#jerrold yam

[themerheme]

in love's toothed harrows

[motherground]

Memoir

After a certain hour buildings don’t make sense. Lights from across the street resemble nothing, my footsteps knocking on uneven stones, not bothered by their own discordant melody. I would see different people in different rooms, hunched over desks or gazing out at traffic, a phone nestled in the carapace of an ear, mouths shaping words that have no meaning other than the small importances we give them. To see my life before me would be to know the end of fear. Walking home on damp pockets of road, every lane drenched in its indifferent perfume of rain and dirt, I could be so smug as to find comfort disconcerting, catching glimpses of whole, unharvested years quietly burning in the shadows of a life still running its race for relevance. Somewhere in the middle there is adventure, maybe even love, and on nights when everyone leaves early my body aches with an inertia of past indulgences. What now? Only a record of undeserved kindnesses: a casual nod from the cafeteria waiter, an overladen sky keeping from release, new interns grinning in a glass elevator, things that wait for the night to end.

-- jerrold yam

[rabbit-light]

Memoir

After a certain hour buildings don’t make sense. Lights from across the street resemble nothing, my footsteps knocking on uneven stones, not bothered by their own discordant melody. I would see different people in different rooms, hunched over desks or gazing out at traffic, a phone nestled in the carapace of an ear, mouths shaping words that have no meaning other than the small importances we give them. To see my life before me would be to know the end of fear. Walking home on damp pockets of road, every lane drenched in its indifferent perfume of rain and dirt, I could be so smug as to find comfort disconcerting, catching glimpses of whole, unharvested years quietly burning in the shadows of a life still running its race for relevance. Somewhere in the middle there is adventure, maybe even love, and on nights when everyone leaves early my body aches with an inertia of past indulgences. What now? Only a record of undeserved kindnesses: a casual nod from the cafeteria waiter, an overladen sky keeping from release, new interns grinning in a glass elevator, things that wait for the night to end.

Jerrold Yam

[lunchboxpoems]

TRINITY

When she feels one isn’t enough for bargaining,  or if the task is so wildly magnificent she  assumes independence to be insincerity, my sister and I troop to her room, back-up soldiers, kneeling together on the bed where her  body perseveres, lifeless, at night. The words come unnatural to me, tiredly graveling  over my mouth, each vowel  hardened from the clay of my lips, as if painfully sculptured for the air to receive. Then  it is my sister’s turn, sounds pouring off her light, cavernous body and  off the largesse of her youthful heart as  easy as talent. I wonder what makes her so genuine in the face of people, even the ones we live with, or  especially the ones who have brought us violently into this world. I seek  out her tiny, iridescent  paper heart, like pure crystal, and  press it to mine as my forehead now lies seared to the thumbs of my clenched hands. When my mother speaks, her voice easing off  to surround us whole, all I see in the mineral dark is a three-pointed star, a diadem  of faith, made with pliable metal limbs of mother, sister, self,  our heads pointing like compasses to the hollowed  core of a soul, of souls that  ache after a family.

  JERROLD YAM

[theverse-tembusu]

[theverse-tembusu]

[theafterschoolspecialmagazine]

Symbal Magazine Giveaway: Jerrold Yam's Chasing Curtained Suns and Scattered Vertebrae

  Symbal Magazine, the official NUS publication is giving away a signed copy of Jerrold Yam's Chasing Curtained Suns and Scattered Vertebrae, in conjunction with an upcoming dialogue with the author.

Born in 1991, Jerrold Yam is a law undergraduate at University College London and the youngest Singaporean to have published two full-length poetry collections, Scattered Vertebrae (Math Paper Press, 2013) and Chasing Curtained Suns (Math Paper Press, 2012). His third collection is forthcoming in early 2014. (http://jerroldyam.wordpress.com/)

To enter, visit Symbal Magazine. Giveaway ends 20th August.

(Photo by BooksActually)

[theafterschoolspecialmagazine]

Literary Banter with Jerrold Yam

27th August 2013 7.30pm – 9pm Starbucks Yusof Ishak House Free admission

The NUS Literary Society would like to announce Literary Banter with Jerrold Yam. In this cozy evening session Symbal Magazine’s Editor-in-chief Isaac Tan will be hosting a dialogue with the celebrated young writer. He’ll be speaking of his books, his life as an author, and his writing process. Expect readings, book signings, warmth, earnestness, and time for sharing and questions.

Event Details

(Photo from Jerrold Yam)