It Takes So Much To Be Nothing: Poems 2018-2024 by Jack Malik

The book is described as a "celebration of playful chaos punctuated by moments of 'satori.'" 

The poems cover a range of experiences, from personal thoughts and anxieties to moments that are tied to a sense of place in Malaysia, including cities like Ipoh, Kangar, and Petaling Jaya. 

“Jack Malik delights in his anxieties of influence, often invoking his poetic ‘godfathers’ from Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, and Frank O’Hara, to Salleh Ben Joned and Abdul Ghafar Ibrahim. Yet through the dizzying flights of sense and form, these poems reach for a sense of place—Ipoh, Kangar, Kuala Kubu Bharu, Section 14, Petaling Jaya. Jack Malik’s new poetry collection is a celebration of playful chaos punctuated by moments of ‘satori’, like a prayer uttered on a monsoon night.”

Pauline Fan

Creative Director, PUSAKA

“Jack Malik's poems are figuratively and physically ornamental, with a spry step at the end of a word, a sentence. There's joy too, and tender observations on lack, desire and dreams… effortless in creating his world of youth, joy and heartbreak that is sorely needed in Malaysian poetry.”

Dina Zaman

Author

"Jack Malik has established himself as an important new voice in Malay poetry with three volumes of poems. This debut poem collection signals his emergence a new voice in Malaysian poetry in English. Jack Malik’s words on the page take on a new life when he performs them. He is a poet to read and certainly one to watch as he performs his poems, breaking conventions and creating new ones. Jack Malik takes the reader on a rough, joyous ride where nothing is as it seems."

Malachi Edwin Vethamani

Poet, fictionist, emeritus professor