Song of a Reformed Headhunter

Chloe is a good friend and poet. Her second book PERFORATED marks an advance over her first VIABLE. The strengths of the first are still present in the second: an intimate but unassuming voice, an observant tenderness towards self and others, the willingness to broach difficult subjects. In the second book, the personal references widen out into the world. The Italian touchstones are handled with greater range and depth. My favorites in this regard are the opening poem "Pantheon," which ends distinctively yet inclusively in the way an Italian dialect "relies on the plural/ second person, voi," and the poem "Etruscan Bronzes," concludes soberly about the transience of youth: These bronze figures, from their height of youth, artist's hand concealed by the smoothing of time, gaze upon a far-off horizon long buried.

Math Paper Press re-issues my first book of poems Payday Loans in a beautiful new edition designed by Shellen Teh, with a new critical preface by Joshua Ip and an interview with me conducted by Chloe Miller for Eclectica Magazine. To launch the book, I read at BooksActually's reading series "An Evening with..." on Saturday, July 26. Ian Chung moderated the session, asking me questions about each of my books that I read from. I was really pleased to see familiar and new faces in the audience. I won't remember everyone, so my apologies in advance, but here are the faces that flash across my mind: Robert Yeo, Leong Liew Geok, Toh Hsien Min, Zhang Ruihe, Shawn Chua, Tania De Rozario and her lovely partner, Chong Li Chuan, Boedi Widjaja and his gracious wife, Weetz and his partner .... Shawn took the photo of me and Kenny's cat.

For National Poetry Month, I wrote a guest blog-post for Chloe Miller's blog, a post about women poets who have been inspiring me to write.  Reprinted as an example is my poem "Eve's Fault," first published in tongues of the ocean . The blog is full of writing goodies: prompts, advice, interviews.

I am giving away free one copy of my book EQUAL TO THE EARTH, if you link to Chloe Miller's blog, and your name comes up in a draw. Details here . Deadline is midnight tonight. Chloe and I were at Sarah Lawrence together, and I am glad we are still in close touch. She took the route of adjunct college teaching, whereas I was lucky enough to land a job teaching in an independent school. I was a guest at her wedding, and wrote a poem for her and Han afterwards, Ideas of the Real . Her mind buzzes with all kinds of creative projects, a real inspiration to the self-made writer. Update: Marsha Pincus won the draw.