A poem about the nightjar, an elusive, nocturnal bird with a distinct call.
Published: 12 Oct 2020
By: Arthur Yap
Time taken : ~10mins
A poem by Arthur Yap about encountering the insistent call of the nightjar in the urban jungle. Singapore is home to four of the 97 species of nightjars, a medium-sized nocturnal bird characterised by short bills.
Contributed by:
Arthur Yap is one of Singapore’s most important poets, and published four major collections of poetry. He obtained his PhD in Linguistics from the National University of Singapore in 1982, and taught at the Department of English Language and Literature there until 1998. He was awarded the Cultural Medallion in 1983 for his contributions to literature in Singapore. Yap passed away in 2006 at the age of 63. His Collected Poems were published posthumously in 2013 by NUS Press, along with his only short story collection, Noon at Five O’Clock.
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