Monivong Boulevard

I didn’t intent to be a poet.

The way I write poems is completely free of styles. I let the feeling come and craft the words with the time I have.

This is the collection of my writing between 2003-2009. Some are good. Somme is bad. Part 1 is written in English and part 2 is written in Khmer.

Forgive me if I didn’t respect any rule of Khmer poems. I just wanted to write something down.

What I like most in this collection is “Monivong Boulevard”.

In 2003, I usually went to the internet cafe called “Diamond cafe”. It’s located down the Monivong Boulevard.

I composed Monivong Boulevard through what I saw every night. There were a lot of Cyclo drivers sleeping in the yard of the building. Sometimes they slept in the rain. They got no home. Most of them were from the countryside.

There are a lot of important events happened in this Boulevard such as the fall of Phnom Penh in 1975, the manifestation by CNRP, the funeral of Dr. Kem Ley etc.

Monivong is a famous Boulevard. I got an honor to use “Monivong Boulevard” as the title of this collection.

Download the book

I hope you enjoy it.

Santel - The writer.