Shrines & Streetlights
Ho Ren Chun
Singapore: Ethos Books, 2012
ISBN: 9789810733896

Shrines and Streetlights signals the debut publication of poetry by a young, bright Singaporean, whose keen eye and alert spirit frame perspectives that belie a maturity beyond his eighteen years.

With a cadence that is simultaneously practiced yet fresh, a wide scope of objects are infused with poetic symbolism. Ranging from dragonflies to the moon, these poems find meaning in both the mundane and the magical; steeped in the elegant aura of observance but melancholic in a sense of loneliness and yearning. Often winding through Singaporean streets, yet finding itself in intimate moments, Shrines and Streetlights juxtaposes the old and the new, youth and age. It compares love and loss, and reconciles life and death. These themes intertwine to capture the intricacy of human realities often fraught with both passions and miseries, and most poignantly, help us understand their inextricable link.