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Moving People With Words

Poems on the MRT

Poem for Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan Ending in a Beginning by Pooja Nansi

 

Yours is the music of quiet 4am, of solitary afternoons that seem /
unending. Yours the music of desire, the exhale of the Urdu /
word for 'want', like the sound of a lung first learning breath. /
Yours the shape of my father's mouth turning into song. Yours /
the voice of sandpaper and husk, like the call for God coming /
out of a garbage truck throat. Yours the voice of surrender, /
surrender, surrender to the longing of the living, to all /
bottomless need to be filled, to find another, to be whole. Yours /
the poet's knowledge of how to moan a word, yours the low /
humming of all the world's restless stirring. Yours the yearning, /
the always and forever yearning, yours the trembling lips of a /
muted string waiting to burst into passion. Yours the hunger of a /
fakir who has forsaken begging to shout from the rooftops. Yours /
the sweet wine of grief, the unbridled intoxication which you /
deliver like a lover's return. Yours the lust. Yours the notes that /
land like a hand tapping on the tight drumskin of my heart, then /
the strum of the harmonica which struggles to keep up with /
your voice soaring into the sky. Yours the utterance of devotion, /
yours the prophet's chant, yours the treacherous winding road /
harmony, yours the fevered ecstasy. Yours a wild animal wail /
from before words, the sound of the soul freed of the ribcage, /
from some ancient deep forgotten history, yours every exuberant /
end, yours every troubled beginning.

Published in We Make Spaces Divine (2021)

Pooja Nansi is the author of three collections of poetry. Her key performance work includes her one-woman show, You Are Here which explores issues of migration through personal family histories She was a recipient of the Young Artist Award in 2016 and served as festival director of the Singapore Writers Festival from 2019-2023. In 2024, she was conferred the title of Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, one of France’s top cultural honors.

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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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