Kirjahaku

This volume of poems by Cyril Wong, one of the leading figures of poetry in Singapore, reflects the many ways in which love between two men can unfold, balancing emotional outpourings with meditations on the nature of relationships. The poetry punctures the sometimes oppressive reality of life in a city that is hypermodern yet far from free and, through twists and turns, ultimately lifts the reader to a place beyond pleasure and pain. Sensual, anecdotal and, of course, confessional, Infinity Diary charts an evolution in the work of one of Asia’s most intimate English-language poets.

A profound poem on the mystical and the ecstatic and about our connection with nature. Beachlight is a sustained poem divided into smaller parts that take on the anonymous voices of those lost and forgotten. A walk along a Singaporean beach transforms into a meditation that bridges an ecological consciousness to the sexual and the homoerotic. The poems in Beachlight expose revelations about the nature of desire, inviting readers to walk beside—and inside—them, reminding us of what we gain when we abandon ourselves to nature and exhorting us to reclaim our primordial connections to the world and to one another.