MIME-Version: 1.0 Server: CERN/3.0 Date: Sunday, 01-Dec-96 19:57:38 GMT Content-Type: text/html Content-Length: 13701 Last-Modified: Tuesday, 23-Jan-96 20:31:07 GMT Poetry...

Poetry...

Author's Note: I wrote most of these poems over the past year, not too surprisingly, my emotional turmoils are often reflected in the verses...

The Emigrant Soldier

What soil, sand, or rock, did I tenderly kiss,
as the holy ground of my homeland?
Whose water, wine, or sweetened liquor,
care I lift to quench my thirsty throat?
From whom did I accept gold, silver,
and that which glitters,
in payment for the crimson stains upon my metal?
Undisturbed, save by the chilly winds of wilderness,
I slept under foreign skies,
with unknown shrubbery my bedding.
My resting place lay unmarked,
save by a rusty, broken sword.

The Electric Kiss

In the darken world of digital songs,
bounded by whirling bits of zeroes and ones,
We kissed.
Devoid of sensations,
I yet felt your lips upon mine,
tender, moist,
tinted with the lightest touch of passion.
I smelled the scent of your fragrant locks,
and tasted the wetness of your mouth.
Though separated by time, place, and physical laws,
We kissed,
uncaring, unbound,
enjoying only the moment's joining
the pleasures of a nanosecond...
With sadness and tearful reluctance,
we parted.
separated.
Ended the ghost-like
Electric Kiss.

Declaration

The smile of your tender lips,
brightens my leaden heart
The swirl of your soft flowing locks,
warms like the life-giving sun.
The batting of your gentle eyelashes,
makes my steady hand quake,
The laughter in your glittering eyes,
makes my life full of joy.
Oh dear one,
How do I love you!
How fleeting the ticks of a clock,
when I am with you.
Soft chuckles and heartfelt laughter,
did I enjoy with you.
What little else can I say,
but "I love you".

Prisoner

No rings of iron
nor ropes of hemp bind me
No walls of concrete enclose me,
No cuffs of steel
nor pillory of wood shackle me.
Yet I am prisoner.
Memories of our tender kiss muffles my voice,
Thoughts of our shared secrets restraints my action,
The door to my cage is unlocked,
open.
Yet I remained within.
Yet I am prisoner.
Prisoner,
in loving you.

Three Loves

What is love, they asked.
Which love, I answered.
Tell us of the first, they asked.
I cried as I thought of the answer,
but no tears came.
It had dried long ago.
I screamed as memories came back,
but no sounds of agony issued.
It had silenced long ago.
Trembling, I answered,
The first love is
like a poisoned blade...
thrust in your heart...
by the pale hand of a loved one...
...so slowly twisting
I uncovered my hand from my chest,
and black blood yet flowed,
trickling down to stain the floor.
As we walked, they asked again,

What is love, they asked.
Which love, I answered.
Tell us of the second, they asked.
I lifted a leather sack,
and opened it.
My heart beats within,
surrounded by sharp,
glittering glass shards
I shook the bag and felt the pain.
Cursing, I spit out a mouthful of scarlet,
That is the second love, I answered,
Pain from a thousand cuts...
twisting, churning...
the gentle touch of your loved one...
placed your heart...
.... in a bag of broken glass...
As we walked, they asked again,
What is love, they asked.
Which love, I answered.
Tell us of the third, they asked.
I cried
no tears came, but blood streaked.
Streaked down my face.
I screamed
but my voice cracked,
my throat tightened in a noose.
I fell
on my knees.
The beating heart within the sack
The sword wound upon my chest
Nothing
Nothing

Tell us of the third, they pressed again.
I can't, I gasped,
There isn't.

Voices

Under the pale moon,
I chatted with digital shadows.
Men and women with phantom-like voices,
flowing through a web,
a web of glass-copper tubes.
Each a mask of electrons wears,
Deceitful smiles of delight,
flashed in their curious eyes.
A game of romantic intrigue, they played,
without tender yielding flesh,
without gentle kisses or red roses,
without any form of golden bands...
I drifted amidst a sea of banshee sounds,
Blind and Numb...
I hear the Lake of Souls:
"Save me, save me..."
"Ha, ha, ha, ha..."
"Tell me of that..."
"24/f/MA..."
"IMHO, the..."
": ) ..."
I cried and laughed with them,
Yet, in the end,
They are little more,
than distant voices...
... as am I to them.

Tender is the Night

Tender is the night,
when Luna's luminous glow fell upon
your lovely face,
and stars winced in bright jealousy.

Soft is the evening breeze,
that the whispers of air send your locks
rippling like ocean waves.

I caressed the gentle curves of your neck,
feeling the comforting smoothness of your skin.
Gently, I kissed your half closed eyelids.

Embracing you, I felt our bodies tremble,
in tingling resonance our hearts pounded,
fearful yet full of love's delightful joy.

Tender is the night,
when Luna grew bashful behind the formless clouds,
and stars twinkled in glitters of envy,

Envious of us.

