T HE P LANNERS Boey Kim Cheng

L/O To learn about the background of Boey Kim Cheng To learn how to interpret an analysis of the poem

B ACKGROUND Boey Kim Cheng was born in Singapore in He received his Bachelor of Arts and Masters of Arts degrees in English Literature from the National University of Singapore. Worked for some time in America as a probation officer

Disillusioned with the state of literary and cultural politics in Singapore, Boey left for Sydney with his wife in In Australia, Boey completed his Ph.D. studies with the University of Macquarie. Boey is currently an Australian citizen and teaches creative writing at the University of Newcastle.

E ARLY L ITERARY HISTORY In 1987, Boey won first prize at the National University of Singapore Poetry Competition while studying as an undergraduate. Aged 24, he published his first collection of poetry( Somewhere bound). It went on to win the National Book Development Councils (NBDCS) Book Award for Poetry in 1992.

T HE P LANNERS

They plan. They build. All spaces are gridded, filled with permutations of possibilities. The buildings are in alignment with the roads which meet at desired points linked by bridges all hang in the grace of mathematics. They build and will not stop. Even the sea draws back and the skies surrender. They erase the flaws, the blemishes of the past, knock off useless blocks with dental dexterity. All gaps are plugged with gleaming gold. The country wears perfect rows of shining teeth. Anaesthesia, amnesia, hypnosis. They have the means. They have it all so it will not hurt, so history is new again. The piling will not stop. The drilling goes right through the fossils of last century. But my heart would not bleed poetry. Not a single drop to stain the blueprint of our past’s tomorrow.