Xiu On Poetry

Xiu has featured more than once here at My People. She is only 19, but a woman for all seasons. Scholar, athlete (rugby!), fashion model, business woman (of late), a woman of letters (January Winds) and ............ a poet.

You can find her almost daily at January Winds. Sometimes its merely her personal diary; short notes more to herself than to her readers or messages to the ones closest to her. And sometimes she writes poetry.

This isn't the first time I've posted about her poetry (Xiu's Song). Xiu verse is short, not metered but rather a rhythm of ideas, thoughts. So much poetry, especially the old fashioned classical kind, confuses more than captures the imagination; fanciful foliage of language crowd the flowers of emotion and meaning. Xiu's poetry is unadorned, simple beauty like a single rose.

Like "On Love":

You see, I loved her.
It was love at first sight,
at last sight
at ever and ever sight.

I've always wanted to ask her about her poetry, and today I got my chance. I saw her online on Facebook, and for the first time we had a real conversation. I asked her about her poetry:


5:54pm Lim Yi Xiu
i just come up with phrases once a while, and i break them apart into like a poetry form. instead of one whole sentence...

so it goes
Something like this
once in a while
or maybe all the time

and i have layers..
that not everyone notices-
which is good!
subtle meanings/ metaphors...

and i try to make them
as real as possible.
personal things i experienced.
so it is real,

and not some thing
i merely THINk about.
but i do
experience them.

So even when talking about her poetry she breaks into verse.

And now while blogging this, I see Xiu wrote me a poem at January Winds:

Remember the Times:

Remember the times, so fine,

when we were too young to be prudent

about emotions, love, speech, actions

Remember the times, so fine,

when we thought that

nothing could stand in our way

Remember the times, so fine,

for they keep us alive

so why don’t we try

Remember

With the genius of brevity, short and sweet Xiu took sentences from a Facebook conversation, and made me a rose.

Thanks Xiu

:)