When I read the posting by Malaysian writer, YK Lim, about his intention to have a small gathering to read his poems from his fresh-out-the-oven book, titled 61 Mostly Nonsense Rhymes For Malaysian Students, my curiosity was piqued, partly because I LOVE nonsense rhymes (!) because they are so much fun to read, and also they are great teaching materials for students of English and creative writing. And so, I volunteered to organise the event and Love18 cafe https://m.facebook.com/Love18.cc/ was kind enough to host it!

And so, just like old times, we descended upon the chocolate cafe which was started by a fellow unschooling couple, Eddie and Aileen Lee, who make the most delicious handmade chocolates in the region! Although we were supposed to start at 10.30, we were so comfortably seated, chatting with one another over delicious hot chocolate drinks that we ordered, and nibbling on chocolates on the house! that we only started the poems session 10 minutes after 11am. But no one really minded!

And we quickly dove into the poems read out by the author himself, and after reading aloud a few of his selected poems, he invited the children, and later, the parents, to read out the poems. And they had so much fun doing it that they didn’t want to stop!

It’s so refreshing to read poems with a Malaysian flavour – one gets to savour its unique language, foods and culture through poems! Here are some samplings of it:

I can imagine many of them being turned into songs to be sung instead of recited. That would be very interesting indeed! And the author agrees so!

And we didn’t want it to end because it was so much fun, but all good things have to come to an end eventually. And so, it was autograph session and the photograph session that capped the happy event!

And so, till our next meet-up at Love18, we bid you sayonara and have a very happy MALAYSIA DAY!!!