"We spend hours, days, months and years to combine imagination and reality." Ikhda Ayuning Maharsi on publishing her pamphlet with the Emma Press

Over the course of our call for pamphlet proposals, we'll have some of our existing pamphlet authors writing about their experience of having a pamphlet published with us. Here we have Ikhda Ayuning Maharsi talking about her pamphlet Ikhda, by Ikhda.  

“Words are deeds”, Joseph Kosuth, 1991. This simple phrase could describe any reason why the world still needs poetry. Why we spend hours, days, months and years to combine imagination and reality. Why we should be busily opening the dictionaries, smelling the nice old glossaries and running up our notebook’s pages. Reflection and meditation on its unconscious level directs us to write notes about everything; about what is hiding behind our ordinary life to the tragedy happens somewhere else. Writing poetry means having our monologue and sharing it with other people.

Ikhda by Ikhda is a collection of poems based on spontaneity and curiosity. My writing process was a year of affection. Sometimes I laughed at myself, or cried a lot because of my reflection on things going on in my life and outside of my life, or I was angry because I am a woman and a feminist, thinking will never enough. Ikhda by Ikhda is flower of emotions; some poems are realist, some are surreal. The Emma Press helped me a lot to figure it out. And I thank you.

As a newcomer in the published poets club, I was personally so excited and quite happy about my first collection. I remember once Emma Wright and I were carrying heavy books to cross over London and talked about everything. As a “debutant poet”, it was a huge experience to see my vigorous publisher in the literature world.

For me, poetry is a form of art. It is so important to have our authentic style and personal voice. Before the theory of viral is booming, known poets were always doing it right. Sending message to the world in their ways of thinking, their fresh perceptions. That’s why we are here.

I adore observing different landscapes and meeting lots of people. Maybe my travelling life also helps me a lot to write poems. But it is a hard work of not jumping into clichés about paysage. For example, when I am in Japan, I should not just write about sakura blossoms, temples, and kimonos. Of course I could - it’s not forbidden and they can be a poem’s ornaments, but what every poet is doing is digging for the essence.

Lastly: a sense of humor. When I gave birth to Ikhda by Ikhda, everyone around me (friends and family) were so joyful and I had lots, lots of warm support and I think it is a good thing for considering our creation as a media to communicate with others. So many stories around us, so many things to be captured. I think having a sense of humor in writing poetry is a must. Not to promote alcohol but wine helps poets!  As helpful as pets, as music, as comic books. So do have fun. Only by the lightness we can send over our empathy to the world. Life doesn’t need to be guessed and poetry is a magical recreation.

Ikhda, by Ikhda is available to order on our website. You can also find out more about our call for pamphlet submissions here.