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Poems on the MRT

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sunday morning by Jonathan Chan

 

after Ross Gay

if the air around you rests,
defiant toward an artificial
crispness, if a morning
drizzle exhales a theology
of rain, if the smell of
petrichor cradles your
awakening, and if the
weight of silence augurs
the hope of a new day,
say only, thank you.
thank you.

Published in going home (2022)

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Jonathan Chan is a writer and editor. Born in New York to a Malaysian father and South Korean mother, he was raised in Singapore and educated at Cambridge and Yale Universities. He is the author of the poetry collection going home (Landmark, 2022), which was named a 2022 Best Book of the Year by Suspect. He serves as Managing Editor of poetry.sg. His poetry and essays have appeared in Quarterly Literary Review Singapore, Minarets, Gulf Coast, Magma, The Tiger Moth Review, Inheritance Magazine and Asymptote Journal. Some of his poems have been nominated for the Pushcart Prize, Best of the Net, and the Hawker Prize for Southeast Asian Poetry.

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Poems on the MRT is an initiative by the National Arts Council, in partnership with SMRT and Stellar Ace. Produced by Sing Lit Station, a local literary non-profit organisation, this collaboration displays excerpts of Singapore poetry throughout SMRT’s train network, integrating local literature into the daily experience of commuters. Look out for poems in English, Chinese, Malay, and Tamil in trains on the East-West, North-South and Circle Lines, as well as videos created by local artists and featuring local poets in stations and on trains. The Chinese, Malay, and Tamil poems are available in both the original languages and English. To enjoy the full poems, commuters may read them on go.gov.sg/potm.


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