SingPoWriMo 2023 Day #2

SingPoWriMo 2023 Day 2

Today's challenge is to write a liwuli.

minus one




It should not be this way of course, a hard cookie crumbling. It is unfair for both of us. And chemo is not cheap either.

It is now a night of waiting
quick footsteps
cold coffee.

Have you seen tracers firing into the night sky, are they like red ribbons?



02/04/2023
**********




A liwuli is a poetic form originating in South-east Asia.

A liwuli consists of 3 stanzas:
(1) the first stanza contains exactly 31 syllables in the form of a prose poem, and should be expressed as instructions.
(2) the second stanza consists of 14 syllables, and is broken into 3 lines, the length of each line is up to the writer as long as there are 14 syllables in the lines.
(3) the third stanza consists of 19 syllables, broken into as many lines you want, and should be phrased entirely in terms of questions.


© cheong lee san ( dsnake1 ), 2023

not good enough #5

Thinking about a loss.
Submitted to an online site, rejected.

digital drawing by dsnake1 with Sketchpad 5.0



untitled



your old photograph -
a raindrop slides down a window pane.



© cheong lee san ( dsnake1 ), 2020

i light marina bay - With Love...

This installation : With Love... by Franck Pelletier of France

photo by YunPing



winters



twenty four years, another winter.
i touch her photograph again.



© cheong lee san ( dsnake1 ), 2018

small stone 2017 - #2

Pay attention. Observe closely. Relax. And write a small stone a day. Even a heartbreaking one.

image by dsnake1 using Sketchpad 4.1



small stone 2017 #2




candle wax on the altar -
our goodbyes
said




© cheong lee san ( dsnake1 ), 2017

gtaV haiga - #9

The night may be dark but not lonely.

image by dsnake1 generated by PS3 using GTA5




gtaV haiga#9



the night longing to hear your voice




Sept 2015
*********


[ click on the image for a larger view ]



This is a screenshot from Grand Theft Auto V - a copyrighted video game developed and published by Rockstar Games.


© cheong lee san ( dsnake1 ), 2016

gtaV haiga - #7

Sometimes the pain returns.

image by dsnake1 generated on PS3 using GTA5



gtaV haiga#7



on the wind your name


June 2015
*********


[ click on the image for a larger view ]




This is a screenshot from Grand Theft Auto V - a copyrighted video game developed and published by Rockstar Games.



© cheong lee san ( dsnake1 ), 2016

SingPoWriMo 2016 - Day #3

SingPoWriMo 2016 Day #3.

I was at the grave of my late wife during the period of Qing Ming, to clean her grave and give offerings. I touched her portrait on the marble. She is lovely. She is.

what have i got myself into?



when she was reduced to ashes


to see her reduced to ashes
in a furnace
i am powerless
and nothing i can do
but to give a
lonely
weak wave
and every fervent talk of
life and death
is meaningless
for the night before
she was just a slab
of meat
in a casket
and to think
we used to talk
and laugh
about our small universe
and to
caress and care
every night
before we sleep.


03/04/2016
**********


same-day publication at my main blog, urban poems.




© cheong lee san ( dsnake1 ), 2016

shiki kukai - returning home

The theme for the May 2015 Free Format section of the monthly kukai at haikuworld was 'Returning Home'. After just a couple of drafts, I was satisfied with the final product.

I thought it could do better, but a return of 6 points is not too bad. :)

image by dsnake1, done with pencilmadness




may 2015 free format shiki kukai



overcast skies -
on the tarmac the caskets draped in flags




© cheong lee san ( dsnake1 ), 2015.

shiki kukai - goodbye

The theme for the Free Format section of the August shiki kukai was "Goodbye(s)/Parting Words". Sounds like an easy topic, isn't it?

I thought so too, and send in a monostich. It managed 4 votes. :(

image by dsnake1



august 2014 free format shiki kukai




only the silence of the flowers and gravestones.




© cheong lee san ( dsnake1 ), 2014

NaHaiWriMo Day #7 : box

Check out NaHaiWriMo. There is a daily prompt to help you along.

box


missing dad-

his old toolbox
in the shadows of the shed.



07/02/2014
**********





© cheong lee san ( dsnake1 ), 2014

Shiki Kukai - heart

The theme for the Free Format section of the December shiki kukai at haikuworld was " heart".

The results are out today, and I did very well this time round, the haiku collecting a total of 15 votes. Not easy getting to double digits. :)

image by dsnake1, done with pencilmadness





♥




her faded photograph -

i draw a heart
in red ink.




