Upon speaking with Angeline Yap, a Singaporean poet, I got to hear her perspective and the intentions she had when writing her poetry in person. It was insightful to not only listen to what she was actually trying to express through the poems but also to hear about her religious beliefs as an Anglican which she incorporates in her writing. Firstly, what stood out to me the most from the conversation was her intentions for writing poetry. Upon asking her whether she has intentions to represent a Singaporean identity, she replied that she doesn’t have an explicit, overt intention to write as a Singaporean poet, but as she writes with her Singaporean worldview and upbringing, her poetry naturally reflects her Singaporean perspective. Through her poetry, she usually likes to celebrate everyday moments in her mundane world—things that are very easy to take for granted. Additionally, she mentioned that when writing poetry, she doesn’t start with writing for the sake of creating a piece. Rather, it is her form of self-expression—but also a form of self-discovery—that helps her work out things she was pondering over, to figure out the questions she has inside of her.

Her explanation of the paradox of delivering a universal message was also extremely interesting. She talked about how sometimes, the things that are most true and unique to a specific individual are able to become universal, precisely because of how specific it is to an individual. She added on about how instead of having the intention to make sure an idea can be understood by many people, it is sometimes best to be the most genuine you can be.

Lastly, I want to mention a phrase that she stated: “Good is the enemy of best”. She explained that if we only continue to do ‘good things’ and follow what we know is the right thing to do, we will take our eyes off what is the BEST thing to do. In other words, if we keep to what we are told to do, what we think is good, sometimes it may not actually be the best thing when we look at the bigger picture. I think this relates to the sense of obligation to follow our duty and carry out what we are expected to do, but how this may sometimes lead to missing the opportunity to obtain the best results.