L E C T U R E S * E S S A Y S * I N T E R V I E W S
19 September 2023
ai li’s essay on cherita, gembun and dua for Rhyvers
My essay for Haiku Blossoms was live on Saturday 16 September 2023 on the Rhyvers website on Column #22 . This column by Neena Singh is for the appreciation of Japanese short forms of poetry.
Rhyvers is an impassioned Digital Media Portal brimming with a whole gamut of undercurrents, offering waves of endless space for Art and Art Connoisseurs. The Rhyvers link is https://rhyvers.com/hk22/
My grateful thanks to Neena and to all the poets whose Cherita, Gembun and Dua graced my essay.
You will find immediately below the essay Neena kindly invited me to write on Cherita, Gembun and Dua.
In light,
ai li
one of ai li’s three old stone buddhas in her rousseau dream yard
photograph copyright © ai li FRPS 2023
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i, storyteller
sipping tea
under
a harvest moon
we are no longer
strangers
the scented steam
ai li
from sandalwood dreaming by ai li
The stories and voices remain but they have all gone.
La Luna always takes me home.
As a family, we would tell stories and eat sweetmeats under a full moon during the mid-autumn festival, to honour the moon goddess, adorned graveyard altars with food, flowers and cakes for tomb sweeping day, and placed local delicacies, fruit and red hand-painted candles out in our dim back lanes for the wandering homeless dead on our hungry ghost festival every year. There was also Chinese New Year to celebrate for fifteen days with young girls throwing fresh mandarins off a local bridge to a throng of male admirers waiting to catch the right one below on the last day of the new year. Then there was the arrival of new babies in the family, weddings and of course, traditional funerals which could last up to weeks with guests arriving at all hours of a day to share home-cooked food, play mah-jong and cherki cards long into the night to comfort and keep the bereaved company. And as always, there were stories and storytelling, long into memory’s night, which was part and parcel of who we were in our newly adopted homeland.
I had been in self-imposed exile for decades in the West and the acute longing for my spiritual home never quite went away. Now the words and stories from way back jostled in my mind, wanting to be heard again, bringing all the ghosts of past and present, back to life.
Then a gift arrived on 27 May 1997 and the Lunenga [1-2-3, 1-2-3, 1-2-3, 1-2-3, 1-2-3, 1-2-3, 1-2-3, 1-2-3,] was born, where one link has to include the moon.
Its first stanza format of 1-2-3 soon became Cherita on 22 June 1997, less than a month later.
Cherita is now in its 27th year [1997-2023] and it continues to be, not only a storytelling medium, but also Flash Fiction in 6 lines.
CHERITA [1-2 -3] [pronounced CHAIR-rita] is the Malay word for story or tale. A Cherita consists of a single stanza of a one-line verse, followed by a two-line verse, and then finishing with a three-line verse. It can be written solo or with up to three partners.
CHERITA TERBALIK or inverted cherita [pronounced CHAIR-rita tur-bar-lake] on the other hand gives you [3–2–1], [2–1–3], [1–3–2], [2–3–1] and [3–1–2] stanzas and it too can be written in collaboration with up to 3 writing partners.
The Cherita genre tells a story of Life, Love, Loss and Renewal. It was created by me on the 22 June 1997 to honour my maternal grandparents who were raconteurs extraordinaire. It was also inspired by Larry Kimmel’s sensitive recognition of a shorter form contained within the opening three-verse stanza of my Lunenga, which had been created on the 27 May 1997. www.thecherita.com
Here is the true essence of what timeless Cherita is all about :
in the pond
in the water
yet above it
pure and
blemish-free
the lotus
Neena Singh
from the sweetness
edited by ai li
*
a night for dreaming
the nile
outside
your window
with
the pharaoh’s moon
ai li
from how soft the light
by ai li
*
a thousand paper cranes
none can fly
as time does
I stop
at
number three
Jackie Chou
from the aroma
edited by ai li
*
who knew
we would fall
in love
with a room
full
of memories
Connie Pittman-Ramsey
from cloud shadows
edited by ai li
*
one
winter
afternoon
wordplay
from
dying snowflakes
Larry Kimmel and ai li
from dark to light
edited by ai li
*
i
see
you
in
dreams
the past
Sherry Grant
from words in my dreams
edited by ai li
*
sun
in
blossom
i
am
home
Caroline Skanne
from words in my dreams
edited by ai li
*
the tree quiet
no leaf
moving
as if
it knows
the meaning of silence
James Haddad and Kathabela Wilson
from ink stain
edited by ai li
*
If you haven’t as yet, do wake the storyteller that lives in you, and come join Cherita’s caravanserai of storytellers.
