Fast Lines

"You've got more than money and sense, my friend. You've got heart." L. I. F. E. G. O. E. S. O. N. by Noah and the Whale.

So the other day my brother and I attended a rap-workshop that was held at the International Islamic University Malaysia because we wanted to. We came late, so we only got to participate in the "writing" and "presentation" part of it, so we basically missed the whole workshop part. But I personally enjoyed writing and performing the piece I wrote to the other participants (even though I screwed up on the first verse and had to re-do it). I never rapped in public before, and that was a good experience for me.

Immediately after that was over, there was a poetry-writing workshop in the same room. Because we had nothing better to do anyways, we decided to stick around. Truth be told, I'm not the best student when it comes to lecture-listening, so a lot of the first part just went past my head. 

But the we started the activity. She (the facilitator) explained how it was going to go. We were all required to write a piece of poetry, but she was to provide the first line. Interesting, I thought.

Before she gave us the line, she asked us (the participants) to close our eyes and be silent for one minute. She said this was called the "silence phase". Shortly afterwards, she gave us the line. "The fear of the truth".

I ended up writing this:

Even though I didn't really understand what I just wrote, I quite liked it, if I may be so bold to say.

Afterwards she asked for volunteers to read their piece aloud. Then we went through another round of that before we were dismissed.

I had a good time writing at that workshop. So much so that I wanted to do more of it ever since.

Therefore, two days ago I got on twitter and asked people to send me the first lines of poems they'd like me to write, utilizing the hashtag #fastlines. I didn't force anyone to do it. Just anybody who'd like a bad piece of poetry was welcome to drop me a line.

To my delight, quite a few have given me lines to make stanzas out of.

I've been having a good time doing it. If any of you would like one, just drop a line with the hashtag and maybe I'll write something for you one day. I say maybe because I might not have the time to respond immediately to your submission. And I might get bored of doing it too. Endless possibilities with anakpakman.

It'd be even better if you'd like to write stuff of your own. I'm sure a lot of you will be able to write way better verses than me, so try giving it a go. But only if you want to, of course. Takdak sapa paksa.

May peace be upon you.

Cheers!