CHERITA, GEMBUN & DUA- The Stories They Tell
Dear Readers, this week I bring you ai li, creator of Cherita, Gembun and Dua, three unique storytelling short-form genres. She is also the editor of the cherita, founding editor and publisher of still, moving
into breath and dew-on-line. She is also a Fellow of The Royal Photographic Society of Great Britain [FRPS], and an evidential spiritualist medium who trained at The Spiritualist Association of Great Britain
and The College of Psychic Studies, London. ai li’s poems have been widely published in the UK, USA,
and Japan.
ai li has created 22 original, unique and exciting linked forms akin to Renku aka Renga, three of which are the cherita, gembun and dua. These three storytelling short form genres have been widely embraced and have grown in popularity since ai li created two in 1997 and one in 2022. Cherita, Gembun and Dua bring out the storyteller which lives in all of us.
She writes all her Cherita, Gembun,Dua, Tanka and Haiku poems in one breath and has been doing this for almost thirty years for four of these genres. She lives quietly and mindfully in London and writes in a
Rousseau inspired dream yard watched over by three old stone buddhas, a resident pair of hedge sparrows,
and a chorus of diverse birds.
i, storyteller
sipping tea
under
a harvest moon
we are no longer
strangers
the scented steam
ai li
from sandalwood dreaming by ai li
The stories and voices remain but they have all gone.
La Luna always takes me home.
As a family, we would tell stories and eat sweetmeats under a full moon during the mid-autumn festival, to honour the moon goddess, adorned graveyard altars with food, flowers and cakes for tomb sweeping day, and placed local delicacies, fruit and red hand-painted candles out in our dim back lanes for the wandering homeless dead on our hungry ghost festival every year. There was also Chinese New Year to celebrate for fifteen days with young girls throwing fresh mandarins off a local bridge to a throng of male admirers waiting to catch the right one below on the last day of the new year. Then there was the arrival of new babies in the family, weddings and of course, traditional funerals which could last up to weeks with guests arriving at all hours of a day to share home-cooked food, play mah-jong and cherki cards long into the night to comfort and keep the bereaved company. And as always, there were stories and storytelling, long into memory’s night, which was part and parcel of who we were in our newly adopted homeland.
I had been in self-imposed exile for decades in the West and the acute longing for my spiritual home never quite went away. Now the words and stories from way back jostled in my mind, wanting to be heard again, bringing all the ghosts of past and present, back to life.
Then a gift arrived on 27 May 1997 and the Lunenga [1-2-3, 1-2-3, 1-2-3, 1-2-3, 1-2-3, 1-2-3, 1-2-3, 1-2-3,] was born, where one link has to include the moon.
Its first stanza format of 1-2-3 soon became Cherita on 22 June 1997, less than a month later.
Cherita is now in its 27th year [1997-2023] and it continues to be, not only a storytelling medium, but also Flash Fiction in 6 lines.
CHERITA [1-2 -3] [pronounced CHAIR-rita] is the Malay word for story or tale. A Cherita consists of a single stanza of a one-line verse, followed by a two-line verse, and then finishing with a three-line verse. It can be written solo or with up to three partners.
CHERITA TERBALIK or inverted cherita [pronounced CHAIR-rita tur-bar-lake] on the other hand gives you [3–2–1], [2–1–3], [1–3–2], [2–3–1] and [3–1–2] stanzas and it too can be written in collaboration with up to 3 writing partners.
The Cherita genre tells a story of Life, Love, Loss and Renewal. It was created by me on the 22 June 1997 to honour my maternal grandparents who were raconteurs extraordinaire. It was also inspired by Larry Kimmel’s sensitive recognition of a shorter form contained within the opening three-verse stanza of my Lunenga, which had been created on the 27 May 1997.
Here is the true essence of what timeless Cherita is all about :
in the pond
in the water
yet above it
pure and
blemish-free
the lotus
Neena Singh
from the sweetness
edited by ai li
a night for dreaming
the nile
outside
your window
with
the pharaoh’s moon
ai li
from how soft the light
by ai li
a thousand paper cranes
none can fly
as time does
I stop
at
number three
Jackie Chou
from the aroma
edited by ai li
who knew
we would fall
in love
with a room
full
of memories
Connie Pittman-Ramsey
from cloud shadows
edited by ai li
one
winter
afternoon
wordplay
from
dying snowflakes
Larry Kimmel and ai li
from dark to light
edited by ai li
i
see
you
in
dreams
the past
Sherry Grant
from words in my dreams
edited by ai li
sun
in
blossom
i
am
home
Caroline Skanne
from words in my dreams
edited by ai li
the tree quiet
no leaf
moving
as if
it knows
the meaning of silence
James Haddad and Kathabela Wilson
from ink stain
edited by ai li
If you haven’t as yet, do wake the storyteller that lives in you, and come join Cherita’s caravanserai of storytellers.
Someone has to keep the storytelling campfire burning into legend.