Someone has to keep the storytelling campfire burning into legend.
Have pen will write, and having written, spirit moved me on to two other minimal forms of storytelling that would also arrive as manna from heaven.
The Zen of storytelling in Gembun . . .
the colour
of night
fast asleep
in the lake
ai li
from snow clouds
edited by ai li
And then in Dua :
i can hear the night
in a passing train
ai li
from dancing shoes by ai li
distil, distil, distil with Gembun and Dua.
There are no syllable restrictions or seasonal words required for you to write Gembun and Dua.
Be the free spirit you were meant to be in ink and you will find the true essence of storytelling.
Gembun and Dua are siblings of Cherita. Cherita and Gembun were created by me in 1997, and Dua was the twinkle in my eye that finally became a reality on 4 March 2022.
The Gembun [1-3 or 1-4] [pronounced Gem-Boon] 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.
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.
Gembun Terbalik [3-1 or 4-1] [pronounced Gem-Boon Tur-Bar-Lake] 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/
The Gembun genre 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.
I will now pave the way for both Gembun and Dua to speak their Zen, tip toeing in with twelve amuse-bouche below to quietly tantalise your writing palate :
cat
came back
to see
if we were ok
James Haddad
from windswept rain
edited by ai li
*
dew
on weeds
glitters
Milky Way
Neena Singh
from windswept rain
edited by ai li
*
a new notepad
time
to wake
the storyteller
ai li
from snow clouds
edited by ai li
*
on my hands and knees
blowing
a baby spider
out of the door
Genie Nakano
from windswept rain
edited by ai li
*
wind chimes
a bamboo alley
sways in the breeze
my summer dress
Laughing Waters
from snow clouds
edited by ai li
*
poet’s house
somehow
the view makes more sense
alone
Tim Gardiner
from snow clouds
edited by ai li
*
Twilight
I’ll try again
to learn the robin’s song
tomorrow
Keith Evetts
from snow clouds
edited by ai li
*
night sky
the crescent moon
cradling
venus
R. Suresh Babu
from windswept rain
edited by ai li
*
half past twelve
a mosquito’s
dialogue
under her duvet
Radhamani Sarma
from paper talisman
edited by ai li
*
hidden path
secret for so long
she forgot
the way back home
Connie Pittman-Ramsey
from paper talisman
edited by ai li
*
out of
a quiet
day
a storm
Sharon Hawley
from windswept rain
edited by ai li
*
wind
through
the trees
and then silence
Lorelyn De la Cruz Arevalo
from windswept rain
edited by ai li
*
With Dua, you may need to practice morphing into a poetry perfumer to capture the essence of an even more minimal moment in time.
Dua is a short form storytelling poetry genre of only 2 separate lines of 1-1 [the ultimate 2-piece] and can be written with up to two poets.
The Cherita, Gembun and now Dua, in my opinion, embody the true essence of short form poetry which is saying more with fewer words.
Dua can be written with up to two poets.
The secret is to distil, distil and distil to arrive at the essence of your story.
The pause between the two lines is the key as it amplifies the quiet before the relevance of the story sets in.
What you want to avoid is writing a diary or personal journal entry.
