A POEM ABOUT THE SEA

I sat on a dead tree
watching the mighty rollers
break upon the shore

And I said to myself,
"I shall write a poem about the sea!"

Whereupon wave after wave
of appropriate phrases
flooded into my brain
and drowned me.

1980

WHY MOTH BALLS?

moth [moth] n nocturnal insect of the order Lepidoptera; larva of this insect which feeds on wool and fabric.

mothball [mothbawl] n ball of camphor or napthalene repellent to clothes-moth; v/t lay up (ship, machine, etc.) when not in use, after protecting it from deteriorating.

_______________________

ball (1) [bawl] n spherical object (esp. as used in games); a globe; (fig) a celestial body, the earth; missile fired from a weapon; the heavy piece of a pendulum; (pl. vulg.) testicles; nonsense.

ball (2) n a social gathering for the purpose of dancing; an assembly; vt/i (sl) engage sexually; to copulate with wild abandon.

_______________________

scatology [skatoloji] n frequent reference to excretory processes in literature; gross obscenity; scientific study of fossil excrement.

eschatology [eskatoloji] n (theol) study of 'last things' - death, the millennium, heaven and hell, the return of the Christ, the resurrection and the end of the world.

________________________

poem [po-im] n a rhythmic pattern of words, often with rhyme, forming a literary whole and having an aesthetic or emotional effect.

________________________

kit [kit] n soldier's outfit, excluding his uniform; personal equipment; set of tools or implements; small round wooden tub; (ar) tiny fiddle used by dancing master; (abbr.) kitten.

leee [lee] n typographical error or idiosyncrasy, eeelegal extension; shelter, place protected from the wind.

WHAT'S IN A NAME?

KIT LEEE (who now calls himself Antares) has been called many things:

"Quintessential Chameleon of the Arts" ... "Hippie Oddball" ... "An Original" ... "A Throwback to the Sixties" ... "Avant-Garde" ... "A Malaysian Tom Wolfe" ... "An Icon of Nonconformity" ... "A Breath of Fresh Air" ... "A Bad Influence on Our Kids" ... "Lecherous Bohemian" ... "Self-Righteous Narcissist" ... "Skeletal" ... "Not Serious About Anything" ... "Funky Dude" ... "Hypomanic"...

But he is best known as a writer and cartoonist. His 1989 book of satirical essays and drawings, Adoi!, sold over 13,000 copies and got him lots of dinner invitations.

As a musician and composer, he released two solo albums in 1984 and 1986: Solitary Vice (& Other Virtues) and 2nd Coming. He has also produced original music for Marilya Corbot (a Brazilian performance artist/singer), Chandrabhanu (founder of the Bharatam Dance Company in Melbourne), and Ramli Ibrahim (Malaysia's answer to Nijinsky and Diaghilev). More recently, he produced Strange Flesh ~ 100% Organic (home recordings of his own songs plus some covers).

Since moving to Kuala Kubu Bharu in 1992, he has collaborated musically with Rafique Rashid and Sunetra Fernando on projects like Suara Rimba (a widely acclaimed children's musical adapted from Kipling's Jungle Book); and Akar Umbi ~ Songs of the Dragon, presenting Orang Asli (aboriginal Malaysian) folksongs in a contemporary context.

MOTH BALLS is Antares' first (and positively his last) "posthumous collection" of poems - culled from more than 25 years of inspired jottings in private journals, on scraps of paper, and the backs of envelopes.

What you're reading is a uniquely preposterous event in literary history.

QUOTES

"According to the Mayan tradition, our Sun is actually part of the Pleiades, and orbits in concert with the other stars of this constellation. The joint rotation of all the stars in the Pleiades, including our Sun, is but a minor motion within the huge, 400-billion-star spiral of our local galaxy, the Milky Way." ~ Steven McFadden, Profiles in Wisdom: Native Elders Speak about the Earth

"It is time to work into the deepest part of our beings to regain the information we have impressed there - in the spiral of our DNA. Only in this way will millenial information rise into our conscious awareness, reminding us of an ancient time when knowledge was unified and there was no separation between science and religion. High knowledge is coming. We must prepare to receive it." ~ Hunbatz Men, Mayan Daykeeper & author of Los Calendarios Astronomicos y Hunab K'u

SPECIAL THANKS

I'm deeply grateful to:

Rehman Rashid - for insisting time and again that I share my vagrant musings with the world (please don't hold it against him), and for proving spectacularly that self-publishing isn't merely "acceptable"... sometimes it's the only way, and it can be fun and rewarding.

