What Lang Leav, PHL's most loved (and hated) poet, has taught me about life, writing, and tuning out the negative

This is what I learned from trying to write a story about Lang Leav: When you have already read so many versions of the same story, you have no choice but to start at the end.

And the end is this: I am at the book signing event of Lang Leav for her sixth poetry collection (and seventh overall), "Love Looks Pretty On You," at a shopping mall in Mandaluyong City.

This is her fourth visit to the Philippines. The first time she was in the country, her debut collection, "Love & Misadventure," was only a couple of years old. At the time, Lang was not yet the massive name that she is today, but she was already popular enough to have been brought to the Philippines twice in the same year.

Today, five years after her first visit, there is no sign that the phenomenon of Lang Leav will die down any time soon.

More than 650 people are in line to have their copies of "Love Looks Pretty On You" signed. Some have been waiting for Lang since 6am; the lines for the event opened at 10.

Lang Leav at her signing in SM Megamall

It doesn't sound impressive, but 650 people is a lot. And when you consider that they are here waiting not for a movie star or a pop star but a writer, 650 is massive, gargantuan.

The whole mall Activity Center shrieks when Lang arrives — a kind of reaction I only see at events where the headliner is a popular celebrity. Lang walks to the stage with a bodyguard and her mother.

“This is the first time I brought my mother with me on tour,” she says. As Lang prepares for the program, her mother sits beside me, enthusiastically taking photos and videos of the event.

It was a few days after Valentine’s Day, so the program host asks Lang how she spent it with Michael. By Michael, the host means Michael Faudet, author of the poetry collection "Smokes and Mirrors" and Lang’s partner. The question elicits more shrieks from the audience.

“It was actually, really crazy,” Lang says. “Because it was a week before the book tour, which is always quite hectic, and I have this really terrible sunburn… You know, if you’ve been together 10 years, that was our Valentine’s Day and it was really nice and special.”

“That’s true love,” the host says. “When, you know, when he helps you with your sunburn.”

“Yeah. When I’m in tears and just thinking, ‘Oh my God, am I too old for that?’” Lang quips. The audience laughs.

Lang’s answer is simple. And the host does not even feel the need to explain who Michael was, which means she assumed everyone in the audience knew Lang’s relationship status. Yet the reaction it got is electric.

This is not just a book signing, I realize. This is a gathering of friends, and everyone here is catching up with their long-time friend Lang.

A gathering of more than 650 friends

Lang is arguably the most popular poet in the Philippines right now.

Lang, who was born in a Thai refugee camp and grew up in Australia, is what many might call an “Instapoet” — a writer catapulted into fame thanks to their use of social media to share their poetry online. Lang shot to fame when the poems she published on her Tumblr account became viral. She then compiled and self-published it into her first collection of poems. The rest is history.

Instapoets are not just popular in the Philippines. In the US, poets who got their start on social media such as Rupi Kaur, R.M. Drake, and Amanda Lovelace dominate the bestsellers list.

Here, however, Lang is yet to be usurped.

It isn’t hard to see the appeal of Lang’s work. Philippine press describes her poetry as “childlike, whimsical.” She writes about a number of things but it is her poems about love that really resonate with her local fans. I ask a fan what made her like Lang’s poetry. She explains: Lang writes so simply yet with so much passion and deep meaning.

“I sometimes wonder how she could come up with so much poetry yet gives each of them with so much impact and beauty,” says Megan Hernandez, a production associate for a film company.

Perhaps what lends more power to Lang’s popularity is how she is the favorite writer of a lot of celebrities in the country. Benjamin Alves — an English Literature graduate who also dabbles in poetry and posts them online — counts himself as a fan.

“Leav skillfully combines simple and complex literary techniques. I applaud her for that that,” Benjamin said when I ask him what he likes about Lang’s poetry. “She also has a voice the readers of today can relate to.”

Kylie Padilla is also a fan; a Lang Leav poem was inscribed on the aisle of the venue of her wedding with actor Aljur Abrenica.

The aisle at Kylie and Aljur's wedding features a poem written by Lang Leav for the couple

Maine Mendoza is a fan even before she became a celebrity. In 2016, Lang wrote a poem about Maine titled “Stars In Love” as a Valentine’s Day gift. The poem was published in the special Philippine edition of Lang’s 2016 book "The Universe of Us."

It can be argued that her poems are too simple. In fact, those who criticize Lang’s work say her poems are not really poems, just aphorisms at best and slogans at worst.

Her poems have no cohesion of imagery. She mixes her metaphors. Her poetry, you can say, is oversimplified hugot — and Filipinos know their hugot as if it is the language they speak.

In short: her poems, especially in the context of Philippine literature and pop culture, should not special.

Consider this, published in Love Looks Pretty On You: “Be patient. Your voice will find its way into the world, not in one loud instance but a steady trickle that turns into a deluge.”

Award-winning poet Lakan Umali argues in a 2016 Twitter thread that Lang makes her readers do all the work for her. “Her writing is so generic you can project literally any painful personal experience on the text.”

gurl first a lip and then a sweater?? saan yung cohesion of imagery??? https://t.co/Closw5VA9S

— Lakan (@immanuellakant) June 19, 2016

He adds: “Her work just reaffirms already-established personal feelings and does nothing to challenge them or provide any new perspective.”

But Louie Jon Sanchez, a poet and professor at the Ateneo de Manila University, believes Lang’s presence “as a response to the academization of poetry.”

