Endless exhortations:

Be positive!
Be positive!
Be positive!
Ad nauseam!

My reply:
I'm never
never
never
negative!

Do you read me?
Do you read me?
Do you read me--

you---the awful grief!

A public speaker
might not be a leader-
Lao Tze would have said:
a true leader
doesn't have to be vocal

Lovers -
(never mind
what the poets say)
can truly be very
dangerous people

If I were to depend
on people fighting for me
I'd have lost -miserably-
all my dignity

Life is 70% fact
30% fiction
all because
of the imagination

Shakespeare was wrong in saying
'love looks with the mind'.

This humbly is mine:

Love looks not with the mind
but truly with he heart
feelings the former has none
the latter wins in every part

When the mouth is shut
no one will be upset

For no academy
      do I qualify
      so I create
      mine inside

      no BA, MA
      or PhD
      no certificate
      nothing signed

       by any VC
      outside-
      of course
      to me, all jobs denied

      yet in my own way
      I do take pride
      I labour all day
      my own certificate I provide

Not knowing
     is the best beginning :
     an empty vessel
     invites the fullest filling-

     the knowing
     is the impeding
     within its self-constraining
     nothing new is the acquiring

You aren't lost:
        the bridge
        of sorrow
        you've crossed

        how clear
        is the water below
        it was so darkish  
        and brownish before

        gone and forgotten
        is every past shadow
        so blissful is the day's sunshine
        in every tender glow-

        fear or tear- no more
        only faith and joy to show:
        having crossed the bridge of sorrow
        such peace does the heart now know

The veil
is not lifted yet-
be patient
wait-

it will dissipate
the dim mist ahead-

silence the mind
listen to the heart
leave the past behind-

winters-
they all melt away
fresh springs will prevail

hope is strength
the spirit shall not fail

doubt not
a single moment
the best
is on the horizon

long
though the night is
dawn will be the reward
nothing will be missed.

My teacher
my guide
my friend
my sanctuary
my solace
my worship-

your name is
Literature!

Have you changed so much
that you've forgotten who you are?
You've known me for such a long time
why have you lost complete touch?

Faraway unknown
     deep in the Australian bush
      nature's richest gems

Love is bliss
but also pain
beware of
the first kiss!

The young are yet
to know love's chagrin:
they are too innocent
and will realise this in time

No one can claim
  himself he owns fully
  he has absorbed
  that of others, at least partially

  we're each to some extent
  a bud graft and a hybrid
  but such would
  any of us admit?

A poet?
Don't say
I am one
not even at
a far distant day-
too mighty
is that word!

First
the 'I'
is the word
I must delete

If yourself
you should judge
do be gentle
we're all fallible

never forget
the past mistake
is a lesson acquired-
there'll be a better take

as with time
you forward travel
the dark will give way
to the light--once the veil

has been lifted
it's all clarity ahead
be gentle with yourself
let no tear be shed

Don't idealise love
    it has its faults too
    many couples will
   to this bear testimony
   and assert it's true:

   life is no fairy-tale
   forget the Pollyanna
   and the Cinderella
   it's harsh and rough
   much too much by far-

   such a tale being told
   a sombre view of love we should take:
   like all things in human experience
  everything has its blemish--nothing's perfect!

Utility
            above beauty:
             the latter
              can't feed the hungry

             some or a few only
             will set all aside readily
             for the sake of beauty-
             such dreamers are a tiny minority

              life isn't the paradise
              for the singing of poetry
              which looks away from reality
              in idealising  beauty

             the truth will bear out eventually:
             too short-lived and fragile is beauty
             the sun cannot shine for all time
             the night will set in and beauty will sink into obscurity

Some hide more
      from their own selves
      than from others
      for reasons
     they can't even fathom-
     such is the mystery
     of the hidden self
     the inexplicable

    beyond the realm
    of science, philosophy
    psychology,  wisdom
   and the metaphysical

  
    man, the mixture
    of heart and mind
    their lack of consonance :
    the experience
    and the innocence
    the love and the hate
    the joy and the sorrow
    the quest and search
    that ends never-
     the clarity and meaning
    that's hard to gather-
    the gap that's unfilled:
    this is man's blind-spot
    and his dreams unfulfilled

