poetry lesson #14

Rosemary at Poets and Storytellers United would like us to write about writing: either write a poem about writing poetry, or tell us a story about story-telling. 😀

collage and photo by dsnake1



poetry lesson #14


I wanted to write a poem about
the four horsemen of the apocalypse.

Night turns to day and the four
horsemen are nowhere to be found.

So i look at the video game machine
and it is pleading to be switched on.

Days turn to weeks and there are
still no signs of the four horsemen.

I know it is an old game but if
you are poor, old games are still fun.

So my characters are marching through
the game like demi gods, invincible.

They are beautiful and strong, their
godly blades felling enemies like weeds.

It is Pestilence and Famine and War and Death,
whatever name at the moment.

And then I remember I am supposed
to write a poem, about some horsemen.

So in the end I have four sijos instead,
the four horsemen have assembled.

It is hard to explain how I got there,
I know, a very poor, lousy poetry lesson.

Would you like to see the poems instead?



07/04/2023
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Read my poem? Why don't you click the below link and hear someone read Charles Bukowski's The Crunch?

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People Aren't Good (The Crunch by Charles Bukowski)

All three versions of The Crunch by Charles Bukowski.

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© cheong lee san ( dsnake1 ) 2023

poetry lesson #13

Life is about choices, and sometimes we slip into a hole...

photo by BSD at Unsplash


poetry lesson #13


you begin by thinking that nothing
can kill you.
you forgot that you can be brittle
like a glass bottle
that you sometimes pick up in fights.

you look like someone's good brother
kind and polite.
but one day the cops come, SWAT and all
in your bag they find
an axe and loot from the goldsmith's heist.

you end up in an cold, empty apartment
on the run.
edgy, one sweaty hand on the kukri,
an outside cough
makes you run behind the locked door.

does it sounds like someone you know?
write a poem on that.


27/04/2022
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“Until a man is twenty-five, he still thinks, every so often, that under the right circumstances he could be the baddest motherfucker in the world. If I moved to a martial-arts monastery in China and studied real hard for ten years. If my family was wiped out by Colombian drug dealers and I swore myself to revenge. If I got a fatal disease, had one year to live, and devoted it to wiping out street crime. If I just dropped out and devoted my life to being bad.”

― Neal Stephenson

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© cheong lee san ( dsnake1 ) 2022

poetry lesson #12

Worthy of a Michelin star, this?

homecooked fried rice by dsnake1
photo also by him



poetry lesson #12
() cooking a poem


the fire is lit
the ink is heated
but when i throw
in the words,
try to stir fry
them
trying to cook
a decent poem,
i wonder
have i chopped them
up properly
diced them verbs nicely
minced the nouns
selected the right metaphors

have i added them
in the right order
and am i
missing some spice
of adjectives.

the colours are looking right
it's almost done
ready to be served
on a new page
and garnish with line breaks.


18/04/2009
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from my old naporimo 2009 files.

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Netflix - The Glorious Food of Studio Ghibli Supercut

There is no food featured from one of my favourite Ghibli films, Grave of the Fireflies. Maybe food during wartime is deemed not attractive enough by Netflix. :)

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© cheong lee san ( dsnake1 ) 2021

poetry lesson #11

"I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference."

― Robert Frost, The Road Not Taken

digital montage by dsnake1 with Sketchpad 5.1


poetry lesson #11
() this a poem


these are words scratched
by a bayonet tip
on an ammo box
in some foreign fields
and it claimed
a soldier was here
but he wished he was not.

these are squiggles scrawled
on some scrap paper
which looked like
some alien runes
but the writer thought
these can win
the next nobel award.

this is a seemingly blank
slightly yellowed page
where a salty tear once
dropped and blotted
when the heart was hurt
and words
were not enough.

this is a poem
these are poems.



written 01/06/2007
revised 03/08/2021
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Poets of the Fall - Locking Up The Sun

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© cheong lee san ( dsnake1 ) 2022

poetry lesson #10

If i am asked to give a talk on writing poetry, i will repeat the same words as this...

pencil sketch by dsnake1



poetry lesson #10


to write a poem, keep to your pace.
you may walk to a different drum beat
be it.

know what you want to talk about.
a prompt, a sexy photo, blue skies
your anger.

write a draft, the stuff that comes
to mind, sticky notes, that passes by
write it.

frame the words, like a picture
find a form, like this poem, fence it
feed your cat

and then take a break, you know me
go to youtube, weird docus, favourite
rock bands

i keep coming back, ever since that song
in a disused shipyard, guitars and drums
that tell time.

i am distracted, headphones seem stuck,
they are just too pretty, i will be back
in a week


23/07/2021
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Shared on Friday Writings #2 at Poets and Storytellers United.

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BAND-MAID - Daydreaming

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© cheong lee san ( dsnake1 ) 2021

poetry lesson #9

"THE ONLY WAR THAT MATTERS IS THE WAR AGAINST THE IMAGINATION"
Diane di Prima - "Rant" (Revolutionary Letters, 1971)

pencil sketch by dsnake1



poetry lesson #9
() on matters of poetry



two colleagues had a fist fight the other day.
and then amicably went out for coffee together.

there is a word for that, mixed martial arts.

i thought i saw you in a bus the other day.
that girl must be spooked, the way i looked.

there are no ghosts in the day, i am told.

i see a darting dragonfly in the rushes today.
it is a helicopter in vietnam in a past life.

how can you explain the way it skims the waters?

there are dirty dishes in the sink to wash.
and after that i will really think of poetry.

the baby cries, is she thinking of poetry too?

there is no reason why you cannot write.
why you couldn't at least freaking try.

afraid people laugh at your poetry? read mine!