Like most linked forms, Dua can be written and used in a sequence if preferred but it remains at its most powerful as it was created – as a 2-line poem that need no other distractions, and the genre shares the same strong spirit of storytelling as Cherita and Gembun.www.aili.co.uk/dua/
Here are twelve dua amuse-bouche to further tantalise your writing palate :
i must make a pilgrimage
a poem
Larry Kimmel
from remembering
edited by ai li
*
near the moon gate
falling leaves
David Cox
from remembering
edited by ai li
*
threadbare blanket
the holes in the night
Jackie Chou
from remembering
edited by ai li
*
memory leaves
like real people
Madeleine Basa Vinluan
from remembering
edited by ai li
*
your love left
under my pillow
Kathabela Wilson
from remembering
edited by ai li
*
a lone leaf
on an empty road
paula song sarmonpal
from remembering
edited by ai li
*
after walking on water
she came right back
Sharon Hawley
from remembering
edited by ai li
*
the cut flowers wilting
the vase beautiful
Pitt Büerken
from remembering
edited by ai li
*
the leaf at her toe
says i have fallen
James Haddad
from remembering
edited by ai li
*
the verandah empty now
with rain
ai li
from remembering
edited by ai li
*
this afternoon… at the turn of the
river mother waits for me with fairy tales
Partha Sarkar
from remembering
edited by ai li
*
owl
calling me home
paula song sarmonpal
from remembering
edited by ai li
Find the quiet in you with Cherita, Gembun and Dua.
ai li FRPS
wordsmith – storyteller- word healer
Creator of Cherita, Gembun and Dua
Editor and Publisher of the cherita
Fellow of The Royal Photographic Society
all cherita, gembun and dua copyright © ai li, the cherita and the attributed poets above 2023
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SEPTEMBER 2023
And now for some great news for September.
Haiku Blossoms a column by Neena Singh for the appreciation of Japanese short forms of poetry, on the Rhyvers website will be featuring “i, Storyteller” my essay on my three unique storytelling short form genres Cherita, Gembun & Dua. Neena is no stranger to the cherita having had her Cherita and Gembun grace our pages, with Dua to come, and she has informed me that the essay will be in Column #22, in September 2023. I have included in my essay timeless examples by various poets from selected editions of Cherita, Gembun and Dua.
Watch this space.
ai li
*
UPDATE on
once upon a cherita . . .
ai li’s lecture at the U3A, Belsize Park, London
on Wednesday 20 March 2019
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on Wednesday 20 March 2019 You are invited to an intimate morning of storytelling
a piano playing of early evening
ai li
In a voice, which has been described as ai li is an internationally published Straits Chinese short form poet. One of her six word haiku has been included She is also the author of three books on cherita, twenty five books on Cherita, Tanka and Haiku, the founding editor and
|
This was my A5 flyer which I designed for my U3A lecture
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I tweaked my original Singapore lecture a little, to better suit a UK audience, and this version too, was very well received.
A bouquet of exquisite fresh exotic dark orchids was in the lecture room when I arrived for my presentation. I was extremely moved by this well-wishing gift. This more than generous gesture was from Maryalicia Post, a fine Cherita writer and poet and loyal contributor to the journal. I would like to thank her again, this time in print, for her kindness and thoughtfulness.
My mother bred prize winning orchids after we all left the nest and I was really moved by Maryalicia’s thoughtfulness [who was unaware of my family connection with orchids] which made her gesture the second auspicious moment for me on the day of my lecture. I felt my mother close that morning and also my maternal grandfather and he would have been 119 years old on 20 March 2019. I was offered the date at short notice and I knew I had to accept it for the reason mentioned earlier.
This was my beautiful bouquet of dark orchids from Maryalicia Post which I photographed in my Rousseau-like dream yard where I write and contemplate. Eleven days on, these orchids are still singing their deep dark shades of red indoors on my dining room table.
My heartfelt and grateful thanks also go out to everyone who attended, especially my London friends, who very kindly took time off from their busy schedules to be with me. I was very touched by their generous support and presence.
We all sat down together and tucked into a delicious lunch at our café after the lecture and had a whale of a time catching up on all our news.
ai li
*
Thank you very much for your talk & poetry readings yesterday. I found them very moving and so did others.
Ken Baldry, London
*
You were only wonderful. It was a very original presentation and very moving. One of the ladies there said she found it very sad and almost cried in one part, so it just shows how with such few lines you can manage to convey so much emotion.
