Poems

About the Book

By the author of Diverse Modes and Reduced Reflections, this volume consists of three anthologies spanning a range of poetic styles. Sun and Rain follows the style and philosophy of the great Romantic poets, extolling the wonders and terrors of nature and the exploring the depths of human emotion. The author paints vivid and moving pictures that are swept along by the lyrical meter and rhyme of traditional verse. The Flowery Country is an exploration of the currents of history that shaped the venerable Chinese culture. However, unlike traditional history, which is dry and dispassionate, this work resonates with emotion, ideas and imagination. Written in a new literary style developed by the author called “amorphous verse”, which does not differ from prose in terms of style but retains the lyricism of poetry in terms of language, the Flowery Country propels the reader through the colourful sweep of emperors, dynasties, love and war, leaving him to ponder the vicissitude of human nature. Grains of Sand is a study of human nature and the creations of humankind expressed in verse. The horrors of war, the tenderness of love, the joy of cherished memories are juxtaposed with small, keenly observed gems of everyday life and objects, which, like a photograph, are forever caught in time by the pen of the poet.

About the Author

Born around the time of the foundation of the Republic of China, in the former English colony of British Malaya, he was educated in an English school. His father was from China but had emigrated to Malaya and had become a successful businessman, involved in various activities, including as a rubber merchant. From his early days he was interested in literature and philosophy and as his interest evolved to science, he decided to study civil engineering at the University of Hong Kong, as he felt he needed a practical career. After the Japanese occupied Hong Kong, he went into free China where he found work in an office constructing roads and later an airfield in Guangxi Province. After the war ended in 1945, he returned to Malaya, became an engineer in the City Council of Georgetown, Penang. After his retirement, he worked as an engineering consultant and has written twelve books.