Gratiagusti Chananya Rompas describes life’s irony through fireworks

Written by the co-founder of the BungaMatahari (BuMa) poetry community Gratiagusti Chananya “Anya” Rompas and published in 2016, Kota ini Kembang Api (This City is Fireworks) is said to be a poetry book that represents the irony of light and darkness in life. Unlike other poets who usually use one of their poem’s titles as their book’s title, Anya said Kota ini Kembang Api was, in fact, part of her unnamed poem. “This happened after I read my manuscript and saw that I often explored darkness and light to describe setting or emotion in each poem,” she told The Jakarta Post via email. “I feel there are many ways to play with irony between light and darkness, and fireworks certainly represent this.”