www.aili.co.uk/gembun/

Footnote Update September 2021:

Like most linked forms, Gembun and Gembun Terbalik can be written and used in a sequence if preferred but it remains at its most powerful as it was created – as 2 minimal stanzas that need no other distractions. After all, it is the older sibling of Cherita [only 10 days apart at birth] and they both share the same strong spirit of storytelling.

The Gembun and Cherita, in my opinion, embody the true essence of short form poetry which is saying more with fewer words.

ai li
creator of Gembun and Cherita
editor and publisher of the cherita

N.B.

The original guidelines for Gembun and Gembun Terbalik are as above and are the only official valid guidelines for the Gembun genre. There can be no variations to these guidelines without the permission, consent and approval of ai li, the creator of the genre. All rogue attempts to vary these guidelines remain rogue attempts and should be ignored when you write Gembun.

PLEASE BE AWARE THAT LIKE ITS SIBLING CHERITA, GEMBUN TOO, DO NOT HAVE TITLES.

The plural for GEMBUN is GEMBUN.

GEMIGA [gem-eager] is for Gembun with Art, and GEMROSE is for Gembun with Prose.

If a Gembun is titled, then it is rogue and not to be considered a Gembun.

G E N E R A L C O N D I T I O N S

Once we notify you that we have accepted your poems for publication, in the print, e-book, and/or online versions, please do not share or submit your work elsewhere until we have published your work, or the editor will withdraw your work from publication.

We also ask that you refrain from republishing your work in any medium [including facebook, instagram, twitter and blogs etc.] for 90 days from publication in the anthology.

the 1-2-3 press does not pay its contributors nor does it offer contributors’ copies, although they will be available for purchase. Copyright reverts to the author or artist upon publication.

the 1-2-3 press reserves the right to reprint contents from its publications on its website and in future print anthologies without having to seek further permission from its submitters, and all submissions to the cherita, the Gembun Anthologies and the Dua Anthology constitute acceptance of this condition.

the 1-2-3 press reserves the right to print online or in print journals and anthologies, in whole or in part, in its sole discretion, all letters and comments to the editor without having to seek further permission from the author, and submission of comments or letters to the editor of the cherita, the Gembun Anthologies and the Dua Anthology constitute acceptance of this condition.