Please

Please aim all kicks at the ground.
Address all blows to the air.
We are to be barely mentioned if at all in the moon’s memoirs.

*

from “Ledgelife” by Bill Knott

This is a prompt from the Bibliomamcy Oracle. It can work in frustrating ways.

photo by dsnake1



please


please, let us not talk about
what the numbers we should have
scratched on the betting slip
how the other plans didn't pan out
if there are plans in the first place.
just be glad that we are
still drinking beer
and binge surfing tv
on 31st december



31/12/2024
**********

photo by dsnake1

---

Rod Stewart - Auld Lang Syne

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© cheong lee san ( dsnake1 ) 2025

daze

If there is a word to describe my 2023, it is "daze". Most of the months moved by like a haze, dysfunctional after boring months. Troubled by a rogue thyroid, lost weight, lost direction, time consumed by social media, most days is a snafu.

Then a stay of a month and a half in Amsterdam and the Netherlands somehow brought back some order. Ah, Amsterdam, the city of canals and bridges, bicycles and cyclists, cannabis and museums. The city woke me up to the beauty, and ugliness of this world.

From there, I followed the routes that Vincent van Gogh took in the village of Nuenen, where he stayed for some months at his mother's house, where he painted the watermills, windmills and people. Later I will visit the new, sleek museum in Amsterdam where most of his paintings are.

I made trips to the battlegrounds of World War 2, to Arnhem, to Groesbeek and Nijmegen, to look at mangled pieces of metal, to Anne Frank's house in Amsterdam, where a teenage girl just wanted to live a normal life, to try to understand the inhumanity of man to man.

I underestimated the cold in Amsterdam during November/December, coming from the tropics, and had to get extra warm clothing. I saw the homeless sleeping on the sidewalks, underpasses, and understand how cold they must have felt.

On the day I was leaving for home, at the airport, I saw heavily armed police and military personnel around. Discreet, yet visible, they are there because of a terrorist threat. There is more or less the same presence when I landed. The world has changed, and has not changed much.



01/01/2024
**********

from a wall mural in Amsterdam, Netherlands
photo by dsnake1



daze


"I will do it today."
"Tomorrow, it will be done."

And so, another year passes...


01/01/2024
**********

---

We do not cherish the hours until we worry about the nanoseconds. - dsnake1

---

© cheong lee san ( dsnake1 ) 2024

Happy New Year!

“Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted to change the world. Today I am wise, so I am changing myself.”

― Rumi

watercolor sketch by dsnake1

Have a Happy and Blessed New Year

---

be at peace with everything around you
there is a purpose for every existence

-- dsnake1, harmony


Sharing with the good folks at Poets and Storytellers United.

---

© cheong lee san ( dsnake1 ) 2022

Dear 2021

It was the train pulling out of the station, and no one was waving...

- dsnake1, a few days to the new year

digital montage by dsnake1



Dear 2021


Dear 2021

I know, it is the beginning of the year, but you sure know how to grab our attention. The world, and especially America, looks on with disbelief, as its own people storms the Capitol, trying to overturn an election result.

Then, as another joke, a large container ship runs aground and obstructs the Suez canal, disrupting global trade. We can never forget the image of a little digger trying to free the behemoth from the banks.

The Summer Olympics finally gets going, one year later, and as a cyclist, I watch all the cycling events and was touched by the enthusiastic Japanese people along the route cheering the competitors on. Also, American gymnast Simone Biles taught us it's alright if we don't feel right.

The USA exits Afghanistan after 20 years of war, and people are pointing the fingers to the memory of Vietnam. For a kid who lost a dad early in the war, the kid is probably all grown up now, and wondering if the servicemen, and the trillions of dollars, can be put to better use.

You let billionaires go to space for joyrides and and turn a blind eye to disinformation, as it continues to fool people on social media, where governments are also waging a relentless propaganda war.

It seems like nothing happened, COVID-19 continues to hog the news, and yet we continue to be touched, angered, perplexed and entertained by the year's events.

You will not walk out with a hobble. You will walk, maybe hunched, but walk. And let us all hold our hands, forget our differences of opinions, and wish for a normal return to life from the pandemic. And a true yearning for a return to peace.


Sincerely

Lee San


18/12/2021
**********

Magaly at Friday Writings told us to write a “Dear 2021” open letter, in verse or in prose. So this is it. It is a very hurried write. Wish I have some time to polish it. :)

291 words

---

U2 - Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own

---

© cheong lee san ( dsnake1 ) 2021

and all i see are wet petals on asphalt

"And the days are not full enough
And the nights are not full enough
And life slips by like a field mouse
         Not shaking the grass"

-- Ezra Pound

Osaka, Japan, at night
photo by dsnake1



and all i see are wet petals on asphalt


the train doors close
like a breath exhaling

and i slip out of the station
to an empty street

a cold wind blowing
and a long way from home



01/01/2020
**********

---

* “Where are the people?” resumed the little prince at last. “It’s a little lonely in the desert…”
"It is lonely when you’re among people, too,” said the snake. *

― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince


Shared on Writers' Pantry #1 at Poets and Storytellers United.

