The Ubud Writers and Readers Festival always produces surprises. That was true of the 2025 edition that ended on Sunday.
During the festival, I met poets Bella Lee from Australia and Maja Klaric from Croatia. I also got reacquainted with US poet Neal Hall, who I met at the 2012 festival.
These encounters with poets in the art-infused air of Ubud inspired me to share the first poem I’ve written in decades with them, and now with you:
Talking
Until we can talk about
What we never can talk about
We have nothing to talk about.
Come to the festival in 2026 to see what Ubud inspires in you.
Former US diplomat and broadcast news producer Muhammad Cohen is Asia editor at large for Clarion Media, a longtime contributor to Forbes, columnist for Asia Times and author of Hong Kong On Air, a novel set in his adopted hometown during the 1997 handover about TV news, love, betrayal, high finance, and cheap lingerie. See his biography, online archive and more at www.muhammadcohen.com; follow him on Facebook, LinkedIn, ex-Twitter @MuhammadCohen and now on Blue Sky @MuhammadCohen.bsky.social.