Klenn Teo, Singapore's National Honour, September 2026
Klenn Teo wrote the highest-scoring poem from Singapore in the Writory International Poetry Contest, September 2026: sticky daylight, scored 75 out of 100 by the blind judging panel across five published criteria. The poem was read in English (Latin script).
sticky daylight
you are the rice beneath a poached egg i gingerly grazed. just like that, daylight falls upon your features, stubborn to let you go. you wear it sticky; a raincoat. even heat is caught lazily by your frame— sweat, a dowry. there is no such thing as "haphazards of the light”, you’re a suncatcher. but i’m selfish. so i want you to be my pinhole camera. let me covet every ray you brandish, let me be your solar panel— ‘til the seams of my pockets sag with greed and burst with so much happiness for an icarus of my calibre to wield.
Every country's leading poet each month is named on the September 2026 National Honours. The contest is open to poets in Singapore and everywhere else: enter the current round, and every poem receives a score out of 100 and a certificate.