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Moving People With Words

Poems on the MRT

Corridor, Bukit Merah by Koh Buck Song

 

these are the lanes
we must now tread
to reach one another

some rain still splatters
sometimes, but no mud,
no rocks, no snakes,

just solid linear platforms
to build the old community
if given open access

no more attap anxiety
or borrowing sugar, with
a minimart downstairs

this is how we level
with each other, in this
kueh lapis kampong

Published in Heartlands: Home And Nation In The Art Of Ong Kim Seng (2008)

Koh Buck Song is the author and editor of more than 40 books, including 10 featuring poetry and “haiga” (ink sketches with haiku, modernised from 16th-century Japan), of which he has held several exhibitions since his Japan Foundation visit to Japan in 2015 as a cultural leader of Asia. His book the world anew (2023) has poems and “haiga” artworks from his time as the National Gallery Singapore’s Poet-in-Residence 2021-22. In the 1990s, he was literary editor of The Straits Times, general editor of the literary journal Singa, and Poet-in-Residence at the Scottish Poetry Library in Edinburgh, Scotland.

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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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