July 09th, 2018

footnotes on falling is out! you can buy it from booksactually at this link or in kino and other bookstores. meanwhile, here's a smattering of words about these words. i strongly recommend Jerome Lim's epic review note that i feel obliged to refer to if/when i begin my PhD in practice...

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""(I)n certain urgent/ cities," writes Ip in his fourth poetry collection, "words left too/long out cool, curdle/ or clot." In 44 wry, self-deprecating poems, he navigates the detritus of relationships with a smattering of ekphrasis, wordplay through translation and poetic forms, such as the twin cinema and the liwuli. Mind the endnotes." - Olivia Ho, The Straits Times (link)
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"Ip recognises that moving on is a matter of perspective, where things that seem to fall are in reality moving upwards, where words that once felt devastatingly serious, and names that once seemed significant, are in reality unimportant as time goes on. This, and not defensive erasure, is how closure is eventually found." - Jerome Lim (full review)

"...as we progress through the text the sheer eccentricity of Ip's worldview come to the fore with unexpected images and daring games of language--all this mixed in with genuine accounts of dealing with heartbreak....Ip manages to balance a commitment to experimentation with honest emotion." - Ng Yi-Sheng (link)

"Footnotes on Falling is as much a pensive meditation on the poet's passage through life, with all its vicissitudes, as it is a love letter to the Singaporean form. It is equal parts bitter and acceptance, love and apathy, falling and being caught."
- Valen Lim (link)

"there is a quiet poignancy and playfulness in this collection, something subdued and sad but doesn't take itself so seriously. one may call it a dignified resignation, a cynicism, a play on play on words. or perhaps, it's just the slow maturity of life not unlike the ripening of a fruit, transforming from fresh sour to bittersweet." - Jocelyn Suarez (link)

"This is a post-UnFree Verse Joshua, seemingly more aware of his poetic prowess, and with great power comes great trollsponsibility."
- Crispin Rodrigues (link)