Aaron Maniam (b. 1979)
SELECTED POEMS
December, Amber Glades
i.m. Ho Poh Fun, 1946–2018
From that evening, crayon-clear
I remember this:You telling us how linguistics
Could coax a little more detail
From our poems, bring fragile aid
On days of stubborn, wayward words.How extension could add, compound, vary,
Adverbially unearth the novel from the familiar;
Enhancement bring seeds of skeletal syntax
To flowering, fruition, other fecundities—And elaboration add new data, information,
Insight, wisdom—conjunctions gleaming
Like paratactic pearls, even as we realised
That hypotactic help would always comeIf only we knew where to look. We didn’t
Really, then, and sometimes I think
All we can ever do is learn to ask, ask
And ask again, as you showed us ...You whose way home is strewn now with words
Beyond questions, marking clear points of landing.
I think of you surrounded by sea, plants, fish, birds
Singing of all things—like your words—expanding.
by Aaron Maniam
first published in Waves Rising: Collected Works of Ho Poh Fun & Responses (2024)