Have pen will write, and having written, spirit moved me on to two other minimal forms of storytelling that would also arrive as manna from heaven.
The Zen of storytelling in Gembun . . .
the colour
of night
fast asleep
in the lake
ai li
from snow clouds
edited by ai li
And then in Dua :
i can hear the night
in a passing train
ai li
from dancing shoes by ai li
distil, distil, distil with Gembun and Dua.
There are no syllable restrictions or seasonal words required for you to write Gembun and Dua.
Be the free spirit you were meant to be in ink and you will find the true essence of storytelling.
Gembun and Dua are siblings of Cherita. Cherita and Gembun were created by me in 1997, and Dua was the twinkle in my eye that finally became a reality on 4 March 2022.
The Gembun [1-3 or 1-4] [pronounced Gem-Boon] is made up of either a one-word first link or anything up to one sentence, to be capped by a haiku of up to four lines.
Gembun has to include an element of suggestion in either the opening sentence, the haiku or in both. It was created by ai li on the 12 June 1997, inspired by Larry Kimmel’s TIBUN.
Gembun Terbalik [3-1 or 4-1] [pronounced Gem-Boon Tur-Bar-Lake] now joins this minimal form and is an inverted Gembun. It is written with a haiku of 3 or 4 lines as its opening stanza and then capped by a one liner.
The Gembun and Gembun Terbalik have to include an element of suggestion in either the opening sentence or haiku, the haiku or opening sentence or in both. Gembun was created by ai li on the 12 June 1997, inspired by Larry Kimmel’s TIBUN. www.aili.co.uk/gembun/
The Gembun genre can cover births, deaths, anniversaries, betrayals, disappointments, abortions, bankruptcies, joblessness, vendettas, suicides et al, and also about travel, work, hobbies, light and dark passions, eating disorders, night shifts, cross dressing, the erotic, mindfulness and any other subject matter that I may have missed or forgotten. The list is endless.
I will now pave the way for both Gembun and Dua to speak their Zen, tip toeing in with twelve amuse-bouche below to quietly tantalise your writing palate :
cat
came back
to see
if we were ok
James Haddad
from windswept rain
edited by ai li
dew
on weeds
glitters
Milky Way
Neena Singh
from windswept rain
edited by ai li
a new notepad
time
to wake
the storyteller
ai li
from snow clouds
edited by ai li
on my hands and knees
blowing
a baby spider
out of the door
Genie Nakano
from windswept rain
edited by ai li
wind chimes
a bamboo alley
sways in the breeze
my summer dress
Laughing Waters
from snow clouds
edited by ai li
poet’s house
somehow
the view makes more sense
alone
Tim Gardiner
from snow clouds
edited by ai li
Twilight
I’ll try again
to learn the robin’s song
tomorrow
Keith Evetts
from snow clouds
edited by ai li
night sky
the crescent moon
cradling
venus
- Suresh Babu
from windswept rain
edited by ai li
half past twelve
a mosquito’s
dialogue
under her duvet
Radhamani Sarma
from paper talisman
edited by ai li
hidden path
secret for so long
she forgot
the way back home
Connie Pittman-Ramsey
from paper talisman
edited by ai li
out of
a quiet
day
a storm
Sharon Hawley
from windswept rain
edited by ai li
wind
through
the trees
and then silence
Lorelyn De la Cruz Arevalo
from windswept rain
edited by ai li
With Dua, you may need to practice morphing into a poetry perfumer to capture the essence of an even more minimal moment in time :
Here are twelve dua amuse-bouche to further tantalise your writing palate :
i must make a pilgrimage
a poem
Larry Kimmel
from remembering
edited by ai li
near the moon gate
falling leaves
David Cox
from remembering
edited by ai li
threadbare blanket
the holes in the night
Jackie Chou
from remembering
edited by ai li
memory leaves
like real people
Madeleine Basa Vinluan
from remembering
edited by ai li
your love left
under my pillow
Kathabela Wilson
from remembering
edited by ai li
a lone leaf
on an empty road
paula song sarmonpal
from remembering
edited by ai li
after walking on water
she came right back
Sharon Hawley
from remembering
edited by ai li
the cut flowers wilting
the vase beautiful
Pitt Büerken
from remembering
edited by ai li
the leaf at her toe
says i have fallen
James Haddad
from remembering
edited by ai li
the verandah empty now
with rain
ai li
from remembering
edited by ai li
this afternoon… at the turn of the
river mother waits for me with fairy tales
Partha Sarkar
from remembering
edited by ai li
owl
calling me home
paula song sarmonpal
from remembering
edited by ai li
Find the quiet in you with Cherita, Gembun and Dua.
ai li FRPS
wordsmith – storyteller- word healer
Creator of Cherita, Gembun and Dua
Editor and Publisher of the cherita
Fellow of The Royal Photographic Society
all cherita, gembun and dua copyright © ai li, the cherita and the attributed poets above 2023.
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