Looking forward to sharing more things with you in the future!
Ruth Corman, London
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Your talk was so inspiring and I echo some of the audience in saying how restful and healing it felt.
I loved seeing the photographs of your family, learning about the history and I really enjoyed listening to you recite your Cherita.
Thank you for asking me to come.
Nicole Tinero, London
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We enjoyed your talk very much, especially for Amy who has not seen photos like the ones you presented for some time (though I dare say she may have some old ones tucked away somewhere, ne’er to be found!).
Many thanks once again for inviting us to U3A.
Shirly Ling, London
*
Many of your Cherita and the way you presented them, the 3 themes, plus combining with origins, family heritage, visuals are resonating with me …… you did well. I understand it’s not easy to do what you did.
Alan Cousins, London
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Wishing you well with your lecture, and wishing you a good audience. x
Larry Kimmel, USA
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. . . I would have loved to have been there myself..
It’s especially happy news that the talk went well ‘and all the chairs taken’.
You can enjoy a deep breath and a bit of a rest now.. Well done!
I can well imagine the feedback is heartwarming… Your ancestors and I would expect nothing less..
Maryalicia Post, Ireland
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Hope your lecture went well today, very nicely timed to coincide with the vernal equinox.
I would like to have been able to attend, but it’s a little too far for a day trip, instead I have bought a kindle version of night rain to console myself.
Robert Horrobin, Scotland
*
. . . just wanted to send you a quick note to say I’m thinking of you & hope all is well etc…
Caroline Skanne, Kent
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ai li’s once upon a cherita . . . lecture
at the Peranakan Museum, Singapore
on Monday 7 January 2019
one of the many cherita i shared with the museum audience :
autumn
the tea pavilion
now deserted
steam from osmanthus buds
my embroidered sleeve
older than this century
ai li
update 30 november 2019 – I have just added my original blurb for the Peranakan Museum because all their links have been disabled except for their homepage due to their renovations. Please click on the image below to read the blurb I wrote and designed for my lecture:
The two Peranakan Museum links below unfortunately have been disabled by the Museum whilst it is undergoing its makeover :
https://www.peranakanmuseum.org.sg/whats-on/lectures/7jan2019_aili
For those of you who would like to see a photograph of the Peranakan Museum that does the Museum more justice than my hurried snapshot, taken on a very hot day, here is a current link to its home page which shows the building as its best and in its full glory.
https://www.peranakanmuseum.org.sg/
The Museum has now closed for its makeover. I feel blessed that I was able to give my lecture in the Ixora Room in January of this year.
Facade of the Peranakan Museum, Singapore taken by me on 5 January 2019 – two days before my lecture.
The Peranakan Museum is the major museum for the Straits Chinese, and not only does it explore the art and culture of Straits Chinese communities in South East Asia, but it houses one of the finest & most comprehensive public collections of Peranakan objects. Peranakan simply means ‘local born’ in Malay. The Peranakan Chinese are the offspring & descendants of traders from the southern ports of china such as Amoy [now Xiamen], who then settled & made their homes in the Dutch East Indies [now Indonesia] & the Straits Settlements of Malacca, Penang and Singapore. As early as the 14th century, these foreign traders married local women, likely to have been of Javanese, Balinese or Batak origin.
I am Straits Chinese or Peranakan as we call ourselves, from my mother’s side of the family and I was hugely honoured by the invitation for me to give a presentation at this prestigious museum where a large number of my late mother’s personal collection of fine kebayas, sarongs, and related accessories have found a permanent home.
One set of my mother’s large collection of sarong and kebaya displayed in the museum’s glass cabinet, two mannequins down from the off-white cheongsam or qipao of Kwa Geok Choo, the wife of Lee Kuan Yew, the first Prime Minister of Singapore and the mother of Lee Hsien Loong, the third and current Prime Minister. This photograph was taken by me on 5 January 2019, two days before my lecture.
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Thank you for a beautiful and spiritual evening at the Peranakan Museum. You transformed the Ixora at the start of 2019 with soft but powerful words, inviting reflections beyond Peranakan culture on Life, Love, Loss and Renewal. The pace and pairing of the images with the poems were touchingly evocative.
