Okay, don't just scroll social media everyday. Do something useless.
How about GloPoWriMo 2025?
badge generated by Gemini
why i am not a painter
I was sure there was no money in it.
I just cannot cut it with a palette knife, no way.
Sometimes the morning is so beautiful I forgot to count its colours.
I hear an inner voice saying "you cannot paint", and i am confused.
I heard you can stay an amateur, forever.
The brush whispers to the ear but it would not listen.
Sometimes the morning is so grey I do not want to get out of bed.
I hear my missus saying "you cannot paint, go figure out the bills".
18/04/2025
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thanks to napowrimo.net for the badge
Yeah, yeah, one week without a post. Everyday boring stuff has a stiff grip. The Day 3 prompt at naporiwrimo.net asks us to write a poem explaining why we are not a painter but some other thing else, in the vein of Frank O'Hara's "Why I Am Not a Painter". Did I get that right?
© cheong lee san ( dsnake1 ) 2025
Okay, don't just scroll social media everyday. Do something useless.
How about GloPoWriMo 2025?
badge generated by Gemini
talking to myself
Hey bro, you know I don't have much money right now, who brings so much cash over to this jungle? We are in the army, man. Anyway, I spent most of it on smokes, brought two cartons of marlboros over, heard the local ones are shit. The rest for R&R, we need that, the pubs, the massage parlors. It's not cheap in the city here in these 70's, everyone's trying to rip you off.
Talking about money, I made some at the blackjack games in the barracks. It's wild man, almost every night. One guy we called the "Colonel" completely lost his shirt and shit, says the dealer rigged his games. Pulls out a bayonet. We all restrained him, of course, no way the officers or MPs get a whiff of this. Then we pass a helmet around, toss in whatever change we can for his R&R.
Oh, if you have a chance to come over here, let the bedbugs bite you.
11/04/2025
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thanks to napowrimo.net for the badge
The prompt at SingPoWriMo Day7 was to "write a poem addressed to your younger self". I think the above qualifies.
© cheong lee san ( dsnake1 ) 2025
For day 16, we have the #animalsprompt:
Write a poem about animals without referencing any animal names or descriptors.
*cough*
dude, you don't want to mess with me, i promise you
roil me the wrong way and your wig will go askew
ask those knights in their heavy armour who knows
gulping fire into their lungs as their metal glows
oh golly, so you think i am some old fool's tale?
now be a hero and meet me on a dark mountain trail.
18/04/2023
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© cheong lee san ( dsnake1 ), 2023
SingPoWriMo 2023 Day 9
The prompt is "birth".
beating the odds
Nobody wants you, man. Others don't care. You don't have rich parents. Or friends. You are a pariah. A cat with no claws. You can't kill yourself, even if you wanted to. So why should you be born? Like getting sucked into a black hole right away. Or you limbs pulled apart by predators. Scared now? Still thinking about birth? Okay!
But Singapore, you beat the damn odds!
09/04/2023
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© cheong lee san ( dsnake1 ), 2023
SingPoWriMo 2023 Day8
The mods want us to write about mourning...
untitled
.
7 X 7 days
my dear
the house is now so quiet without you
.
.
.
08/04/2023
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© cheong lee san ( dsnake1 ), 2023
SingPoWriMo 2023 Day 3
The prompt is to write a poem in Singlish. I will try. I speak it everyday.
"Woman charged $608 for lobster la mian"
I never said that hor, it was in the news. Or some social media feed. Then if you look at the picture, the dish does look like a plate of vomit. The eater said one hor. Also cannot see the lobster. For that price? No wonder the woman kow pei kow bu. But never ask the price in the first place meh? Or look at the menu? Die die must eat here meh? I think some people are blur like sotong, or so rich till dun care. I wish I am rich liddat hor. Then can eat lobster noodle also. But liddat in the picture, I also complain one even if I got money to burn. Talking about money, that 600+ can fly budget to Oz and eat the lobster there. Lagi more fresh. Maybe can also throw in scallops, prawns and if you want, hum. (hum very expensive now, the char kwey teow uncle told me). Okay lah, the kopitiam downstairs just renovated and open, let me see what I can get there. La mian?
06/04/2023
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© cheong lee san ( dsnake1 ), 2023
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
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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
SingPoWriMo 2023 Day 1
The mods ask us to write about "a happy place".
a happy place
Willy says he knows of this place that has no rules, it sounds kind of troubling, but we idiots follow him anyway, through a maze of alleys near the odeon theatre.
It is a dodgy place, and alley of bars and dives, the signages odd beasts, there is one that the neon tubes supposed to spell 'THE COCKPIT' but the 'PIT' was unlit.
