Arthur Yap

http://www.poetry.sg/arthur-yap-bio




Arthur Yap is one of Singapore’s most important poets. He published four major collections of poetry: only lines(1971), commonplace (1977), down the line (1980), and man snake apple & other poems (1986). Of these four, only lines, down the line, and man snake apple & other poems all won the National Book Development Council award for poetry. He also contributed a section of poetry to Five Takes (1974), a publication featuring Chung Yee Chong, Sng Boh Khim, Yeo Bock Cheng, and Robert Yeo. Other awards included the Southeast Asian Writers Award (1983) and the Montblanc-National University of Singapore Center for the Arts Literary Award for English (1998).

Known also as a painter, Arthur Yap held exhibitions locally and abroad. In 1983, he was awarded the Cultural Medallion for his contributions to literature in Singapore, and from 1992 to 1996, he served as a creative writing mentor for the Creative Arts Program under the aegis of the Ministry of Education. Arthur Yap obtained his PhD in Linguistics from the National University of Singapore in 1982, and taught at the Department of English Language and Literature there until 1998. He passed away in 2006 at the age of 63.





& certainly no nostalgia in the future of the past.
now, the corner cigarette-seller is gone, is perhaps dead.
no, definitely dead, he would not otherwise have gone.
he is replaced by a stamp-machine,
the old cook by a pressure-cooker,
the old rickshaw-rider’s stand by a fire hydrant,
the washer-woman by a spin-dryer

& it goes on
in various variations & permutations.
there is no future in nostalgia.

(commonplace)