Rafique Rashid - for lighting a series of fires under my hut to get me going on this project, and for the brilliant theme music (if you missed it at the Moth Balls launch... wait for the video!)

Susan Lau - for valiantly transcribing my IBM diskette to Applese, Word for {%*@#!+%*} Word, assisted by Carolyn and Tony Lau (one wonders how Shakespeare ever managed without computers).

Dai Moon Loy and Lee Hong Wah - my parents - for the occasional cash transfusions and their tacit support (they've never actually applauded my "lifestyle" but they have always been decent enough to maintain a dignified silence about it).

Chuah Guat Eng - for late night access to her wordprocessing facilities.

Mariana Musa - for graciously and heroically turning my low-tech mess into into a high-tech book with her amazing PageMaker skills.

Mary Maguire - for daredevilishly and generously underwriting the production of Moth Balls, thereby midwifing its entry into the third dimension, and for all-round logistical, emotional and paleontological support.

Lena Ang, Guna, Dato' Lat, Amir Yussof, Hullabaloo, John Hagedorn, Peter Hassan & Markiza, Vera Verbiage, Anand Somasundram and Many Others (left out of this list because the book was already at the printer's) who helped create a festive and welcoming atmosphere for the birth of Moth Balls.

And, of course, I wish to acknowledge my debt to the tree that sacrificed its substance to the realization of this book.

Om'ta ku Oyasin

(I greet all Beings throughout the Universe with Love)

To my Nuclear Family -

Lotus, Moon & Belle

And to my Rainbow Family -

All those spiritual warriors helping transmute leaden density to golden destiny

And to my Galactic Family -

The Luminous Ones without whom Life would be totally unlikely

And to the affectionate memory of...

R. BUCKMINSTER FULLER - my adoptive grandfather, teleological poet, visionary architect, whole systems thinker, inventor of the octet truss, geodesic domes and the term "synergetics"

DANE RUDHYAR - astrologer, composer, painter, holistic philosopher and pioneer member of the Earth Council for Solar-Planetary Affairs

ROBERT GRAVES - Dionysian poet, novelist, mythologist and transdimensional tea drinker

FRANK ZAPPA - musician, composer, meta-cultural catalyst, media wizard, neo-dadaist prophet and special advisor to the Czech parliament

JOHN LENNON - singer/songwriter, cartoonist, planetary citizen and pop messiah

LARI LEONG - dancer/choreographer, spiritual warrior

LESLIE DAWSON - actor, gentleman and lover of life

K. DAS - political writer, raconteur, publisher and kingly spirit

ERNIE FREEMAN - cowboy crooner, hell-raiser, free spirit and father to three lovely daughters

BOSCO D'CRUZ - a friendly giant on and off the stage

HANS & KIM THOA SALLMANN - cross-cultural ambassadors, noble and warm-hearted friends

DR PETER TONG KWOK KEE - my unofficial godfather, the one who first pointed out the stars to me

WONG SWEE CHIN - better known as Botak Chin (described as "a brave and honest man" by the judge during his trial), hanged for taking cash out of the banks to give to the needy

TECHNICAL TRIVIA

Published by

MAGICK RIVER

44000 Kuala Kubu Bharu

Malaysia

Limited First Edition (700 copies), November 1994

Any part of this collection may be reproduced or transmitted, in any form and by any means, electronic or mechanical, analog or digital - but please be decent enough to give credit where it's due, include a backlink. And if you're generating income from any of this content, don't forget to return a reasonable percentage to the source.

Blog design & drawings: Antares

Front Cover: Huehuecoyotl, Aztec god of music, dance and laughter (batik art by Antares)

Back Cover Photo: Harb Gill, 1992

Printed by

Academe Art & Printing Services Sdn Bhd

Perpustakaan Negara Malaysia

Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

Leee, Kit

Moth Balls: scatological & eschatological poems/by Kit Leee

ISBN 983-99985-0-1

1. Malaysian poetry (English). 2. Scatology - Poetry.

2. Eschatology - Poetry.

I. Title.

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