The happy place, pronounce Willy, and we are having a wee bit reservations, but since we are here, we saunter past the security and into the dark and noisy cave.
"Washington!" chirps a really well endowed girl, and wraps herself around Willy. "Ah, I see Jefferson is here and I suppose that one with the specs is Lincoln?"
So Willy got us to pool our money together, we can hardly hear each other through the music noise and some girl passes us some liquid she says is gin and tonic.
"Hey Wash, we should be in camp by twenty-three something, so be quick with Claudia with whatever you need to do", and we are not sure if this is a happy place.
01/04/2023
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© cheong lee san ( dsnake1 ), 2023
Day 31 of 'circuit breaker' shutdown, Singapore.
photo by dsnake1
Day 31
the end of another day -
a million murmurs
07/05/2020
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This is a haiga.
© cheong lee san ( dsnake1 ), 2020
This installation : Illumaphonium by Michael Davis of the United Kingdom.
photo by YunPing
rendezvous
She said, "you should
come up here more often,
it is quiet and chilly
and i get a bit lonely",
but i am not too sure
because the boy Icarus
dropped into the sea
the other day while
we were trying to
fly to Mars.
09/05/2018
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My daughter was at the recently concluded festival I Light Marina Bay, and took pictures of the light installations there. She asked me if i would like to add some words to the photos. These 5 were the results. Not much, I know from more than 20 installations.
© cheong lee san ( dsnake1 ), 2018
Peace. To all.
drawing by dsnake1, done with pencilmadness
haiku horizons - peace
the dawn light lands on my face and slides across the worn linoleum floor.
peace.
© cheong lee san ( dsnake1 ), 2017
Silence. The prompt at Haiku Horizons this week.
drawing by dsnake1, done with pencilmadness
haiku horizons - silence
only the silence
and the dried flowers
at the gravestones
© cheong lee san ( dsnake1 ), 2017
Fire. The prompt at Haiku Horizons last week. Missed the linkup, but here it is...
image by dsnake1 using Sketchpad 4.1
haiku horizons - fire
winter solstice
the fire from the incense bin
leaping
skywards
© cheong lee san ( dsnake1 ), 2017
Ocean. Haiku Horizons' prompt this week. Trying out a visual poem. I guess my effort cannot be called a haiku. Probably I was thinking about the Cutty Sark whiskey I drank before.
drawing by dsnake1 with pencilmadness
haiku horizons - ocean
oceanocean clipper oceanocean
oceanoceanoceanoceanoceanocean
oceanoceanoceanoceanoceanocean
----------------------
ah, let's get back to serious business...
the ocean waves
defiant
toss out a beer can on the beach
© cheong lee san ( dsnake1 ), 2017
The prompt at Haiku Horizons for this week is 'breeze'
image by dsnake1 done with pencilmadness
haiku horizons - breeze
evening breeze
the gulls circling over the pier
squabbling
© cheong lee san ( dsnake1 ), 2017
SingPoWriMo 2016 Day #7
I wrote this in response to a prompt at a poetry site, Poets United. The theme was 'Citizenship'. :)
what have i got myself into?
citizenship
we were singing Negara Ku
in the mornings at school
happily swapping colourful stickers
of fishes and hornbills and flowers
then back to the playgrounds
trying to maim each other with hantam bola.
do we children understand then
when the adults talk urgently
of Konfrontasi and commandos
and a bombing in Orchard Road?
or the race riots that started at
the Gasworks, Chinese killing Malays
and the Malays hitting back?
do i not have Malay friends in school?
do i understand all these, a ten year old,
running barefoot, flying kites
catching fishes in drains?
and one day they said they saw a man
cried on tv and said we were on our own
and that night after the news
i saw that haunted look in the eyes
of my parents
it was like the end of the world
we no longer sing Negara Ku
and a new responsibility was
suddenly thrust upon us
Majulah Singapura!
07/04/2016
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© cheong lee san ( dsnake1 ), 2016
Written for the prompt at Haiku Heights.
image by dsnake1, done with pencilmadness
thanks
on a cool breeze the air i breathe
Inspired by the theme at
© cheong lee san ( dsnake1 ), 2013
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
Written for the prompt at Haiku Heights.
image by dsnake1
seven
feeding the slot machines -
the triple sevens
lie low
10/11/2013
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Inspired by the theme at
© cheong lee san ( dsnake1 ), 2013
Written for the prompt at Haiku Heights.
image by dsnake1, done with pencil madness
grass
morning rain -
in the flooded field
blades of grass surface for light.
04/11/2013
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Inspired by the theme at
© cheong lee san ( dsnake1 ), 2013
