from time to time
Lin Hsin Hsin's new collection is a
kaleidoscope of entertaining and accessible poetry. She draws her themes from both the serious and the trivial; you will find powerful evocations of the horrors of the Gulf War side by side with whimsical commentories on lucky draws and closing-down sales. Yet whatever the subject you are drawn in by the deceptive simplicity of the language and the form of the poems. Once inside, you find yourself confronted by a new and unusual viewpoint, often expressed with a gentle humor, which obliges you to re-examine your own assumptions on matters great and small, from the language of economics to cellular phones and MRT ads.
She plays teasingly with the similarity between the sounds and the senses of words and the progression of ideas and contrasts which they present form, reform, conform; foxtrots and dog trots, and to quote one of the most charming poems in the collection, the effect is to:
mix the colors, surprises come true, out of the blue.
There is something for everyone in this rich and varied book. You may laugh with it or cry with it, but you will not be indifferent to it.
Graham Millington
Director, English Language Centre
British Council Singapore
May 18, 1991
ISBN 981-00-2075-2
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