Jackie Yoong, Curator, Peranakan Museum, Singapore
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I would like to thank you for the inspiring session last Monday at the Peranakan Museum.
Denisonde Simbol, Events Organiser, Peranakan Museum, Singapore
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I just wanted to write to thank you again for your reading at The Peranakan Museum. I hadn’t heard of the Cherita before but after your talk, it seemed to me that it is so clear and necessary for this form to exist (I feel it is especially beautiful when used to express the nuances of the archipelagic thought.)
Amrit Dhillon, Singapore and UK
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Glad to hear it. Cherita is regularly in the submissions for ATPO. You’ve created a form with staying power.
M Kei, USA
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Close to the time of your talk at the Peranakan Museum, i have been thinking of you in the recent days and now. I hope it has been a heartwarming emotionally deep and satisfying time for you! . . . Sending love and cherita joy to you from afar. Wish I could be there in person. My heart is with you, and hopefully we can meet in person in UK this year.
Kathabela Wilson, USA
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Wow! Another masterpiece! Congratulations! Thank You Miss Ai Li. Like your amazing simple English language poetry talk at recent Peranakan Museum in Singapore. It was very very arty to understand with feelings. It reminded me of my belated English literature teacher, Mr Dudley DeSouza who once taught me on poetry during my secondary school days that I miss dearly.
Also miss my Spanish, General Manager, Mr Lionel De Rosario who writes with wonderful Oxford Engish(like you) during his suffering in ww2 during the 🇯🇵 3-1/2 years Occupation in Singapore and the Prisoner of War in building the Thailand railway bridge over River Kwai.
Keep up your wonderful works. It’s really Extra Excellence Work on Poetry Art.
Anderson Teo, Singapore
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It was a pleasure to hear you at the PM. What a great introduction to your writing and it made me travel far in my head ! I loved being introduced to your family.
I will go back to the museum with interested eyes !
Charlotte Thesiger, Singapore
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Congratulations!!! Of course I knew you would bring the roof down . . . I hope you’re having a fab time . . .
Caroline Skanne, UK
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. . . I enjoyed the reading very much. I love all the old pictures. Your reading voice was soothing and very calming.
Irene Cheng, Singapore
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Marvelous, ai li. Been thinking about you.
Larry Kimmel, Godfather of Cherita, USA
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. . . you must be relieved it is over and that it went so well. What a wonderful start to 2019.
Robert Horrobin, UK
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That’s good news, ai li, and doesn’t surprise me. Enjoy your visit to Singapore in the days to come.
Michael McClintock, USA
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Wow, congratulations, my dear ai li!
Of course I had absolutely no doubt that you’d shine! I wish I could’ve been there to soak up the energy you would’ve created.
Samantha Sirimanne Hyde, Australia
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Oh, I am so happy (and not surprised at all) to hear this wonderful news, my friend! You are an inspiration, and you deserve every success that comes your way.
Debbie Strange, Canada
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So happy to meet you, but the timing was too short and no time to talk.
. . . your presentation was perfect and the audience appreciated your knowledge and experience as a professional of Cherita and more in the History of your family.
You are a perfectionist !
Anne-France Salmon Stevenson, USA
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wish u could come to the usa and do it.
stanford forrester, usa
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I hope all went well and no doubt your pleased to be safely back in Blighty.
Alan Cousins, UK
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I have missed you and know that your presentation went amazingly well.
Daniela Becher, UK
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Absolutely lovely Ai Li, to read your account of your Singapore visit.
Keep it up.
love,
kala ramesh, india
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It has been a great pleasure to read your email. Anthropological journey of man is indeed fascinating. I am glad to know that you are sharing your PowerPoint presentations. I shall love to read to fine tune the new genre. Presently I am writing an article on Gandhi for an Indo- USA Book Project.
Pravat Padhy Kumar. India
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And lovely to read in greater detail about your lecture in Singapore…and to know you are giving it in March in London.. where I’m sure it will be equally well received.
Maryalicia Post, Ireland
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