After checking out of our hotel and hopping about in the cold (Ms Teng declared us amazing after we tried - and failed - to persuade her to let us seek warmth in a teensy convenience store) we entered a cosy basement room and met Jacob. He'd kindly set up the chairs in the room in preparation for us. He gave us all a warm welcome and a friendly introduction, telling us more about his work - he's not just a poet 'on the page', but enjoys and frequently does performance poetry. Also, he is an editor (mostly of other budding poets' work), creative director, consultant, mentor and educator! That is a lot of things to be. We were very impressed and interested indeed.
He began the session, aptly, with reading a few of his poems - firstly, on the common theme of an unrequited crush; secondly, Gravity (a poem on basketball and pursuing one's passions, applicable to many of us today), lastly, a touching poem about his father, Never. He quizzed us on the meaning and symbolism of his poems and seemed happy that we were a responsive audience 8D (Apparently, there are harsh audiences who just stare at their watches after his readings - how incredibly discouraging.)
(In case you are wondering about his poems, here is a live reading of Gravity!)
(Also, he is pretty big on social networking and outreach, so you can view his posts, or follow him, on twitter and tumblr. He runs a website as well.)
(And another of his interests is photography.)
He then 'hosted' a 'quiz show' on another of his poems, Jigsaw. It was a powerful poem, a musing of his father - whom he has met only once, as an adult - based on an old photograph. It touched us all. Jacob asked us simple, then challenging questions on Jigsaw, focusing on details and then on the meaning of the poem. In the case of Jigsaw, my group believed he eventually put away his father's photograph, in between old birthday cards and love letters, to find and construct an identity of his own - piecing it together (like the pieces of a jigsaw) from shared moments between friends, family, as well as the families of other friends.
After that he had us write down a list of people and places important to us, and then places and objects which we associated with each person/place in our list. Basically, he pointed out that poetry, or inspiration/raw material for poetry, can be found in places, people and things all around us - just as how one finds beauty all around us. I think many of us were inspired to explore such personal occurrences and find the poetry in each and every one of them.
Following which, we had the ever-useful question and answer session. It was an insightful session, during which we learned that, unlike many poets who prefer to be solely poets 'on the page' or performance poets, Jacob believes in finding equilibrium in being both as he gleans different experiences from performing poetry and putting it down on paper. He finds inspiration all around him, from overheard conversations on buses to more sentimental experiences of his own. Perhaps his work in photography also allows him to recognise the beauty in the world and to try to put that down on paper. Personally, I believe something which struck us all was his ability to take a personal experience and craft a universal message out of it - a message Jacob believes in sending out to as many people as possible, through his performance poetry, anthologies and work in mentoring youths in many, many schools.
Our dialogue allowed us to understand better the creative process involved in writing poems and how Jacob chooses to use poetry as a medium to reach out to others around him, and address important, pivotal issues in life. Jacob writes abstract poems as well as poems which convey a message, or poems which read like a story.
With that, we concluded our session with a group shot! Outside a building. We are not sure which. We all enjoyed it very much indeed, and were in fact honoured to have made the acquaintance of Jacob.
Following which we had lunch, and a bit of last-minute shopping in town. Eugenia, my buddy, will now educate you on Hampton Court Palace, which was magnificent, in my honest opinion 8D Except we did not get to see deer - oh, well.
At about 2pm, we were given slightly longer than 3 hours to explore the Hampton Court Palace on our own. Most closely linked both in history and popular imagination to Henry VIII, this great palace was once home to many royals for over 500 years. Today, half of Henry's Palace survives as the rest was rebuilt by William III as a stunning baroque palace. Both William and his wife wanted to rebuild the palace to satisfy modern aesthetic appeal (which was then the famous baroque-style architecture), but she soon fell ill and the couple ran out of money halfway into the reconstruction of the building. It was particularly interesting to see a building built using two different architectural styles.
The official representative symbol of the palace is Henry VIII's royal coat of arms, which is supported by the Tudor symbols of the red dragon of Wales and a greyhound. Inside the palace, we enjoyed a wide range of activities, from watching costumed live interpretations of Henry VIII's wedding to his 6th wife Kateryn Parr in 1543 (he had 7 wives in total) to knights battling in the joust in a Grand Tournament out on the impressive East Front Gardens. All these live interpretations were extremely entertaining and enjoyable. Not only did we see knights in action, we got to try on parts of their armour too!
Perhaps the most interesting attraction at the palace gardens is the maze, which is the most famous one in the world. My group members and I strolled through the maze and took 10 minutes to reach the centre, while our form teacher Miss Teng and classmate Hui Qi managed to complete it under 5 minutes. (all applaud in awe)
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We proceeded to Heathrow Airport (voted Busiest Airport in the world!!), ate, and then sat on a plane for 13 hours before reaching where we are now - home.
We have all enjoyed this trip very, very muchly indeed - hope you have followed our travels with the same interest and enjoyment.
I realize that we have not managed to begin our days with 'meaningful quotes' as stated in our little booklet, but I can conclude this trip with one, because it is only the beginning of our very fantastic voyage into the world of literature, humanities (and sciences, if you want), and beyond:
Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.
Mark Twain
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