Henrik Hoeg on Peel Street Poetry Annual Slam 2018:
The 13th anniversary of Peel Street Poetry, the largest English language open mic poetry night in Hong Kong, brought another night of celebration and verse capped off with the annual slam competition. As happens each year, groups of competitors were given a prompt and only 10 minutes to write a poem in response to that prompt. They battled in groups of five, and one person from each group was selected to go through to the final. The poems published here are from the five finalists, either from their first round or from the final in which the prompt was ‘replicate’. This year the judging panel was comprised of last year’s winner Denis Tsoi, the former director of the Hong Kong International Literary Festival Phillipa Milne, and Peel Street Poetry organisers and Cha contributors Akin Jeje and Henrik Hoeg. Blair Reeve’s “Algorithm Template: Replicate”, featured below, is one of a Finalist of 2018’s Peel Street Poetry Annual Slam.
ALGORITHM TEMPLATE: REPLICATE
by Blair Reeve
I’ve been given this word to use, replicate,
but I don’t know what to do with it.
replicate—I’ve stared at it.
pleckri-rate-rep—flipped it over.
replicasaaaaaate—said it slowly and deeply,
replep Kate a late alate, replep Kate a late alate
—repeated it with rhythm.
So now allow me to shake the semantics out of it.
Imagine a replicate—an easily copied and pasted piece of art.
Pop art. Collated lepers fart placated peppers.
Articulate replicate—so as to give it more elasticity
And then apply what it really needs my love, narrative.
Who am I talking to now?
replep Kate a late alate
I’m talking to you.
Try improvising a personal story.
See if you can lead it somewhere.
Employ graft device “political tilt” if it’s not working out.
The Empire Strikes Back, the walkers.
I replicated the scene for a sci-fi poster project 1982.
Teacher scrapped it in the bin, made me start again.
Taught me a lesson—replication is cheating.
Political tilt: make a good Samaritan move to net millennial approval.
Trending phrases: single-use, woke, trigger, cis-gender,
body-shaming, toxic, misogyny, extinction rebellion.
AI replication is already a reality,
gender reassignment, split chromosomes.
We are copies of copies of copies, even us tall poppies,
but the replicator must be cut down.
Um, hang on.
Announcing a technique before offering an example bears out no originality.
A good replicate always bears out originality,
just like a bad replicate always leads to plagiarism.
Have we found ourselves in an echo chamber?
replep Kate a late alate, replep Kate a late alate
so as to give it more, give it, give it more elast-stas-stas-stas-stas tic
replep Kate a late alate, tic tic tistist distisit icity
replep Kate a late alate, licity. Icity, city, tee?
rrepipelicattet—I’ve mumbled it.
replicate??—phrased the word as a question. reppepepepliicicccatateirpllliecatetteceplicaaccatttteeteteterepeper
—run it through an articulation sequencer
Replicate is a series of thoughts that build, alternate, relocate,
replicate a series of thoughts, a fast talker or a Star Wars walker.
No shame. Andy Warhol got away with it.
❀❀❀ Blair Reeve: I’ve replicated the algorithm for thematic effect. Given it metaphor using a broad abstract noun for the vehicle, a nut from the narrative section, & pre-mixed in the rhythmic phrase to create the illusion of a poem that leaves a deeper impression than the cynicism coming to erase it. ❀❀❀
Blair Reeve is a performance poet, stay-at-home Dad, children’s author, and educator with an MFA from the City University of Hong Kong. He mentors students on the Chinese University of Hong Kong’s post-graduate writing program. Reeve grew up in New Zealand and he spent much of his adult life in Japan and Hong Kong. Music appreciation is one of his biggest passions, while his latest challenge is learning the piano.