Ignatius Tan
light on bark
That is not to suggest that to cut against the grain or to cut with the grain or to cut at all diminishes the tree from which it was cut. Or that the angles that form in the corners of a table lessen the carpenter’s act of crafting them. Or that the manner in which the light from a lamp glancing off the lacquered plane of an oak desk fixates itself on the dust collected on the surface.
but the splintering evening shadow on the hide of a splintered log— at once both mountain, sea
About the Author
Ignatius Tan is a graduate student in the English MA programme at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. He harbours a keen interest in contemporary literary aesthetics, as well as creative writing in both fiction and poetry. He has had poems priorly published in Rollercoasters and Bedsheets, an independent anthology.
As a long time green woodworker, thank you. It is so hard to be worthy of good tree.