“He asked me if he could really tell me anything he wanted. I told him yes — I mean, most people tell me about their personalities, their lovers, their families — and I am pretty used to those. But this guy told me something else. He told me that he was going to kill himself.”

 

For a young man of 24 years old, Dave Tai has already met tons of interesting people with stories to tell. Armed with a charming black typewriter peppered with gold accents, Dave sits at a foldable table along Singapore’s hipster street, Haji Lane, busy typing away as he churns out haiku on brown card stock for intrigued passerby.

 

It is hard not to be curious of what the writer does, for his handwritten sign reads: “Haiku for Anyone, on Anything” — an unusual yet intimate mode of busking. Most people who stop by Dave’s haiku booth are fascinated first by his vintage typewriter, and then his ability to conjure up beautiful and personalised poems in a matter of mere minutes.

 

Dave, ironically, did not start out with the intent to busk. He wanted a typewriter more than to write haiku, and took to busking in a bid to recoup his monetary loss after copping the typewriter.

 

Dave might have covered the cost of his purchase after four months of busking. But the soft-spoken writer realised that busking has not only allowed him build up his confidence, it also expanded his worldview, for he gets to live in the stories that people tell him.