EMERITUS Professor Edwin Thumboo describes well the precocity of a group of five young poets - all 15-year-old Singapore school girls - in their imaginative use of words and imagery when he observes: 'The unending magic of words is in testing the weight of their meaning against what they can do afresh.'

Giving fresh roles to everyday words is exactly what the girls have done in 5Takes, an anthology of 63 poems they put together in 2007 when they were 14-year-olds in Secondary 2 at the Singapore Chinese Girls' School.

Using words in new ways to create mood, paint scenes and express emotions is what stands out clearly in the book by Jesslyn Chee, Joy Chee, Lynette Lim, Charlotte Tan and Natalie Wong.

The even more astonishing discovery is to learn that a few poems in the book were, in fact, written when some of the girls were 12 or 13!

The maturity of thought and use of language in their poems is way beyond their tender years.

Prof Thumboo, who is with the Department of English Language and Literature, and who has mentored many other poetry groups over the years, says in A Note in the book about the group whom he guided: 'While every group is unique in its dynamics and combination of talent and interest, the Sec 2 Class of 2007 was remarkable. To what extent, in what way, the reader will discover in 5Takes.'

Among the girls, Lynette is the most prolific, contributing 19 poems in book which is a project of the school's Touchstone Programme geared at growing and propagating young talent.

Says SCGS principal Mrs Low Ay Nar in the book: '...the motivation to embark on this creative enterprise was also to raise funds towards Project Dafur 2008. People in Singapore are barely aware of the devastating refugee crisis in the war-torn country.'

Lynette's prolific contribution is not surprising. It would appear that the love for verse runs in her family.

Her elder sister, Dawn, was one of the two Singapore winners of the Foyle Young Poets of the Year international competition in 2004.

Dawn who was then a 17-year-old Hwa Chong Junior College student went to London soon afterwards to receive the award. The other winner, Judith Huang, 18 also from the same college, stayed home because of approaching exams.

The parents of Dawn and Lynette are both journalists - wordsmiths. So there!

One of Lynette's poems, Block 107 ( a poem in 8 days), about a visit to a friend's home in a Housing Board flat, did spring a surprise for the sex element in it.

Describing her experience, the poem says in part:
Friday at 3, I tap to the rhythm of Mrs Tan having sex (with a postman, I think), their voices merging and rising just a breathing, just a twinkling, just the gravity of silence.

That same day, she makes another observation:
Later, Steven and May Ling kissing in the void deck her limbs running amok, running places where naked eyes cannot venture.

Lynette's imaginative use of familiar words is evident in From Yours Truly.

Here is a sampling:
Dear you, perhaps you could describe to me the colour of anguish. Is it bittersweet, like the soft pinkish hue (the flesh of a cut peach), or the clarity of tears?

Hold it firm in your hands. Recite to me its touch, as you would run your hands through velvet. Can you explain to me your sadness?

I said I imagined your world to be fruit. Weep to me your orange tears, make them sting too, yes.

Natalie who contributed 14 pieces, says in The Shiny Guitar:
We were so young.

In the chocking shadows of night we'd escape into a moon

Raptured. Us and your magic red guitar. Squat under those bleak, bleak walls, strumming, plucking ruling the breeze together.

You'd close your eyes contented in our stupor.

Later down she writes:
A knight so young and so brave, sing my

Stormy seas away.

A lull. Morning then came sunlust; a break in the sky. Our sky.

'Let's go' Your hand held, the halo in mine.

The girls, in their two-page expression of thanks to Prof Thumboo, write that through his guidance they moulded poetry they could be proud of.

'Poetry we could see, feel, sense and love. Poetry we wanted to share.'

5Takes is priced at $18. Email Ms Sie Ha Wai at sie_ha_wai@moe.edu.sg for details.