Modes

Whistling breeze through tattered veils,
Broken shards of light and glued-on shadows,
Pale, transluscent marble floor,
Dried droplets of blood and tear,
Wandering did breathless moans of lust,
Tender whispers of yearning yet echos,
Pacing, the needle-like thoughts,
Ringing laughters and fleeting smiles,
A Lonely House
Two Tattered Veils
Three Broken Windows and
Four panels of Stained Floor
"And I would be the one
to hold you down -
kiss you so hard...
I'll take your breath away..." [1]

Dark Winds over Sethanon

With cynical intelligence,
and festering passion,
I fought upon the wall of grey Sethanon,
beneath a Dark Sun and a Dark Moon.

Each moment a hectic exertion.
Each moment a sorrowful introspection.
Fleetingly fell the sands of time,
As the embers of hope grew dimmer.

Howling winds cleaved its chill to my bone,
Grimacing steel laced through my flesh,
I tasted the bitterness of my blood,
Hot salty tears streaking down my soul.

Once, you and I kissed farewell,
in a street devoid of others.

Farewell Kiss [2]

Like a stringless kite
flew my caring thoughts of you,
No longer able to enter your world,
No longer able to warm your heart.
I saw the tragedy acted out,
Neither laughter nor joy in the finale --
Only frozen shards of dreams remain.

In that sudden moment,
I understood a little:
the promises that would never be...
In that blinking of the eye,
Your face was unfamiliar,
no longer the one I had known...

Snow descended in my world,
So cold...
so cold that I could not love,
so cold that it expose my every hidden regret.

You and I kissed farewell,
in an alley with no others,
letting the wind mock my weakness --
incapable of pushing you away.
You and I kissed farewell,
in the chaos of night,
my heart waiting --
anticipating sorrow and despair.

At Buttermilk Fall

Tho' brilliant sunlight streamed across my face,
And glittering blue flowed the sky above me,
Dark and shadowy swirled my thoughts.

Tho' spring-green grass swayed in breeze,
And aqua lotus leaves floated upon the rippling pond,
Black and grey trembled my feelings.

A small tome of love poems,
the gentle reminder of that difficult truth:
"'Tis better to loved and lost,
then ne'er loved at all."

Depression and Desolation, mine --
Dark, Shadowy, Black, and Grey

Until I thought of your gentle face,
your hazel eyes and dark locks,
your beautiful, carefree smile.

Slowly, gradually, almost imperceptiblly,
the corner of my lips turned --
I smiled as I thought of you.

Monologue, Broken Verses

In the silence of the night,
I am troubled.
In the noise of the day,
I am worried.
Shards of my dreams rained upon me,
their sharp points and razor edges bled me,
Why is it that I must ever turn --
inward,
to face that abyss within.
To be alone in confronting the demons?
Why ask why?
Do you not hear the laughter within the wind?
Mocking, silly laughters that sends chills up my spine?
Do you not hear the cries within the cackling fire?
Taunting, eerie cries that burns me?
No tears, no sadness.
No screams, no sorrow.
Only embers of resentment now remain.
In the end, only the flame of anger and hatred remains,
to burn away the excessive emotional burdens,
to burn away the impurities,
to burn away all but the focus.
I sighed at the sands, the rocks, the azure heavenlies,
"If I must fight on alone, so be it.
In the end, if I must pay, so be it.
So be it."
I laughed, there is no joy in the sound.
I laughed.

Musings to Demons

In the twilight of broken visions,
when my left arm clots of scarlet,
my constant companions are but two,
Death and Despair.

Where are my tears, I long wondered.
Perhaps they've fled this cruel mortal shell,
leaving me expressionless.
What twisted creature within me mocks,
That I should laugh and taunt my own misery?

Death and Despair,
Death and Despair,
How you've been with me always.
A false laughter or an ill-constructed joke,
mocking my own screamless torments,
cannot break your companionships.
Longing for the end? Mayhaps.

Blood stained white roses,
Teardrops upon broken granite,
Lightning in gray tempest,
These are but a few of my favorite things.

Thunderstorm I

Sky gray edge to edge,
Thunderous boom resound heavenlies,
Billiant glare lights above,
Tear drop rain softly caressed,
Amidst storm I stood awed,
Stilled at Nature's mood.

Thunderstorm II

Through eye's edge steel sky held,
Sudden flashes ripped blacken clouds,
Echoed still thunderous clash,
Chilled rain washed my burning tears.

Impressions, Diamond's

Colored shadows filtered in ambient light;
Neon brilliance stared out to cloaked streets;
Airy, curly, lazily drifted,
puffs of virulent cigarette smoke.
Harshly, speedily, pressingly pounded,
drums, voices, and metallic strings.
Hazel, transluscent, emerald, and scarlet
ebbed vessels of sense-numbing ethanol.
Notes trembled through walls, floors, and wavering forms,
Portraying a feverish, beating dream.
Familiar faces, lighted by inhaled tobacco,
whispered softly into half-deaf ears.
Why do people come to such places?
I don't know...
... but "hey, barkeep, could you get me another one?"

References

[1] "Possession" from "Fumbling toward Ecstacy", Sarah McLachlan, Arista Records 1993.

[2] "Farewell Kiss" from "Farewell Kiss", 1992, translated from Chinese.