Sadudee Maharacha

Love of His people for Him, and He for His people, my spirit was moved and in that vein, I chose to respond to His greatness through writing poetry on His accomplishments. I chose the “moment” that is the special occasions of His Birthday, and the anniversaries of His Accession to the Throne: the 50 Anniversary in 1996, the 60 th in 2006 and in 2016, His 70 th Anniversary. My intention was to use the native affiliation of love and reverence of the Thai people for their King, as my inspiration to express a similar love, but in the English language, which I found was widely accepted not only among the expatriate communities but by the Thais themselves when my poems appeared in both the English dailies The Bangkok Post and The Nation and in the publications of Assumption University, the At Leisure Lifestyle magazine and in the Leather Magazine. Between the years 2005 and the present, my poems were aired on Radio Thailand’s English Channel 88 FM and till December 1, 2016 I also featured in the twin broadcast special programs between Thailand the Sultanate of Brunei. My current collection therefore should be seen as “Adulation” poems, which I hope will be remembered in the history of art in the Kingdom of King Bhumibol the Great. Early in my poetry, I chose the free verse form for I wanted the emotions and images of greatness of the King to flow with the feeling of the poem. The Nation newspaper in its June 9, 1996 special Supplement to celebrate the King’s 50 th Anniversary of Accession to the Throne published my free verse poem on Tossapit Rajatham next to the four-color portrait of the King in the inside cover page. On January 19, 1995 I had the honor to personally hand the original version of the poem to HRH Crown Princess Maha Chakri Sirindorn on one of Her Highness’ visits to Assumption University. Since then, I have written two other free verse poems as the mood and feeling demanded. The majority of my poems on Their Majesties King Bhumibol and Queen Sirikit are in the modified sonnet form. To my knowledge and memory, no other expatriate poet has used this form of poetry to write in praise of their Majesties. The sonnet form I found to be most appropriate for Thai audiences in that it is only 14 lines long. Secondly the sonnet form per se is lyrical. It has a flowing musical form. On the other hand, it is stately and majestic. More than all, it is a formwhich for many centuries in the Western world, has been associated with love as in the traditions of Petrarch, Shakespeare and Cervantes, to name a few. As inThai poetry, the sonnet does have a rhyme scheme which for the most part I have tended to use in the ABBA, CDDC, EFFE, GG (modified