Smoking a Poem - Marc Daniel Nair
I am constantly on the look-out for poets,
chain-rhyming , five-stanza-a-day poets,
palming their pencil and notebook in back pockets,
lighting up lines with the practised ease of habit.
I search for them in sunlit corners of trains,
Between shelves of public libraries.
I find them pacing and waiting at bus-stops,
stubbing out the ends of pencils,
flicking ashen words onto paper.
There is no mistaking the poet’s scent;
to tangle of joy and fear
to exhale a word and
stub
out the idea before the bus draws near.
Sometimes I peer over the shoulders of strangers
when I see them turn serious and begin to scribble.
But often, it’s a list of things to do, groceries, accounts.
These everyday words are safe; they give me
a rush from breathing in someone else’s simile.
Where have all the serial poets gone?
Those who only smoke unfiltered; huffing hard packs of dense
images that incite the potential to kill or cause immense emotion
when the burning tip touches the fragile prose of the skin.
Breathe it in, and out, read it once, and again, and again, until
lips chafe, lungs burn, eyes gasp red and dry.
I want a poem to sear miracles of metaphor in my brain,
I don’t want menthol lite concoctions of neat little verses
with pop song end rhymes that carry little deterrents from the poet.
I want to smoke a poem that doesn’t bow to warnings,
that knows it’s dangerous, and makes me dangerous, and
therefore - cool.
I want to smoke a poem, make sure everyone knows
every word I exhale is poetry, not prose.
(Transcript typed out personally from paperback; adapted from Along the Yellow Line, 2007)
Introduction:
The poet, Marc Daniel Nair, is a local Singaporean writer who is a poet and photographer. He is a recipient of the 2016 Young Artist Award. Marc has published six solo volumes of poetry and has released another three collections in collaboration with visual artists, photographers and graphic artists. A seasoned poetry slammer, he has performed spoken word for over fifteen years in more than ten countries and has represented Singapore in international poetry slam competitions. He is also a founding member of local spoken word troupe, Party Action People.
(Adapted from Marc Daniel’s CV)
The poem, Smoking a Poem, was written in year 2005, 14 years ago. At that time, Marc said in a speech that when he wrote the poem, he was having difficulty in discovering poets in Singapore and subsequently, found inspiration to write this poem.
Analysis:
The poem uses an extended metaphor as basis for the entire poem. The poet compares works of poetry to a cigarette and reading poetry to be smoking. Some examples of the extended metaphor include “chain-rhyming” -as a suggestion to chain-smoking- “lighting up lines” - like how a smoker uses a lighter to light a cigarette- “rush from breathing in” -like how a smoker inhales the smoke emitted by the cigarette- "“huffing hard packs of dense images” -similar to how smokers smoke packs of cigarettes- “tip touches the fragile prose of skin” -like how when the cigarette butt of a lit cigarette is pressed onto the skin, causing sores- “exhale a word” -as how a smoker exhales smoke from a cigarette- “stub” -compares putting out a cigarette to finishing writing a piece of poetry and “menthol lite concoctions” -reference to menthol light marlboro cigarettes which tastes disgusting. The poet is seen to enjoy metaphor -as seen from “ sear miracles of metaphor in my brain”- and reflects this by making use of this extended metaphor throughout his own poem.
The poet suggests that poets can be found anywhere. This can be seen from “I search for them in sunlit corners of trains, between shelves of public libraries. I find them pacing and waiting at bus-stops”. The poet suggests that at common, local public places, poets can be found and therefore, the poet attempts to look for these poets in public places.
The lines “I search for them” make mention that the poet aims to look for local poets -specifically hardcore poetry enthusiasts like “chain-rhyming , five-stanza-a-day poets”. However, despite his efforts, there is difficulty in looking for poets. “Sometimes I peer over the shoulders of strangers when I see turn serious and begin to scribble. But often, it’s a list of things to do, groceries, accounts”. The poet is trying to convey that while poets can exist anywhere, they do not exist everywhere and hence, it is difficult to find poets.
The poet makes suggestion for where poets go to gain insight and inspiration to write their poems; “sunlit corners of trains” suggests that poets try to stay in areas closest to nature even when surrounded by man-made technology, “between shelves of public libraries” suggests that poets seek and prefer serene and quiet places to carry out their work and also that poets likely gain research materials from books in public libraries.
The poet describes poets to be earnest and extremely competent in their work as seen from “lighting up lines with the practised ease of habit” -suggesting how poets are masterful in their craft- “There is no mistaking the poet’s scent; to tangle of joy and fear” -a trademark of any regular poet- “palming their pencil and notebook in back pockets” and “I find them pacing and waiting at bus-stops, stubbing out the ends of pencils, flicking ashen words onto paper” shows how serious poets are that they carry around writing materials and would write poetry anywhere just to accomplish work and also shows how passionate they are in writing poetry. The poets are further described to be very efficient as seen from “stub out the idea before the bus draws near”. This suggests the speed at which poets can write poetry is very fast.
He displays a profound dislike for prose in the poem and adores poetry to be exciting compared to prose which he sees to be prosaic. In the writing of a prose, there are mostly only common grammar rules to keep in line to and is in other words more free whereas poetry has stricter rules to meet and therefore in the poet’s perspective makes poetry more fun and challenging to work with and hence exciting. The poet uses juxtaposition in the line “every word I exhale is poetry, not prose” to reinstate his stance towards the two writing forms.
The poet describes poetry to be thrilling through the lines “images that incite the potential to kill or cause immense emotion” “I want a poem to sear miracles of metaphor in my brain” “I want to smoke a poem that doesn’t bow to warnings, that knows it’s dangerous, and makes me dangerous, and therefore - cool” -these are the traits of poetry that appeal to the poet. The poet describes his love for poetry to be an addiction; he compares how smokers are addicted to smoking cigarettes to himself who is similarly addicted to poetry with “a rush from breathing in someone else’s simile”. “Breathe it in, and out, read it once, and again, and again, until lips chafe, lungs burn, eyes gasp red and dry” tells us how the poet would read poetry so many times that his eyes and lips would become sore and his lungs dry to emphasise that he loved poetry so much that he would forgo everything else. He makes use of the aforementioned extended metaphor to achieve this intended effect.
The poet finds that prose-style writing is unappealing and expresses such through the lines “I don’t want menthol lite concoctions of neat little verses with pop song end rhymes that carry little deterrents from the poet”.
The poet uses imagery such as “flicking ashen words onto paper” which describes the pencil markings made on the sheets of paper to be of grey-black colour just like ash. The poet enjoys poems that “images that incite the potential to kill or cause immense emotion”, and reflects this by adding imagery in his own poem.
The word “serial” is used to describe poets. Serial, in this context, likely means repeatedly committing the same offence and typically following a characteristic, predictable behaviour pattern in the dictionary. The word “serial” is used to describe poets who repeatedly write poetry in this context.
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