As Though the Gods Love Us

by Poh Seng, Goh

• ISBN13: 9780889711716
• ISBN10: 0889711712
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2000-07-01
• Publisher: Nightwood Editions

Summary

In As Though The Gods Love Us, Goh brings a lifetime of love, despair and passion to his work with the skill of a master craftsman. Amidst some of the world's most exotic locales, he uses graceful and lyrical language to understand his world and to bring us closer to ourselves and each other. From Vancouver neighbourhoods to the tropical darkness of a night in Bali, Goh's sensibility touches both people and landscapes, ranging in tone from the epic and political to the intimate and personal. Hailed as "one of Asia's finest living poets" (Asia Magazine), Goh Poh Seng published his first Canadian book of poetry, The Girl from Ermita: Selected Poems in 1998. As Though the Gods Love Us collects Goh's recent writings since his immigration to Canada. Honest and thoughtful, this is a collection that reflects Goh's experiences as a peripatetic physician who has become intimate with many of the world's cultures, most recently British Columbia's.

Author Biography

Goh Poh Seng was born in Malaya in 1936. He received his medical degree from University College in Dublin, and practised medicine in Singapore for twenty-five years. Goh's first novel, If We Dream Too Long, won the National Book Development Council of Singapore's Fiction Book Award and has been translated into Russian and Tagalog. His other books include The Immolation, Dance of Moths, Eyewitness, Lines from Batu Ferringhi and Bird with One Wing. His work has also appeared in numerous magazines and anthologies around the world. Dance of Moths and his poetry collections As Though the Gods Love Us and The Girl from Ermita: Selected Poems are available through Nightwood Editions. He lives with his family in Vancouver.

Table of Contents

As Though The Gods Love Us

As Though the Gods Love Us Testament Driving

Through Snow in Gros Morne Park

Sleepless in Bali Of Gods and Men Pulau Hujong

Inheritance Night Rain Appraising Heaven For My Grandson, Kio Koon

Waiting for Love Palimpest Parkinson's Disease

Lately, the Going's Hard Riding the No.9 Bus

A Christmas Tale from San Miguel de Allende As I Walk By On the Beach by Spanish Banks

The Fall Rain Cruising to Alaska Song of Paranoia Drowning Fruits from Eyewitness

Evening at the Beach

The Staying Echo Big City Evening Song Scoresheet

The Nothing New Sleeping Figure Lament By the Sea at Sarimboon With a Friend As a Wind Love, a Bird Pastoral

The Long Shore Holiday from Lines from Batu Ferringhi

First Day - Tuesday,16th July, 1974

Second Day - Wednesday, 17th July, 1974 from Fragments From Ramayana

Ramayana: Overture

Ramayana: Rama Exiled to Dankaka Forest

Ramayana: Surpanakha Spurned

Glossary

Table of Contents provided by Publisher. All Rights Reserved.

Excerpts

As I Walk By

A premonition of fall already
informs this hot summer's day
although the small, small leaves
of the rows of tall,
old Chinese elms
lining Sixth Avenue
near my home,
have yet to commence their dance
which they do,
when they do it,
with such an old-fashioned
sedateness and grace,
that is so pleasing to watch
when the wind comes to woo.

Then the leaves will shed hoards
Of shadows onto the ground,
creating a growing umbrage
deep as the sea
in order to capture me
as I walk by.


The Fall Rain

Trees in our neighbourhood shiver in cold, grey rain,
last remaining foliage in a state of deshabille for late fall.

Streetwalkers working their beat on nearby Hastings and Victoria
are rain-soaked, shivering in flimsy, revealing dresses.

Each year I wonder, will they all survive the oncoming winter?

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Excerpted from As Though the Gods Love Us by Goh Poh Seng
All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.