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Jan 2021 · 102
Another Aspect of Love
Dr Peter Lim Jan 2021
Repetition is what love doesn't savour
exhausting and vexatious such it does find
she knows and trusts her lover
who will keep her ever in heart and mind
Jan 2021 · 136
The Wisdom of Letting Go
Dr Peter Lim Jan 2021
Life never does insist:

' You must understand me!'

  the fault is ours none the least

  we court our own misery.
Dr Peter Lim Jan 2021
In the silent stream

two swans glide along in pair

beneath weeping leaves
Dr Peter Lim Jan 2021
Love---   at the end

you'd want to return

to the beginning

for more the heart will yearn
Dr Peter Lim Jan 2021
Morning winter sun

after snowfall of last night

village is astir
Jan 2021 · 60
The Mind of the Writer
Dr Peter Lim Jan 2021
A word, a phrase, a feeling
such will not go away
the ceaseless inner stirring
since the start of the day

where's the heart leaning?
what should the writer say?
whence will come the inspiring?
will the finished work be gold or only clay?
Jan 2021 · 103
For Michael Hassler*
Dr Peter Lim Jan 2021
Poets voyage in the same boat

towards the Shore of Beauty

though each writes in different mode

their hearts flutter in shared humanity
* a poet met in Linkedin
Dr Peter Lim Jan 2021
Homes and trees in snow

lone figure walks with pet-dogs

wife looks through window
Dr Peter Lim Jan 2021
The self lives in time and space
but is somehow estranged---tragic dilemma!
they lie who say life is grace
everyday I feel death's nearness---never far!
Dr Peter Lim Jan 2021
We are each our own philosopher

             we should not be on the lookout for any other
Dr Peter Lim Jan 2021
Old structure on mound

against evening's faint light

reflected on stream
* of late, so many paintings are posted in social media which are excellent subjects for haiku.  I have been deeply inspired and have thanked those who have posted such to share
Dr Peter Lim Jan 2021
Sea of blue flowers
watched by silent cottages
early blush of spring
Dr Peter Lim Jan 2021
Old village cottage

standing on lonely brown field

hush voices by night
Jan 2021 · 68
The Art of Loving
Dr Peter Lim Jan 2021
It's so simple

but so many do not know

love consists not in holding

but in letting go.
Dr Peter Lim Jan 2021
Hidden summer field

dotted with small white flowers

tiny path leads there
Dr Peter Lim Jan 2021
Thick evening mist
  spreads blanket over village
  lone figure walking
Dr Peter Lim Jan 2021
Dear D,

Honestly, you are a true RENAISSANCE MAN!

Talents abound but most people drop off somehow-their will and interests dwindle---they lose their vision--they wither!

Thankfully,  there are others like you who struggle on, with undiminished ardour and great humility to pursue their dreams...and life assumes a deep meaning.

Despite C19 and all the trials and travails before us, we just have to move on, not in existential despair, but with renewed vigour until time compels us to make our exit.

Your humble friend

Peter
Jan 2021 · 46
The Day
Dr Peter Lim Jan 2021
The day does not itself define

      you honour it with doing something sublime
Dr Peter Lim Jan 2021
It's in the deepest humility
that the best will flourish
every vestige will be banished from vanity
herein grace, beauty and truth will enrich
Dr Peter Lim Jan 2021
Amidst life's deep pain and suffering
  music is the unfailing mother of healing
  the self will embrace a mysterious awakening
  reborn into a glorious resurrecting
Jan 2021 · 120
Zen (25th January 2021)
Dr Peter Lim Jan 2021
Life the ever-neutral
          no side does it take
          we are mortal
          make no mistake

          all that is, is but the now
          the moment next has no name
          each a wanderer, we somehow
          come together at the end of life's nameless game
Jan 2021 · 146
Haiku (24th January 2021)
Dr Peter Lim Jan 2021
Mountain by water
in silent companionship
though they do not speak
Jan 2021 · 106
Cliche
Dr Peter Lim Jan 2021
It's the cliche
of the dawn
every poet praises-
'a new beginning'

not for me
the tiresome repeating

give me then

the sad languishing
of a mellow sunset
the day put to rest
its chagrin and fret

give me only
the heart in calm accepting

people are loathed
to denying
their love for craving
amidst
busy hours rushing
through their veins
and their entire being
the perennial pursuing
'what's there for me?
am I not-deserving?'

evening shadows
they lengthen
me into such
they are drawing
my very motives
they are questioning

but

I am not answering
as the truth is:
life the enigma
is beyond my knowing

like past years before
the wonder and awe
(to me ) of living
but lies in the Zen-ness
of not thinking
which is the cause
of human agonising

hush!
a tiny star
is appearing

is it listening?

Wordless
I am
the moment
in embracing
is worth
my very dying
Jan 2021 · 366
The Downside of Success
Dr Peter Lim Jan 2021
We talk and think of success

as though it's life's main aim

it's only temporal and transient

not a perpetual burning flame.


The world is hubris-filled

so many lives are lived unfulfilled
Jan 2021 · 69
Life and the Arts
Dr Peter Lim Jan 2021
The arts capture life, even more deeply and vividly,
and in some instances, more mysteriously than life itself--
the abstract is given a voice in reality-
life then is living's raw material, shaped, polished, clarified and ennobled by the the genius of the arts.

