EQUATORIAL SUNSHINE by Wong Su Ann

Equatorial Sunshine by Su Ann Wong
Published by Ethos Books on April 11, 2015
Genres: Epistolary Poetry, Lyric Poetry, Prose Poetry, Singapore Literature
Pages: 104
Format: paperback
Source: Bought
Goodreads

What can Singapore's weather offer? More than a monochrome of rain and shine, as these poems show. Travelling the shifting patterns of youthful love and loss, they take us into sun, shade, shower, and the variations in between.

Equatorial Sunshine offers more than just another collection of poems — it also contains snippets of musings. These musings are written in prose poetry form. This means they are laid out in prose but in a lyrical manner befitting a collection of poems. It’s evident that Su Ann put a lot of herself into Equatorial Sunshine. That’s why her poems surely are relatable to anyone in their twenties.

The poems speak of love, of sadness, of heartbreak and of renewed hope. As universal as these emotions are, they are also rooted in what it means to have grown up in Singapore. These poems made think, they me smile and they made me tear up because they so directly spoke to me.

Just when she thought

Things would never be alright

She felt a rush of kaleidoscopic light

Shining through the spaces

Where he used to be.

—Excerpt from My Own Light in Equatorial Sunshine, Wong Su Ann

I think this is a gem of a book that has been added to Singapore literature. This is such a delightful debut, I hope Su Ann will come to publish more in future with an even greater depth to her poetry.

Nobody is perfect.

Now you have lost

Even your imperfection.

—Plastic Surgery in Equatorial Sunshine, Wong Su Ann