Ho Poh Fun (1946-2018)
FEATURES / DEAD POETS’ SOCIETY
Written by Ally Chua
Dated 30 Aug 2023
I’d like to humbly confess something: I’ve not heard of Ho Poh Fun prior to embarking on this project, and it was only after researching her that I learnt the huge influence she had on a generation of Singapore writers.
When I perused the poetry of the various listed poets, I was drawn to Ho Poh Fun’s for the wryness and conciseness of her poetry – every verse calibrated for maximum impact in the fewest words.
At first glance, Ho seems to anchor her poetics around a modernising Singapore captured in locations and times, e.g. in poems like “thoughtscapes of Singapore” and “dhoby ghaut”. Yet she also had a naturist’s eye. In “matriarchal swordtail”, one of three poems about the same subject, Ho describes the last days of a (presumed) pet fish with much personality and colour.
she ruled the tank
even on the last day of her life
she was pecking at some unfortunate female
watching her scuttle for refuge
before turning with an air of satisfaction
flashing me that look of inimitable triumph
her fins leisurely fanning the water
spreading live signals
of her authoritybut as the day wore on
there was a faraway look in her eyes
by evening her lips froze and hardened
and next morning I found her sitting
squat on the tank floor
so still
so regal
so fiercely alive
it was difficult to tell
that she was deadas her physical abilities wore out
there could have been experienced
some intrinsic nerve-wrenching pain
but throughout it all
the matriarchal swordtail showed no signshe would not embarrass herself
to suffer
nor writhe with humiliation
at some internal disorderand mercifully perhaps
night was the only witnesseven in death
she retained her rich colouring
with all her gills and fins intact
and so finely arranged and laid
they defied any fish to draw close
to salvage at her remainsas if they dared!
until she was removed
she continued to arrest the eyea splendid even sculpture
of burnished orange
capable of holding all in
with the nerve-tingling sparkle
of steel pins
She had keen observations about quotidian phenomena often overlooked. Those poems were my favourite for how much they captured the beauty of everyday minutiae.
Ho’s poetry captured the zeitgeist of a changing Singapore. In “Katong”, arguably Ho’s most well-known poem, “concrete structures” are juxtaposed against Singapore’s “most assiduously cultivated blooms”. In one of her sharper, more feminist-leaning poems, “shopping”, she observed how the older generation feels about the growing agency of women. How, upon flashing two credit cards for payment, “my father gives a look which speaks very clearly / he regrets having voted a party in / more than thirty years ago”.
With over four decades separating us, I had to read Katong and other poems as a time capsule of sorts, not compared against contemporary Sing Lit that I was used to. Reading Ho in 2023, I still found much to admire and learn. I admire her ability to not fall into sentimentalism. I admire her strong imagery and pragmatic voice. Ho’s poetry captured a changing nation in quotidian observations. I enjoyed reading this poetic slice of Singapore in the 1990s.
•
cold wave
afternoon in mid-winter,
with pools of melting ice and grotty snow banks
where magnolia buds await spring.here in your corner, you sleep.
curled up into a spiral like a fiddlehead fern.since arriving here, i’ve shared afternoons in your presence.
to be precise, i tackled sisyphean assignments while
here in your corner, you sleep.winter does not bother you.
i observe how impervious you are.
i shiver even after my tropical-reddened husk
is bundled in thermal layers.three times a day you’d usher your owners for walks
ambling around a territory a size inverse
to your proportions.after your walks, sometimes
i’ll cup my hands over your frosty ears.while you, without apparent
care for extremities,
wait expectantly for a treat.
