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my daily poetry april 11, 12, 2004
Folder:
Childhood Poems the irish woman
by john tiong chunghoo
----------------------------
the rain.....
tick tock tick tock
on the roof.
the irish woman's
deep words
of resentment
'scoundrel', 'rascal'
seem to get some
degree of approval
from the rain.
a deep
emphathy
from me
trails the rain
striking the
high keys in my heart.
the stirring echoes of rain.
long overdue -
a new word for
such futile emphathy?
history, the pain that
accompanies it.
not the first time
similar words
came out of
the souls in
my occasional brush
with irish,
the fine people who
give us plenty of
literary luminaries.
these literary giants
who in their agony
for salvation,
recognition
spun words
to give us
a view of the
different shades
of emotions,
thoughts that
the loss of dignity
would rock
a human pyshce.
a shell painful
brush with sand
that eventually
turns out a
lustrous pearl.
those irish pearls
strewn all over the pages.
their words rock consciences.
a siesmic tremour
in the collective
mental world.
i remember my own.
they bought opiums
till their nation cracked.
i met another british woman
who complained to me
about "the english people".
the landmines
by john tiong chunghoo
---------------------------------
Tearjerkers told about legs and hands
Taken by the fields while in earnest toil.
Human intelligence wrongly expressed
That took a toll on the world
Ruining lands and snatching hopes.
A protracted war after a surrender;
More deadly than real combats.
Random killing...like a sleeping lion
That snarls anyone crossing its path;
A scorpion that strikes anyone
Unaware of its presence.
Our productive fields
Left to the winds, rains and mines,
Our stomachs grumble and tumble.
Tiong Chung Hoo
