Ceriph Issue 4

They call Ceriph Issue 4 "the white issue". Split into 5 little volumes of both poetry and prose, it made for easy reading in short spurts. There're some well written poetry and short stories which lean towards science-fiction and observations of human interaction. Some appeal, some don't. That's the beauty of the various volumes. I'm forced to plough through all. Curiosity always wins and I need to read all the stories and poetry before deciding if I like any.

Catherine Rose Torres' "Her Sacred Dust" managed to royally annoy me. It speaks of the brief life of lovers and the subsequent suicide of the woman because she can't conceive and the 'cowardice' of the man to keep his infertility a secret. I confess that this is not something I empathize with or understand.

Mary-Jane Leo's "$trategic KPI + %Synergy% = Love" is a little slow at the start, telling of how a woman sets out to look for love following a checklist and a structure of key performance indicators (KPIs), and finally met someone. I'm tickled by the twist in the ending that is dark and a touch sarcastic.

Joel Tan's "Snow" is hilarious. Hurhurhur. You must read it! It's fairly well written and almost elegantly snarky. "Then one day, it happened, a crack of thunder in the sky, dark like Mordor, and the glass of skyscrapers tinkled. A voice from the heavens, this is my son in whom I am well pleased, a hand from the sky writing on City Hall, 'from my grave shall I return', and then snow: white, soft, anomalous, falling irreverently from the tropical sky, covering the trees in fuzz; and for once in the city, a quiet like the spirit of the world had died."

I've come to eagerly anticipate the publication of each issue of Ceriph. I like to read the assorted thoughts by various writers carefully curated and collated in these tiny volumes that could be finished easily in one sitting. However, I finished them over a couple of days at the hospital because I also had my snazzy brand new version of the Kindle which stores other exciting stuff to pore through. But flipping hardcopy pages seem to calm the mind more effectively than swiping an e-book.