© cheong lee san ( dsnake1 ), 2013

Haiku Heights prompt - blood

Written for the prompt at Haiku Heights.

image by dsnake1, done with pencilmadness




11 Nov 1918




all the blood in the trenches in vain

Inspired by the theme at

© cheong lee san ( dsnake1 ), 2013

NaPoWriMo 2013, Day #3 - mt. vernon, qingming 2013

Day 3. The muse is still alive.

Something personal today.





photo by dsnake1
with a Huawei Ascend


mt. vernon, qingming 2013



every year i am here
with the flowers and incense
to clean your grave
to clean that portrait
in the marble
that had smiled at me
all these years


i do not cry now
perhaps time has helped
but as always
i call your name
sometimes i bring a beer
light a cigarette
do the things we did


the sky today
is a shade of battle grey
yet a sun peeks out
its rays bathing your face
it is time to go then
i hesitate, i touch
that marble again



03/04/2013
**********

---

Notes: During the Qingming Festival, the Chinese people visit the graves and burial grounds of their ancestors, sweep and clean the tombs, and make offerings of food, tea, joss sticks and paper.

---

© cheong lee san ( dsnake1 ), 2013

Shiki Kukai : departing

I wrote this for the December kukai at haikuworld. The theme at the Free Format section was "Departing".

The results are out. This haiku managed a total of 2 votes. Okay, I think.




photo by dsnake1


untitled


still missing you.

in the bare sky a vapour trail
of a jetliner


13/12/2012
**********



For Robert Bauer, kukai secretary and webmaster at haikuworld.org, who passed on recently.


© cheong lee san ( dsnake1 ), 2012

NaPoWriMo 2012 - Day #29 - for a friend

these past few days of my sick leave, i spent a lot of time sleeping. and thinking. a lot of things. mortality , for instance.

a friend had passed away (a few years earlier). he was very fit, doesn't smoke or drink, was a commando in the armed forces. liver cancer struck him down. it doesn't make sense to us, his friends.

one of the prompts at the NaPoWriMo site was to write an elegy. i guessed this is for him.



image by dsnake1
done with Sketch at pencilmadness.com



for a friend



it's very
unexpected

like a glass
slipped out
of your
hands
and

shattered.

mortality
is
like that.

the alarms
are there

like leaves
falling out
of trees

but still

the end
came too
fast

like this rain
that keeps
pouring

suddenly

out of the blue.

leaving us
with
just memories
of what

a great
individual

we have
lost.




drafted 09.12.07
revised 29.04.12







© cheong lee san ( dsnake1 ), 2012

NaPoWriMo 2012 - Day # 11 - she sang of seagulls

i wanted to write this for some time. there were bits and pieces of phrases and ideas in my notebooks, so today i gathered them together, threw out some, added in some new lines, and yes, i was quite satisfied with the result.

it was for a woman who had changed my life for the better...

photo by alvimann

image from morguefile.com

she sang of seagulls


she sang of seagulls
snd blue skies
resoluteness
and her need to fly
soared with the wind

on wings of light
and should you fall
she said
pick yourself up
like those gulls

that braved the squalls
the dark seas
spread your wings
glide with the clouds
and be free

and someday, she said
if i am not with you,
and you missed me
look up at those gulls
by the sea.

one of them
could be me.


11/04/2012
**********


-- to carol


"seagull", sung by Jenny Tseng.





© cheong lee san ( dsnake1 ), 2012

urn

i seem to be writing sad stuff these days. oh man.

trying out a 5-7-5 haiku.

painting by Tanigami Konan

image from visipix.com

urn



an urn in a niche -

sometimes i come to visit
how much i miss you.


20/11/2011
**********



© cheong lee san ( dsnake1 ), 2011

NaPoWriMo 2011 - #7

# 7

do not agitate



Today's poem is inspired by the Qing Ming festival, which I observed today.



on visiting you during qing ming


after cleaning the dust
off your portrait

on that cold marble slab
it looks like i have only

lost you
yesterday.

but it has been seventeen long
years and every qing ming

i am here
and you smile

that youthful eternal smile
but i have grown older

more grey hairs
and i told you so

and you will have
probably laughed

and cried and
made me promise

to visit you again
on more days

like
this.


07/04/11
********





© cheong lee san ( dsnake1 ), 2011

NaPoWriMo 2011, # 3

# 3

do not agitate




Writing about a loss today. Maybe I will do some editing to this after NaPoWriMo ends...


the final day


perhaps she senses it
even in her numbed state
as the morphine seeks
to calm the pain,
she in her wheelchair
waiting for the ambulance,
because her bony hands
squeeze mine
with a strength
that belies her illness,
and her eyes
her eyes as if
saying goodbye,
and i
holding her hands
holding back the tears,
fear more
than she does

that by night,
she will no longer
be with us.


03/04/2011
**********





© cheong lee san ( dsnake1 ), 2011