Fruits Poem By Goh Poh Seng [exclusive] Online

In a high-rise nation celebrated for efficiency and hygiene, Goh dares to champion the messy, the fragrant, the perishable. He reminds us that a civilization is not judged by its tallest building, but by how it remembers the taste of its fruit.

On the surface, the is a celebration. But a melancholic undertow runs through the stanzas. Goh writes with the urgency of a man watching the last fruit tree fall to make way for a flyover. fruits poem by goh poh seng

Goh Poh Seng (1936–2010) wrote with the precision of a doctor and the soul of a poet. In “Fruits,” tropical fruits become metaphors for identity, loss, and the sensual geography of Southeast Asia. In a high-rise nation celebrated for efficiency and

To understand "Fruits," one must understand Goh’s unique position in Singapore’s literary history. Writing during a period of rapid modernization and urban renewal in the late 20th century, Goh often wrestled with what was being lost in the name of progress. While the concrete jungle of the modern city-state was rising, Goh’s poetry frequently anchored itself to the natural world and the ancestral past. But a melancholic undertow runs through the stanzas

For the poetry reader, “Fruits” is a masterclass in compression. For the exile, it is a mirror. For anyone who has ever bitten into a perfect peach and felt, for one second, a pang of sadness that it will end—this poem is your companion.