Telling story through poems

“A natural phenomenon, a captivating visual, an eventful incident and noteworthy news; I consider them all as writing subjects. Everyday seeing clouds and rains as in seasonal changes, and via time and space, these become inclusive subjects to transpire into textual poetry,” explained Department of Architecture and Sustainable Design lecturer Tew Bun Teck. According to Tew, all his inspiring ideas were often derived from visual and perceptual experiences.

He added, “When experiencing detachment or reconnecting and reminiscing time lost, in a memorable way the experiential thoughts can be transformed into a poem. It is the transitory moment in life that transpires experiences into a poetic write-up.”

Tew’s writing interest began with an admirable appreciation of seeing great writings published and read about. He reminisced, “It started with formative essay writings during primary school. Then it slowly developed when I was in junior high school, and later it turned into casual doodling of writing in senior high school.” “During my university years, I began indulging in bi-lingual writings but in a less constructive form. Since then, I’ve experienced consistent development in mono-lingual poetic expression,” he shared.

The Department of Architecture and Sustainable Design lecturer said that architecture should be taken as a form of frozen poetry. He enthused, “Architecture and poetry should be linked together in a transcendental manner via textual content and visual expression. Both poetry and architecture are corresponding forms of creative expression to communicate abstract ideas into realistic ideals and vice versa. They are both meaningful and can be perceived and sensed, expressed and understood.”

He then shared, “Courtyard 《院落》and My Eyes Can See the City 《我的眼睛能看见城市》are two poetry books published in the year 1999 and 2002 respectively. These two books evolved out of the visual expression of architecture. They are about spatial organisation via urban experiences with regards to the fundamental notion of design and principles. My Eyes Can See the City 《我的眼睛能看见城市》was further explicated by Master of Arts (Chinese Studies) alumni Lee Wei Sung in his thesis “A Study of Postmodernist Poetry of Malaysia Chinese 《马华后现代主义诗研究》” in June 2013.

Quoting ‘Rome wasn’t built in a day, but they were laying bricks every hour’ Tew explained that one requires professional research and development in architectural publications require at least a year to prepare for a book publication. He explained, “It depends on the incremental progress from subject to subject in development. It invariably takes around two to 10 years or more to get a poetry book kicked off and published. Moreover, two different kinds of research could also be concurrently developed. For art or architectural review, it could take several months since it would include site visits, in-person review, and later the write-up.”