SIL NIM TAO AS POEM
Luke A Duffy (VT Poet) has spent most of his life hitting things: sandbags, walls, people (mostly students). Luke is not a violent person; it’s simply that he was born into a family of martial artists. Luke is a qualified instructor in Ving Tsun Kung Fu, a private student of GM Victor Kan, and has over thirty years experience in martial arts. He believes it is “better to drink tea than spill blood.” In September 2019, Luke became a student of Daniele Pantano, and, after months of encouragement and guidance, dived into the poetry ocean to become a Kung Fu Poet. Sil Nim Tao as Poem, is the first of a planned series of Kung Fu poetry performances designed to educate and inform the public about real Kung Fu. It is also a comment on the cowboys and con men who inhabit the world of Kung Fu. These are dangerous people who teach fantasy and nonsense—the kind of “teachers” who give Kung Fu a bad name and get people killed. This performance would not have been possible without the commitment, hard work, self-sacrifice, and artistic input of Lydia Waites (MA Creative Writing student, University of Lincoln), Clementine Monro (Associate Professor, Lincoln School of Film and Media, University of Lincoln), and Dylan Roys (Senior Lecturer, Lincoln School of Film and Media, University of Lincoln).