From One to Another

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I shut my door to outside
world, it replies with silence

familiar hence comforting
like morning's bird songs,

and the inked heart
slips out of its cage

a little afraid,
then sings along

like chance meeting
of old friends.

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CNY is at our doorstep. Time to look back? A boy in a Superman's suit flew by, fishing a $10 note from his poor father's rumpled palm to buy his favourite food from Uncle McDonald - that is, if he is here, or does he even exist? Nevermind.

Digression sufficed. We are made, hence live on beliefs. Such thin ices. The world will not end tomorrow; that is what we think. Moral and value corrosion - an-old-man's-weary-world speaks. Yet, mind you, I am no old man. Just feel so - every now and then...a door opens, and words inundate. Like chance meeting of old friends.

Say, is a prolonged sigh at this age a sign of sanity? Or what about feeling like a society outcast? Perhaps neither. Perhaps, one is where there is unfettered expression of one's soul. Art, poetry et cetera, or sports, are different channels. In poetry, you scrutinise your own mental movements; in sports, your physical ones. You are made more aware of your existence.

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Nothingness

Feather-weighed,
Time-heavy
Nothingness moulded
Repetitively in the mind
Never stays, flees
Along lines of logic,
Leaving no trace.

It's nothing, really.
Let's see.

There are old dust
Which turn golden
In retrospect.

There are dark shadows
Crouching in doubt
From stealing light.

Only time moves on
And on, but nothing
Changes, really.

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Say, how does one mould nothingness? It's all in the mind. Poetry is beautiful, but ultimately, pointless...

I forgot my yearly book/poetry review this year completely...

mrdes's recommendation

1. The Lake by Banana Yoshimoto (The author is clearly in her element, deploying a deceptively simple use of language to lay out love and emotions in all their complications.)

2. The Shadow of Sirius by W.S. Merwin

3. They Speak Only Our Mother Tongue by Theophilus Kwek (This is a period of poems of a local flavour - a passing fancy?)

4. The Trial by Franz Kafka (A satisfying journey into a dream-like landscape sculptured by crafty language usage as words are colours for an eerie portrait of society in Kafka's hand)

5. Disgrace by J.M. Coetzee

6. The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy

7. Moving Words 2011: A Poetry Anthology (Some of the poems here are just so right on the spot.)

-end-

I guess the list is kind of short. There are others, though for one reason or another, just couldn't sit with me: Leonard's This Mortal World (some of the poems here are just great; may just pick this up again), Damon Chua's Traveler's Tale And Other Poems (some of the images are just too abstract for me unfortunately).

Last, but not least, go watch "The Great Magician" if you haven't - the narrative is just delightful.

And of course, a very happy CNY to all!