HOW2

Is a literary journal whose most recent issue featured a section on Singaporean women poets. The introductory note by Grace Chia gives a succinct, yet thoughtful explanation of Singapore's modern history and its impact on the Singaporean literary scene. ( it explains the paucity of the literary scene as well.)

My personal pick of the lot were the three poems written by Wendy Gan which to my eye, best reflect certain modern circumstances in ever changing Singapore. The poems "Drone" and "Mapreaders" would best be described as poetic renditions of the problems associated with young, upwardly mobile Singaporeans.

Grace Chia described Wendy Gan as being 'economical' with her words; a condition I like in poetry. Rather than overly verbose pieces, I personally favour crisp, tightly written short poems that nevetheless convey an array of themes and emotions within their framework.Part of this is also a belief that in a short poem, the choice of each word becomes more loaded as one has to decide which exact shade of meaning to pick. In all forms of writing, I personally believe that it is the writer's short and tight pieces that really display his technical prowess and skill at word manipulation; they have to say so much with so little space.

Some writers do manage this with longer pieces of work; notable examples would be Jeffrey Eugenides' debut novel, "The Virgin Suicides" and most of Ernest Hemingway's work. There are just some books where the dislodgment of just one word could change the whole mood and tone.

Which is why I sometimes view my long blog entries with a critical eye. I feel I could say more with much less if I could just pick the right words.