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© cheong lee san ( dsnake1 ) 2020

a few days to the new year

It was the train pulling out of the station, and no one was waving...

photo by geralt at pixabay



a few days to the new year


resolutions are meaningless
if it's all talk
the rustle of plastic
as we tear away
a packaging
the popping of bubble wrap
on idle days

why cynicism then
biting like acid
on flesh?

this bile bitter
as the beast
in the desert?

then a step
a step a day
the sun rises
the sun will set

will the year then be
the green leaf on the bough
catching the sunlight
or the brown dying one
dropping to the asphalt
to be swept and buried
in a dark drain?


26/12/2011
**********

an old, unpublished, angry poem brooding in my journals. Ditch the anger, have a safe and happy 2019, friends!

---

Facing West - Auld Lang Syne

---

© cheong lee san ( dsnake1 ) 2018

peace

Recently, I came across a video of a youth orchestra and choir. And in those young earnest faces, I wish to see the hopes of the coming year. Not a kid cradling a kalashnikov in some ruined town, or one begging for food in some urban slum. 2017's path has been lined with bramble and bracken. We fight beasts with puny weapons. Lies are taken as truths. This has been the terror of uncertain days. One more mistake. Just one more! The Pinball Machine tilts! And it is game over, no reset buttons, no credit slots.

Have a safe and peaceful 2018, friends!

digital drawing by dsnake1, with pencilmadness




peace




the dawn light lands on my face and slides across the worn linoleum floor.

peace.


29/12/2017
**********

here's another preamble that's longer than the poem. :)

---

"Help me, Goddess, to be the always hopeful..."

-- dsnake1, prayer

---

© cheong lee san ( dsnake1 ) 2017

2016

It has been quite a bleary year, but still kind.

image by dsnake1, done with Sketchpad 4.0




2016



as footprints in the sand
that will be erased by the tides
so do the past years go

and do we appreciate we lived
a little longer
by a leap second?

we do make very strange decisions as a collective
so the guns are no more silent as last year's
the princess of the galaxy is gone
we do fear the ceiling falling
the want ads are ambiguous
there is no more beer
in the fridge

but let us not be anchored down
by fear and apathy
fear of the other
fear of the unknown
we will live
for the tomorrow
for the sunlight
for the ones we cared.
deep roots do not fear frost


31/12/2016
**********

---

Happy New Year, dear readers! May the new year be healthy and kind and cheerful. 😁

---

© cheong lee san ( dsnake1 ) 2016

a lesson

Raise your hands all those who agree that 2014 had been mostly a bad year.

digital sketch by dsnake1, made with Sketchpad



a lesson


On a New Year's eve, as I was about to go to work in the afternoon, a lady knocked on my front door. She was selling ballpoint pens. She had a card stating she was partially blind. Her dress had seen better days, but she was neat. She was also missing a couple of front teeth.

As I was in a hurry, I declined. She smiled and apologised and started to walk away. And then like a slap, it hit me. This is New Year's eve, for goodness sake. Why were you so mean? And I ran and caught up with the lady at the lift landing.

So I bought a pen from the lady, all for two bucks. I am kicking myself now. I mean, how much can one make from two bucks? I should have bought a few more. Here I was griping about working on New Year's eve, and here was a lady who would probably never be able to find a job that can pay her a decent wage.

Today has taught me a lesson. Slow down, man, slow down. Breathe, and then breathe deeply again. You may be able to see better.


31/12/2014
**********

---

Here's wishing all my readers a safe and happy New Year!

---

© cheong lee san ( dsnake1 ) 2015

it's almost the same every year

I have become a weekend writer. After a day at the office, there is not much time or energy to do anything else. Just hope the weekend is free.

I wrote this in response to the the Mid-week Motif at Poets United, where the theme was "Newness". Yeah, I know today is Monday already. Today, i traveled the island from end to end in the course of work, and am surprised I still have the time to post this. Not too satisfied with this piece, seems incomplete. That's what you get when the muse goes AWOL.

photo by nrb, image from morguefile.com



it's almost the same every year


thin light over the harbour
tiptoes gently on
discarded beer cans and wishes
where hours earlier
the new year was ushered
auld lang syne mangled


but now on the edge of dawn
our heads ache
from the smoke of gunpowder
the cajoling of sleep
as we wait in exhaustion
for the first train rumble.



12/01/2014
**********

54 words only

---

Strap yourself to some roots in 2014 :-)

-- ZQ


Shared on Poetry Pantry #184 at Poets United.

---

© cheong lee san ( dsnake1 ) 2014

will the new year

Okay, the following poem is not exactly new, I wrote and published it on this blog a few years back as a New Year's wish. But I think it is still relevant today as it was then.

Here's wishing all my readers a very Happy New Year!




photo by AppleGoh
image by dsnake1




will the new year




will

the new day
be

like
    water
       from
the rainfall
       that
    runs
with the
dead leaves
into
the culverts,
to be
lost,
knowing
they
cannot fight
the
pull of
gravity,

or

like the
sunrays
of the
    new
       morning,
scattering
       off
    tree leaves,
the eaves
of buildings,
    angular
       and sharp,
    filling
every corner
every crevice,
    curious,
       piercing

and free

?


31/12/07
********

---

We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope. 

-- Martin Luther King, Jr.



This poem is for Poetry Pantry #130 at Poets United.

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©cheong lee san ( dsnake1 ) 2012