Poetry
Cyril Wong came out into the scene in 2000 with poetry that was confessional in style but universal in scope. Completely "out" in newspaper and magazine interviews, he is the first and only openly-gay poet to win the National Arts Council's Young Artist Award for Literature and the Singapore Literature Prize. His books are published by Firstfruits in Singapore:
- Squatting Quietly
- The End of His Orbit
- Below: Absence
- Unmarked Treasure
- Like a Seed With its Singular Purpose
- Tilting Our Plates to Catch the Light (Listed by The Straits Times as among the best five books of 2007)
- Straw, Sticks, Brick
(Read reviews of Wong's work archived on his website:)
Alvin Pang's "The Scent of the Real", which refers to Cyril Wong, is value-neutral and mentions Cyril Wong's sexuality as a fact, not as something disgusting or abject.
Toh Hsien Min and Yong Shu Hoong have written poems about friends coming out to them in "On a Good Friend's Admission that he is Gay" and "A Friend's Confession". Both were suspicious that their friends wanted sexual relations with them.
Gwee Li Sui in the eponymous book with the poem Who wants to buy a book of Poems refers to the stereotype of poets as limp-wristed and "ah kua" - although admittedly this is not the first time this concept has been explored. The book, which claims to have been privately circulated for 3 years before being published seems to explore a similar theme that has been previously explored in other works, including those of the poets mentioned in the above. In the following poem, "Edward", he depicts the sad life of a cross-dresser past his prime.
Ng Yi-Sheng's poetry collection, last boy, contains many lyrical poems celebrating and reflecting on gay love and sexuality.
Read more about this topic: Singapore Gay Literature
Famous quotes containing the word poetry:
“Before now poetry has taken notice
Of wars, and what are wars but politics
Transformed from chronic to acute and bloody?”
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)
“Herein is the explanation of the analogies, which exist in all the arts. They are the re-appearance of one mind, working in many materials to many temporary ends. Raphael paints wisdom, Handel sings it, Phidias carves it, Shakspeare writes it, Wren builds it, Columbus sails it, Luther preaches it, Washington arms it, Watt mechanizes it. Painting was called “silent poetry,” and poetry “speaking painting.” The laws of each art are convertible into the laws of every other.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Conventional wisdom notwithstanding, there is no reason either in football or in poetry why the two should not meet in a man’s life if he has the weight and cares about the words.”
—Archibald MacLeish (1892–1982)