// MATH PAPER PRESS

MATH PAPER PRESS, an imprint of BOOKSACTUALLY is a small press publisher of poetry, new wave novellas, full-length novels, and essays. Its eclectic range of literary and visual works also

includes photography collections, memoirs and young adult fiction.

MATH PAPER PRESS also distributes books by small selected presses.

. . .

// CHASING CURTAINED SUNS poems by Jerrold Yam

 

   

DIVING into the ambivalences and contradictions that are as characteristic of a family as her triumphs, Jerrold Yam’s rousing debut poetry collection is a reaction to the precarious tilt from adolescence to adulthood. The poems—which invoke subjects as diverse as childbirth, celebrity culture and National Service—extend beyond a struggle for acceptance amid the transcience of modern Singapore and into the universal territory of teenagehood. Growing up suggests an inexorable shift to adult sensibilites, but this transition is fraught with countervailing tensions of moving on, letting go and leaving behind. Yet, the collection ends with an optimism that is both agonising and courageous in its desperation for hope. Alternately lyrical and experimental, confessional and incisive, Yam flexes his poetic versatility by combining ruthless introspection and hard-won catharsis. The ensuing redefinition of boundaries, between what must be left unsaid and what seeks reiteration, holds testimony to a voice that is unafraid of frankness—a voice ready to spearhead the next generation of Singaporean literature.

Published by MATH PAPER PRESS (2012) Distributed by MATH PAPER PRESS

ISBN-13: 978-981-07-2101-5 Retail Price: SGD 16.00

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THINGS WE MISTAKE FOR VOWS

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1. Wine glasses purring in foam cots, a mug’s coffee tattoo.

2. Children imagine what and how toothbrushes communicate. The usual suspects: rent over hygiene, space over sanity. 3. Not here—all curtains and no visitors. No tourists to make the beds. 4. Rambling even in your snores: sheets easing, exhaling, then wrenched taut with the weight of appointments we have failed to continue without. But narrowly. 5. Is a lullaby; is a memo stuck on oblivion. Of all compromises we sacrifice the least deserving ones. 6. You laugh when I say the phone is hanging by a thread. Outside, trees become charlatans preparing to flinch. 7. An ashtray, a fireplace dormant with memories of ignition. Pull my collar like a fuse, pencil each stretch mark like fuel. 8. Seriously, toothbrushes? 9. What the calendar advertises, it does not betray. It is no oracle. 10. Hands gripping sky, pair of forgivers trying. A star withers, crumbles and breaks. You whisper, “We’re all young eventually.” 11. Rudimentary apology of languishing aphorisms: lol & gtg & btw, dinner? 12. Also in the morning, milk embracing its expiration date. Your breath on my nape shivers like a deadline. 13. Some twelve-step programs begin with triumph. O, yonder sunlight simm’ring at the window’s edge like Cointreau!

14. Dust claims proximity to everything but alternatives. This means commitment. 15. If Mom walks in on us, plunge to the floor and pretend you’re looking for something. I’ll still be asleep. 16. It may or may not rain. Fog must be slept away. On a day like this, Eleanor Roosevelt wakes to a future trivialised by the beauty of her dreams. 17. Pop and go. Prozac on the rocks. 18. DDMMYY: 061111. I feel your chest emblazoned on my back, our legs embroidered like branches. Dear, dear diaries. 19. You never know what season it is. Just snow masquerading as perfume, a loss of control, a stain to remember how good it feels. 20. These are not maternal warnings for the sleaze of running water. * Rearrangement of lyrics from Young Blood by The Naked and Famous.

Published by

MATH PAPER PRESS

by BooksActually No. 9 Yong Siak Street

Singapore 168645 t / +65 6222 9195

http://booksactually.com/mathpaperpress.html

Math Paper Press is a small press publishing by BooksActually that deals with short experimental novellas, poetry and essays.

Math Paper Press also distributes books by selected small presses.

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For more enquiries or to place an order, please email : booksellers@booksactually.com

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