I don't own the world
unless  myself I truly own
it bears no meaning
unless I live within

Literature will save
life and the world
such wisdom
science doesn't have

Be silent
let love speak!
Such poignant words
forever keep
which time
can't take away:
into every heart
they run deep
and never
will they sleep

Departed
not forgotten
let the silence be
no word need be spoken-

love  --the everlasting thread
it can't eve be broken
that which is anchored
in the loving heart, can't be stolen-

not far, so intimately near
is that blessed, so sublime land
where no pain, fear or tear
ever exists-  the vista so grand

as to outlast every earthly splendour:
such poignancy does it graciously lend
the darkest cloud of time to dispel
and the sweetest hours to forever present

* I first wrote a poem after her when I was 18, in matriculation

Truth

doesn't dispute-

falsehood

has a plethora

of words to spit

If an idea
can't be expressed simply
it's not worthy
to be regarded seriously

IN MEMORIAM
              LGE (1937-  2025)



Though the treasured  light
has been taken from our sight-
with love our hearts will still glow
to last for ever more-

hand-in-hand  and heart-to-heart
we've travelled through life's every part
how fresh such happy memories still linger
we'll never cease to remember-

such tender love  and care
to your family you did render
such sacrifice and nobility
bear testimony to your magnanimity -

life is the happy coming-together
and also the sad breaking asunder
yet nothing will be lost to hearts that love
every pain and suffering they will rise above

When silence
is the answer
without the use
of words

The immediate impulse
to love is not reason
but the sharpened curiosity
and the deep desire
to know and draw near
to the other person-
the heart only has the say
(the mind is kept away)
of love's essence it has spoken

Literature is life

life is literature

herein is found

every rapture

They are usually successful or famous writers.

They leave their contact details in social media
seeking people to purchase their books.

However, other than that consideration,
they have a coda:
'  Due to the large number of mails I receive,
   I'm unable to answer any nor do I entertain
  unsolicited mails'

This is hubris to a stinking extent
and also totally lacking in grace and humanity.

Thus, I refuse to purchase their books.

The talents of such people shouldn't make
them feel they stand apart from others!
A famous Chinese proverb goes like this:
Chiang-chong hai-yu chiang-chong sow:
You are strong(or smart) but there will be others who are stronger (or smarter!'

It's not enough-reading-
more important is
the reflecting, the analysing
and the understanding

I'm only a learner
not a leader
and am glad to be so--
no more

Each life looks
     at itself
     and is unsure
     whether
     to cry
     or laugh:
    
    the chagrin
     and messiness-
    
      the comedy
     the tragedy-
    
     what to hold
     on to
     and what
     not to grasp-

     when to be silent
     and when to ask
     whether to doubt
     or to trust-

     the absurdity
     of it all
     being mortal
     and human
     in the crucible
     of time-
    mindlessly cast.

No one else
  will I weigh against
  I've neither
the talent nor the strength

I know you are a scholar
but don't Latinise
I've enough problem with English
please don't agonise!

All the world's wisdom
is futile to me
if I've lost my freedom

Perhaps I am wrong, please excuse me

Remember
to forget-
forget
to remember-

that's the secret
of no-regret

Life is over-rated:
mind the chagrin
the se-back, the regret
the little to be celebrated

I'm just an ordinary writer
don't mistake me for a scholar

They are twins-
  prose and verse
  different words they use
  but neither vies to be the first

Isn't our mind
a hidden castle
known to none
other than our own self?

Me:  Dear Albert

do excuse me-
I'll never be able
to understand
your Relativity Theory.

Albert: My friend

don't you worry:
what really
matters is
I take to heart
your poetry:
of life you write
this is the subject
which moves humanity.

(He added:
Have a cup of tea.

After that we together played
Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert
Schumann, Dvorak and Tchaikovsky -
so well he played the violin
while I did, so very poorly!)

It's the same enjoyment
            with the lighter baggage:
             why would you choose
            the heavier---to your disadvantage?

Believe something
           but be prepared
          to discard if later
         you should find it
         to not fit
         your distilled thinking

What I write
is neither deep
nor philosophic:
it's merely
the gems
of commonsense
I humbly pick