On poets and poetry

A couple of weeks ago I was flattered to be asked to launch a new book of poems, Excess Baggage & Claim, by its co-author, Terry Jaensch, who I've had the pleasure of knowing for several years.

Said launch took place tonight, at 45 Downstairs. Last week, over a beer, Terry had told me that he wanted someone who would 'speak to the book' and not just dwell on its gay aspects. I hope I succeeded.

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"I'm delighted and honoured to have been asked to launch Terry Jaensch's and Cyril Wong's Excess Baggage & Claim here tonight.

Like many creative projects, the idea for the book has evolved significantly since 2002, when the idea of first writing about castrai opera singers first arose in Terry's mind.

Through a process of artistic alchemy, refinement and collaboration, that idea has given birth to a collection of poetry in which the castrati have metamorphed into a metaphor for the contemporary gay male; while singing, such as at the karaoke bars depicted in this book - 'all those standards that engage', to quote from one of the poems - has become a metaphor for the individual's voice, or lack of a voice.

Today, in John Howard's Australia, far too many of us are denied a voice. Elsewhere, some of us sit passively by, doing nothing as other people's voices are silenced and supressed.

We live in a time where legislation supporting same-sex civil unions has been banned by the Federal Government despite it being a key platform of the mandated ACT Government's sucessful election campaign; where 'Poorly realised gay characters cough themselves to death - still'; where communities are divided into 'Australians' and 'people of Middle Eastern appearance' and other others.

At such a time, the publication of Excess Baggage & Claim is, for me, a momentus occasion.

Momentus because it represents a personal and artistic triumph for Terry and Cyril, who were introduced by a mutual friend; who who corresponded for a year and a half via email as they discussed the project; and who hammered out much of the book's themes, voices and structures in a passionate four months in Singapore, which Terry visited as the result of an Asialink residency.

Momentus because it represents a remarkable cross-cultural fusion - both artistically, and politically. It is an act of creation, and a rejection of the values of Pauline Hanson and others of her ilk - including our own Prime Minister, who in 1988, in opposition, talked openly of too many Asian immigrants spoiling Australia's 'social cohesion'.

Momentous because it explores gay love and desire in a country where, only a decade ago, Cyril's first book was heavily censored by Singapore's National Arts Council because of its prevelence of gay themes.

Just as one of its characters seeks to 'cultivate one authentic self from a series of predictabilities', Cyril and Terry have strived - successfuly, in my eyes - to create a work of art which is larger than both of them.

It is a collection of poems which evokes the human spirit's ability to engage with past betrayals we might once have shied away from, considered unspeakable:

'father upon me, whispering:
Don't worry, don't move, this won't
hurt, ok?'

It is a collection of poems which do more than touch upon our intimate fears as we 'lie in bed waiting for the dark to lift', and which are about far more than just gay men, gay sex, and one man's romantic love for another.

Excess Baggage & Claim is a dialogue; an affair; an engagement with senses and sensation. It is a revelation. It is both painful and beautiful. It is a romance - flawed, like so many romances - and a romance with literature, a love of words, carefully written and placed.

'I love you. There, I have said it
Again. Bravely this time, without
Looking away as if the next moment
After could scorch me, the words
like sparks in cool, flamable air.'

I love this book. I commend it to you without hesitation, and I am delighted to now, offically, declare Terry Jaensch's and Cyril Wong's Excess Baggage & Claim well and truly launched.

Thank you."

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Excess Baggage & Claim is published by the independent press, Transit Lounge, and available from their website, and through good independent bookshops.

Oh, and Cyril is also, as well as being a beautiful poet, a beautiful counter-tenor. He sang tonight, acapella, with such beauty that tears rolled down my cheeks as I listened to him.