“Nakalimot talaga ang Literature sa publiko—at mukhang ganyan ang sitwasyon sa buong mundo. It is a phenomenon which emerged because poetry has become elitist,” he says.

Lang’s popularity is interesting, Sanchez adds, because it proves poetry might actually be the preferred form of literary expression in Filipinos.

Case in point: the recent popularity of Spoken Word poetry and the hundreds of poetry entries literary contests like the Palanca Awards and the Talaang Ginto receive every year.

“Ang daming gustong maging makata,” he says. “Maybe because Balagtas and Rizal were really influential. Yun ang isang magandang explanation sa reception ng magandang reception ng mga Pinoy readers kay Lang Leav. Kasi — and medyo sweeping yata ang claim ko — poetry is really the literary form of choice of Pinoys”.

“Gusto nilang tumula, gusto nilang maging makata.”

So, basically: Filipinos love Lang Leav because Filipinos want to be poets.

The crowd at Lang Leav's signing in Alabang Town Center

I have to confess I am not a fan of Lang Leav’s poetry.

Full disclosure: I was assigned to interview Lang precisely because I have “definite feelings” about her.

Lang’s poetry is not what I was taught poetry looked like. But I am not a poet; I’ll be hard pressed to explain what “real” poetry is. As a young writer in college, I wanted to be a poet — until someone told me I was not good enough to be one. “Maybe you can write essays, instead,” someone said.

I would want to think Lang does not mind if I am not a fan. “Being a writer is choosing what voices you take on board,” she said when I interviewed her at the Writer’s Bar at the Raffles Hotel in Makati City two days before her book signing.

For her, this voice is her literary agent, writer Al Zuckerman. “If there’s any negativity, you just have to tune that out.” Which translates to: You can hate her, but she probably won’t listen to you.

She added, if you look at the big poets and what they were doing for the time that they managed to find the pulse of their generation, you would see that there is a lot of resistance to what they are trying to do.

“But now history looks back on that and views it in a very different lens,” she said.

This is also the advice she would give aspiring writers. “I see a lot of terrible people just tearing down young writers. And I would like to tell them to tune out those voices. It’s really hard to do, but you just have to listen to your inner voice,” Lang explained.

I was the sixth or seventh person to interview her that day; she mentioned suffering from jetlag, too.

During the press round at Writer's Bar in Raffles Makati

Doing a media tour isn’t easy; it is both physically tiring and mentally draining. But what struck me about Lang was how warm (and even enthusiastic) she was during the interview, yet still careful not to say anything wrong.

“They’re wonderful, strong women. They’re great role models for Filipinas,” Lang said when I asked her about Kylie and Maine. She was willing to talk about them but she was cautious not to say too much about them.

This reminds me that Lang isn’t just a poet; she’s a public figure, a celebrity. Her answers are generous and warm when they need to be, but also careful and rehearsed (though not of her own fault; she had probably been asked the same questions over and over again since she started touring her books).

“I’ve met Kylie but I haven’t had the chance to meet Maine because of scheduling conflicts. But I am sure it’s only a matter of time,” Lang shared. “They’re so sweet. I think something that we all share is that we’re just down to Earth people. And I think it’s always important to just keep your feet on the ground.”

No one asks about Maine and Kylie during the book signing Q&A.

Lang Leav fielding questions

“I just want to ask: how do you know if he’s the one?” a young girl asks Lang.

Without missing a beat, Lang responds: “I think it’s something that you know instinctively. If it’s something you’re questioning, then you’re not really sure about it. I think if you’re in love, you just know.”

A lot of the people in the audience do want to be writers. She tells the audience, “I think if you wanna be a poet, you just have to develop your voice. Don’t listen to any negativity. A lot of the people who are negative towards you do not know what they are talking about.”

A boy asks for the microphone during the Q&A. By the sound of his voice, he is probably around 12 or 13 years old. He is also obviously very nervous to ask Lang a question in front of more than 650 people. Yet it feels like the question he is about to ask means the world to him.

“What can you say about the people who discriminate other people just because they are into the literary arts or poetry?” he asks.

“I think that’s a really mean thing to do,” Lang answers, carefully. She knows this is an important question.

“If you like something, you should never be ashamed of enjoying what you enjoy,” Lang continues. “And people who make you feel bad about that aren’t very secure of themselves. They’re just projecting that to you. It takes a lot of confidence to know yourself and know what you love. Don’t care what people say; it doesn’t really matter as long as you like it.”

I assess my feelings about Lang Leav. Her poetry is still not my cup of tea, but it is apparent that many others do not only treat Lang as their favorite poet. She is a confidant. She is friend. Lang Leav is an aspiration.

I wonder what it would have been like if there was a literary figure like Lang publishing her poems when I was growing up. Would I have not given up my dream of becoming a poet? Would I think of Lang’s work as “real” poetry?

We know the answer.

But if a young boy like the one in the book signing can have the courage to read Lang Leav even if he’s possibly being bullied for liking poetry, then it probably doesn’t matter. How can there not be value in poetry — whether real or not — that has allowed this young boy to find the courage to speak up and find his voice?

Maybe Lang is right. Maybe your voice really will find its way into the world, not in one loud instance but a steady trickle that turns into a deluge.

I look at the young boy, visibly touched by Lang’s words, and think of the possibilities that can start from him. — LA, GMA News 

Chuck D. Smith writes essays. He works as a PR writer for an independent film company in San Juan City. He won third prize for his essay “Origin Story” at the 68th Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature.