Thursday, 28 February 2008

SANG KANCIL AND SANG BUAYA



There was once a jolly Sang Kancil, the mousedeer who was very carefree. He would skipped around in the undergrowth, listening to the sounds of nature and admire all its wonders. The morning became afternoon and he felt so hungry. His stomach murmured sounds continuously expressing a desire for food.

The opposite bank looked marvellous with red, yummy, delicious guavas hanging alluringly on the trees. “They look fantastic! Erm..but how can I get there?” he uttered himself. Unsuspectingly, he daringly crossed the river. He skipped off the rocks and logs in the river to reach the other side. As he was making his skips , “Clam!!!”. His foot was caught! The wild, grey-looked, violent figure of Sang Buaya, the crocodile has caught the little Sang Kancil for meal of the week. Strangely, Sang Kancil was not afraid but a bit of nervous of course. “Hello Sang Buaya, you caught the shoot of the tree, not my leg”, said the brilliant Sang Kancil calmly. And Sang Buaya replied, “What? Not you?!!!” Surprisingly, the crocodile released the mousedeer’s leg and sighed.

The brainy Sang Kancil added, “Hey Sang Buaya, I was being commanded by the King of Solomon to count your species and relatives that live in this river. Go and tell your all of your kinfolk to come up, the King Solomon will reward all of you for being such great creatures in the entire universe. “I don’t believe in you, trickster!!” yelled Sang Buaya. The conversation went on and finally the smart Sang Kancil successfully convinced the silly Sang Buaya.

After a while, all types of crocodiles, black, green, rough and fierce lined up from bank-to-bank of the wide river. Sang Kancil smiled sinisterly. His heart jumped happily. Without further hesitation, he hopped on and off the heads of those whacky creatures and counting.

“One, two I knock, male, female I dock.” “Three, four, five, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven.” “The King Solomon is no more on the ground, and now you know I’m just fooling around.” “Hahahaha...!!!!” the Sang Kancil laughed sarcastically right after he landed on the opposite bank and left all the empty-headed beasts in the river with enragement and infuriation.

He headed excitedly to the place where his tempting and enticing guavas hanged. Frantically, he ate all of those guavas in one single breath, tasting the crunchy smooth flesh and juicy juice which he dreamt for.

And the crocodile learned a new lesson. Weak does not mean freak. The Sang Buaya hoped for revenge to the little mousedeer, Sang Kancil for life.

A bedtime story I wrote for my Creative Writing Class. The feedback were all really good and encouraging !! One of my classmates, Gemma, said "This is the best bedtime story I've ever read! You made the creatures alive in the story!"

And another friend, Lindsey, asked, "What is SANG mean?"

Another mate, Gerry, said "The story is different from others. Very unique!"

Wah wah..macam ter'kembang' sekejap mendengar segala pujian mereka..padahal ini bukannya karya yang hebat sangat pun..biase saje, based on my childhood febbles. I love Creative Writing Class!!

Wednesday, 13 February 2008

The Breeze of Hopes

Salam, this is my essay I did for my creative writing class last week. The concept of the essay is the metaphor.I use metaphor like the breeze of hopes in my writing style for this week. This is not the best one but at least I tried.


When she wakes up in the morning, she hopes that she can smile for the rest of the day. She loves to be happy and fears the sadness. She wants to smile and laugh. She hates to cry and sob.
She envies the girls who have everything she doesn’t. Admires the qualities they have. Brilliant, beautiful and wealthy. Perfect. And what does she have? Nothing but sincerity and kindness. But nobody cares. She does not possess the sweet smiles, adorable face, smooth skin and silky hair. All she has, is faith and honesty. But no one notices.

She dreams to have a friend whom she can talk to and be close to. She tried making friends but they ignored her. And she ends up talking to herself in her own lonely world. She wants a friend whom she can spend her time with. Doing crazy-like things like any other girls. Parties, birthdays and shopping sprees. But she ends up jumping alone with her skipping rope in her room almost all weekends. Being all on her own renders her in despair.

When she feels empty, she sleeps. Hoping that those sweet dreams might scare away the emptiness she has. She dreams about the laughter of enjoyment and the noise of fun. Wanting those sounds to blow away the silence and quietness in her life. She wishes when she wakes up from the sleep she will forget all the loneliness that holds her. But when she awakes again, all she can hear is only the whisper of wishes and prayers of hope of her own.

Looking at the sun-rising at the east makes her heart excited wishing that her life would shine like the sun, smile like the clouds and wave like the trees blown by soft, gentle breeze. She wants her life to be like the bright sunny hot day. Warming, drying and tanning that give her excitement, exhilaration, joy and fun. She hungers only for a little appreciation of her presence. Not too much reward of acknowledgement and admiration.

She realises that the sun brings her the spirits. The intense spirit that makes her forget about the sadness, worthlessness and loneliness in her life. Replacing those with strong emotions, motivation and faith. But this does not mean she hates and detests the moon in the dark sky. All she wants to do is to embrace the warmth of the day before the coldness of the night cuddles her tight.

Sunday, 10 February 2008

antara Mawar dan Semalu





Sajak untuk renungan muslimah




Mawar dan Semalu



tersenyum mawar
merah dan mekar
dirintiki embun segar




melata semalu
menyerlahkan puspa yang ayu
berwarna ungu

bagai menggamit datang
mawar harum nan kembang
dipetik dimasukkan ke dalam balang



aduh
jari tertusuk duri berbisa
darah merah mengalir sama




semalu pula
di tanah menjalar melata
menghiasi padang hijau yang luas
bertaburan bebas

semalu dipetik
aduh
mengapa daunnya merapat
tak bisa disunting menjadi semat


mawar masih di dalam balang
semalu kembali dibuang kembali ke padang
mana satu menjadi pilihan
mawar merah yang melukakan
atau semalu yang tak rela disentuh tangan?





Karya: Fitri Azmi





hmmmm..sungguh sajak ini membuat kita berfikir, untuk jadi semalu atau mawar.




Mawar - cantik, berbau harum tapi harumnya hanya seketika...menarik perhatian sesiapa sahaja yang memandang..tetapi berduri..simbol kasih sayang dan romantis (seorang wanita akan berasa sangat gembira apabila menerima bunga mawar berbanding semalu daripada seorang insan bernama lelaki)...




Semalu - mungkin tidak secantik mawar, tidak seharum mawar, jumlahnya pula banyak di padang rumput, manusia juga tidak menghargai semalu (tiada semalu dijual ketika Graduation Day), malah di padang rumput juga manusia hanya memijak semalu tanpa rasa bersalah sedikit pun..tapi semalu sangat menjaga maruah dan kehormatan dirinya..tidak rela dirinya disentuh sesiapapun..sungguh pemalu wahai semalu...




Jadi fikir-fikirkanlah wahai teman..kerana sajak ini bukan tujuan untuk mengelirukan tetapi untuk membuat kita berfikir dan membuat pertimbangan daripada perbandingan sekuntum bunga mawar di tangan dan sepohon semalu di padang...




Ambillah iktibar dari kedua-dua pohon ini..sungguh..keduanya hanya makhluk ciptaan Allah, tidak diciptakan untuk kesempurnaan...





Indahnya hidup ini jika kita menjadi berani dan bersemangat seperti mawar yang merah dan mengambil ciri 'wisdom and dignity' seperti semalu yang ungu...

Thursday, 7 February 2008

in the name of...

No other name called,
as sweet as her name is...
Her name is Mahfuzah,
safeguard by Allah.
The Lord, the Almighty God.

Hehe..I'm writing this poem to myself..

and another one is....


Cardiff
by Mahfuzah
Cardiff,
Beautiful, wonderful
Freezing, breathing, calming,
Cardiff is windy,
Cold.

Sunday, 3 February 2008

what's coming...

Occupational therapy and me~

1. Patchwork text 1- the impact of Occupational Interruption 1 (April)

2. Viva Voice 1 (April)

3. Planning poster - I like this..haha (April)

4.Practice Placement 2 - Planning placement...can't wait for this...haha (May)

the White South is in my heart



This is a short reflective piece of my creative writing I did for my Creative Writing Class, 'We all have our own White South' is the sentence that I took from the novel 'Tera Incognita' to be the topic for this time... In the novel, White South refers to Antartica, but I did differently to show a little bit of creativity in my writing..




When I am abroad and missing home, what do I miss the most? Of course my home sweet home. Then the food, and then the fruits. Home means a host of little things I never knew I loved so much until I am out here in a foreign land.



All those things come to my mind and tease my nostalgia. I miss the laughter in dining room with my brothers and sisters. I miss mum’s tea with her baked banana balls when we watched television. I miss massaging my dad’s leg when he sat on the sofa with bare foot. I yearn to do those things.



I remember the smells of my house, sweet and nice. Smell that I could not get at other places except my home. I miss to wake up early in the morning and fed the chickens with my little sister at the backyard.



How can I forget having a scrumptious home made lunch under the rambutan tree with the whole family in our beautiful, colourful garden. I remember the time when my dad climbed the coconut tree just to get the nice coconut juice for all of us.



I definitely could not forget when I helped my dad to clean our beautiful garden from any unwanted weeds. I certainly could remember every dry evening I played badminton with my brother and of course he won all the times.



And when August comes, everyone will be very excited as it is the fruits season. This time, my mum will be the busiest person in our family. Make sure our neighbours get a bunch of rambutans and a bunch of mangos teens. I love the time really.



Most of all, I miss all the ways. I could not forget every single thing that made me feel belonged. How far I go, how long I am away, I will still keep thinking about this little thing. We all have our own White South. And my White South is my home. There is no other place called home. I cannot see it now but it is inside me.



The feedback I got after reading this to the class were all positive. They kept asking me some sort of questions like...

1. what is banana ball ? (haha)..'cucur kodok' la..i dunno what to say in english....and i replied to them, banana ball is kind of malaysian dishes, crushed bananas mixed with flour and then fried.

2. what is rambutan? i just said, it is called singaporian lychee here..actually, rambutan originated from Malaysia..and they said.."we dont know that"...

3. what is mangosteen? what?? they dont know it !! this time i dunno how to explain.. my answer is, it's a purple fruit with sweet taste...

4. I like the way you describe the garden.. It sounded like it was in the jungle.... (what? perli ke ape budak ni...?)

5. I bet you miss your home very much.. (of course..but I'm not homesick..LOL)

6. Sense of repetition in your writing style..i like it

7.You start with a question at the beginning of the writing..it made me eager to know what is the answer...

8. the way you decribe the scrumptous homemade lunch makes me feel like, I dont want to eat any other bloody chicken KFC and McDs...haha.. (sounded good..ermm)




Saturday, 2 February 2008

the list

Mission for this week...

1.Meaningful Occupation assignment - finalised

2.Creative Writing - poems

3.Tamsin Work - Occupatinal Interuption 1 , need to compile for group handout.


lovemylifeverymuch
mahfuzahzainol
otbabycardiffuniversityuk

RED is my colour

I think it's good to have a start with my poem on motivation~



I am weak
I dream to be strong

I am cold
I want to feel warm

I am coward
Please give me courage

I feel flat..
arouse me with excitement
embrace me with exhilaration
maximise my pulse rate
and motivate me with red

by Mahfuzah Zainol, 2008

the concept of using colour in this poem is adapted from 'The Blue Garden' by a poet, Helen Dunmoore