22/03/2021
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SiM -- The Sound of Breath

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© cheong lee san ( dsnake1 ) 2021

poetry lesson #8

On pouring rice grains into a plastic bin, or a metal bowl dropping onto the floor, and the contented pigeon cooing on my eaves, what chords are in the sounds?

- dsnake1

pencil sketch by dsnake1


poetry lesson #8
() sounds


poetry is sometimes like that
you pulled some sounds out of noise
and it is some sweet music

i have a test cd, it warns
the low bass may damage your speakers
i am listening to a bass guitarist
her riffs toss and warm you
her low bass may damage your speakers
but wraps you in a cocoon of emotion.

it is the same with poetry
the deeper you go into your soul
the easier to reach insanity.


27/02/2021
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BAND-MAID - The Dragon Cries

Shared on Writers' Pantry #83 at Poets and Storytellers United

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© cheong lee san ( dsnake1 ) 2021

poetry lesson #7

Technology do the heavy lifting, but has it dull our curiosity?

pencil sketch by dsnake1


poetry lesson #7


once upon a time i have to
hammer out the words on
an old olivetti, changing
the ribbons every couple of months
or so
staining my fingers black and red

writing poetry

poetry is lonely, poetry is love, poetry can be brutal
-the poet goes to war, and is needlessly
  killed the day before Armistice
-the poet asks for water rather than
  disturb the morning glory at the well
-the poet sits in a chopper and cries
  for his buddy who had stepped on a mine.

i did not grow wings and rescue souls
i am just an old guy writing his life story

but i miss my cigarettes
i would like a cold beer
and the traffic in the night is reassuring
the world is breathing

do not put an extra demand
on the brain to corral the exact words

i go for a walk
i switch on the game machine
i sleep
i watch a youtube video (again)
the lady guitarist
she plucks the strings
she plucks
the air out of my lungs
the guitar cries
i cries
and
the life story waits


28/01/2021
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Band-Maid - Anemone

Shared at Writers' Pantry #76

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© cheong lee san ( dsnake1 ) 2021

poetry lesson #6

poetry. definitely a love-hate relationship...

pencil sketch by dsnake1



poetry lesson #6


i confess
i am trying to write a poem.

pencil & notebook is ready

trying to pull words
out of a hat

it is like my constipated
self trying to poop

mercifully!

and out of the
angry scrawls on the paper

finally!

looks.like.a.poem

pick the poem apart
letter by letter
it is painful, watching
like an autopsy

kill the poem! kill it!

you call this poetry, sir?
perhaps the blackbird outside on my air con unit can scratch better than this!

my muse, quick, i need my pretty muse.


15.01.2021
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Band-Maid - Manners

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© cheong lee san ( dsnake1 ) 2021

poetry lesson #5

forget OB markers, if you feel like it...

photo by dsnake1


poetry lesson #5
it is a poem


it is about the sunrise
which tosses its gossamer
of flaming crimson that
flares in the early eastern sky

it is about your love
which is a cup of nectar
the liquid spilling off the cusp
the goblet you hold in a weak grasp

it is about the darkness
which is a stone wall of razor wires
which shut out the grey of sad skies
the marble of stone crosses

it is about elusive words
the little abstractions which
roll easily off tongues but we
despaired building like lego bricks

it is the heartbreak of battlefields
it is the insignifant things from A to Z
it is the watching of paint drying
it can be so painful you want to cry

as we toss paper after paper
                 to wastebaskets
till the words become a picture
and it is a poem
.

written 01/12/2002
revised 07/04/2019
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BAND-MAID - Freedom

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© cheong lee san ( dsnake1 ) 2021

poetry lesson #4

The broken heart is there but still the words would not come...

pencil sketch by dsnake1


poetry lesson #4


the humid air hangs with
                 distractions
how to write a poem now
                 any poem.
and there are other nudges.
why, i just made my video hitman
drove all over the seedy town
then to take out a mob boss,
it was messy but the job was done.
             and i just realised
all my rock heroes
are now dead or old men,
their beards fashionable
             but grey,
and now the guitars have
             been passed to
five pretty Japanese girls
in maid outfits
to save rock.
it's sick!

and that poem
is still nowhere around
so i poured myself
a glass of wine (yes, wine now)
and send my hitman out again
to look for UFO parts.

and that poem?
the lady vocalist in
the youtube video
her gestures, her face,
                  her moles
reminds me of someone
i missed dearly.
i hit the replay button,
i feel like crying

and so
the poem will wait.


16/09/2020
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BAND-MAID - Wonderland

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© cheong lee san ( dsnake1 ) 2021

poetry lesson #3

spare a thought for the one trying to write some poetry...

photo of Sanjo, Kyoto by YunPing


poetry lesson #3


have you been awake and
trying to write poetry
                 at 1 a.m.
and all that is outside
are two drunks bitching?

i am starting to miss my
cigarettes but the doc says
                 65% blocked
those damn arteries, please
don't go messing with them

so i try to sit down with
a pencil and paper or the
                 old computer
trying to feel good, drink,
dream or pretend that i am

Bukowski
Pound
William Carlos Williams
Plath
Ferlinghetti

or the whatever poet
flavor of the moment
                 it helps
take my word for it
that's how i grind out

beautiful young women with poor fates
loneliness and the pitifully lonely mad
days gone and wasted at godforsaken camps
the comfort and friendship of raintrees
people i know who have come and gone

someone said the butterfly
counts not time but moments
                    is true?
and so is poetry, because we
live for that space in time

some nights soak in sadness
and i plead for the sunrise
                      the sky
has turned a hue of rusty red
a werewolf howls from a block

and there still outside
the two drunks are bitching.



written : 02/09/2020
revised : 08/10/2020
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SCANDAL - Departure

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© cheong lee san ( dsnake1 ) 2020