Tilting Our Plates to Catch the Light

Wong Pei Yee|long_jump@hotmail.com
the ridge transmedia
A NUSSU Publication

 

Picture Credit: http://www.cyrilwong.com

In treating the thoroughly dissected yet eternal, non-exhaustive subject matter of love, poet Cyril Wong deals with the lofty as well as the mundane. There are Hindu gods and kitchen sinks that the result, like the collection’s title is something moving; like how his words capture the ephemeral moments firmly etched in time.

In his poetry, there are the lovers who elope, there are the lovers who try to dance on the balcony, there are the lovers making love, there are the lovers in doubt, there are the lovers confronting, fearing and rejecting death, there are the lovers; the lovers who are you and me and the moments that our heart knew, know and will come to know.

Marking the progression of the book with Italian musical terms like in a music score, the words are simple, direct and contemplative – phrased like one pausing in thought – and then tumbling to fill the voids. Wont to appear in modern poetry, there is a refreshing and hopeful absence of cynicism and skepticism and in its place are found tenderness, humour and the understanding that the moments we have are here and gone, but time can wait and “time can wait a moment longer” as the lovers at the end “stop in awe of how much further we have to go.”

At the risk of forcing this book into a hole, this book is for the lovers.

Picture Credit: http://www.cyrilwong.com

When asked to describe his latest book Tilting Our Plates to Catch the Light, poet Cyril Wong, 31, also a Masters student in NUS, laughs and says, “I told a reporter that this is my first work of fiction which is kinda sad.”

Touching on the tender, poignant and weighty topic of love, Tilting Our Plates to Catch the Light is a book of poetry with three distinct threads. The first is based on a folktale from the Skanda Purana, a Hindu religious text, that Wong once heard and the second is a story about two lovers suffering from AIDS. The third is a poetic meditation on love.

“I never really decide to write anything. I write something because I’m unable to sleep,” said Wong. And he was fully aware of the difficulty of writing about love: “When writing the meditation of love, I thought it might be too abstract, flighty, pretty, not grounded in anything one can relate to so I had to ground it in something banal. I want a variety of readership but not the Tuesdays with Morrie kinda crowd lah,” he jokes.

The title, Tilting Our Plates to Catch the Light, is inspired by a moment when Wong, standing in a kitchen doing the dishes, tilts a plate in his hands and notices it reflecting light. That moment then became something more.

Similarly, readers have observed in his poems an attention to the mundane everyday things that go unnoticed – someone does the dishes, vacuums the floor or watches TV while the motifs of the body, death and God are weaved into the fabric of words – what Wong describes as the “consequences of being human.”

“There are moments of crisis and joy from my own relationships,” he admits. “If you don’t share, you come empty and the reader won’t buy into it. After all, to quote Anne Sexton, all poets are liars who transfigure the personal into something universal.”

Betraying Wong’s desire for “something higher and spiritual” is also his use of the tale of Hindu gods, which apart from the gender play in the story is a religion which he describes as the “most inclusive” and therefore most open to interpretation and argument.

While on the topic of interpretation, Wong, as a public figure has been foisted with labels like gay poet, confessional poet, local poet, luminescent flame of the local literary scene amongst several others.

His response when asked to place his self in society is this: “Aiyo. I don’t think about that so much. I think the thing is, I’m constantly being placed. When they say “confessional poet”, I’m a confessional poet on my own terms. The term has become very dirty and in interviews like this, I’m redefining things on my own terms.”

However, poet he may be, Wong never intended to be one and instead aspired to be a horror writer and mentions blockbuster author Stephen King. “Being a poet is just something that happened to me,” he confesses to a very bemused audience of two.

Is it because he’s a dreamer? His quick reply is, “No. I am an awfully realistic and practical person. I only dream when I get the urge to write.”

And that is what strikes this writer most about the poet – a firm finger on the pulse of things.

On to the tired old news of 377A, Wong shifts slightly and a wry curl of a smile plays at the edge of his lips, as though he has anticipated the question. It is a mixture “jadedness and practicality” as Wong matter-of-factly states that gay activists have expected too much and describes PM Lee Hsien Loong’s speech on “the grey area” as a “masterstroke.”

“Anyway, he knows we own Tanjong Pagar so what’s the difference?” And the statement is accompanied with descriptions of spas, bars and shower stalls.

And thoughts on the local literary scene? “It’s growing lor. But more women should publish.”

So what will his next book be about? His immediate response is a jokingly huffy, “I’ve got a thesis to write lah.”

Apart from beginning his second year as a graduate student, Wong is also currently a teaching assistant in EN2111 Reading British/World Texts and plans to pursue his doctorate studies in NUS as well.

Says Wong, “I have formed a family here and I have my partner. I don’t want to live in another country for too long.”

To conclude the interview, we ask Wong to do a reading of a few poems from his book and he chooses two.

One is titled Grave, a play on the English and Italian meanings of the word while the other is untitled. Both poems touch on the poignant tragedy of death in love and as he reaches to press the button on the recorder, he says, “I do this all the time. This is very Cyril.”

And what kind of lover is he?

“Tender, generous, but also demanding.”