In this regard, the sciences are mute as they have nothing to add.
Jan 2021 · 84
Self and Others
Dr Peter Lim Jan 2021
Others is not my business
     scarcely I've time to mind my own
     much of life is distress
    the ubiquitous sigh and moan

     all that is, is one's alone
     he does well to avoid the mess
     of stretching beyond
     let others mind their business

    when I was a child
    I knew my world
    which was sweet and mild
     every moment did wonder unfold

   to that self-sufficiency
   I should dearly hold
   minding my own is the best policy
   let others have their stories individually told
Jan 2021 · 81
Haiku Inspired by a Photo
Dr Peter Lim Jan 2021
Yawning of brown land

under a white bluish sky

not a breath of breeze
Jan 2021 · 96
A Walk In Summer
Dr Peter Lim Jan 2021
I stepped aside, I paused, I had a second look at what was before me.  I was not lost, only awed by the silence and poignancy of the moment.



  I was walking alone in the empty field in early summer in Melbourne. Part of the grass was parched but birds were having their pick of food and made gentle noises, they fought  to get the benefit of more pickings.



Suddenly an eagle stooped over them and they flew away.  There was a row of tall trees the leaves of which swayed in the wind, and their rustle was pleasantly audible.  Birds twittered intermittently and flew from tree to tree.  The sky was white and bluish but the clouds hardly moved. The sun was benign.  



As I was writing my thoughts sitting on an old, partly damaged wooden bench,  I heard someone playing Schubert's Standchen followed by Massenet's Meditation from Thais and lastly Beethoven's Romance in F---I drifted with the music and felt the pieces were played by me.  I was in deep reverie, I felt light, peaceful, even blissful; the moment was sacred and sublime; everything within me was in place--there was no need for thoughts or words---life had manifested its secrets and mysteries to me; there was no need for any search or quest;  I forgot myself in the awesome flow...  Suddenly, came the rain and I was wakened back to reality.
Dr Peter Lim Jan 2021
As from misty dream

forest wakes to greet the dawn

a sanctified hush
Jan 2021 · 473
The Doom-Era
Dr Peter Lim Jan 2021
Run for cover?   
 mutant is at your heel   
 it has no colour   
 your peace it will steal


      this is the  Doom -Era   
    to fate we must yield     
    hope the jab knows no error 
   courage is not a reliable shield
Jan 2021 · 89
Mirage
Dr Peter Lim Jan 2021
I've lingered too long
not aware it's evening
it's as though time
has blotted out my remembering

why have I stayed so long
when love is no longer waiting?
what was there before
was but dawn's first awakening

then you were in innocent radiance
how I loved your smiling
away my head I turned for a moment
and found you were missing

still I lingered on in hope
for your reappearing
I heard but the winds passing
I felt my bleeding heart in dying
Dr Peter Lim Jan 2021
The highest prize

does genius pay

the self it does antagonise

torture is the order of the day
Jan 2021 · 79
Haiku Inspired by a Photo
Dr Peter Lim Jan 2021
Rain-soaked blue flowers

in Himalayan valley

with chocked teary eyes
Jan 2021 · 93
The Grammar of Life
Dr Peter Lim Jan 2021
We are in the now
our grammar is past tense
written on our very brow
in every single sentence

future is the unknown to be
follower of the present tense
life shall ever remain the deepest mystery
the language beyond our ken and prescience
Jan 2021 · 87
Zen Meditations
Dr Peter Lim Jan 2021
I thought I knew

that was why I never grew

I thought I knew not

some light was wrought



emptiness later I humbly sought

in doubt and vagueness I was no longer caught

thinking had led me to the path that was deceptive and untrue

self-forgetting has now left me with life's most profound living -clue
Jan 2021 · 71
The Brave New World
Dr Peter Lim Jan 2021
The Brave New World is not another continent

but your heart's unexplored region

you have travelled wide and far in vain

you will have to start all over again
Dr Peter Lim Jan 2021
Words carry weight

though not made of steel

in integrity said

great power do they wield



for walls of falsehood they break

virtue they raise as high as a hill

therein the light of truth never does fade

the impregnable castle they gloriously build.
Jan 2021 · 269
Voluntary Amnesia
Dr Peter Lim Jan 2021
Please do not remind me
I no longer have any memory
Jan 2021 · 148
Desideratum
Dr Peter Lim Jan 2021
I'll cling to the life of feeling
there's too much constraint in thinking
the heart should be ever unfolding
too much ruminating is beauty's sad demising
Jan 2021 · 532
Reverie*
Dr Peter Lim Jan 2021
Let me dream

but not too long

lest I wake up not

and lose hearing life's waiting song
For Claude Debussy
Dr Peter Lim Jan 2021
The heart is but the microcosm

      of the universe's macrocosm

      which holds it in its gladsome *****

      where love is,  there's the richest blossom
* in response to a post on his music
Dr Peter Lim Jan 2021
Maddy,  such loss is hard to bear and life has suddenly lost its shine. Yet, in that loss, there's a lesson to learn--we become more receptive to life, acquire more compassion and love life so much more.  

There's a light, though even a tiny light
to follow after this dark lonesome night
still the heart,  sorrow gently set aside
in quiet and humble acceptance abide

life has shades that are grey as also those that are bright
it does not portend to speak of either wrong or right
in the shadows of despair none should hide
let suffering be the redemptive comforter and the unfailing guide
Dr Peter Lim Jan 2021
I blush, oh indeed,  how I blush

  to an unknown desert I should rush

  no more than a keen life-observer-

  and learner---never, never ever a philosopher !
Jan 2021 · 182
In Response to Dante Rocio
Dr Peter Lim Jan 2021
To realise life's brevity makes us more alive to the life that's before us.  Death is sure but the in-between is what matters
Dr Peter Lim Jan 2021
Silence in the room

eyes focused on shelf of books

she looked for love-poems
Jan 2021 · 95
Silence
Dr Peter Lim Jan 2021
Silence is strength concealed

the utmost humility unrevealed
Jan 2021 · 250
Obituary*
Dr Peter Lim Jan 2021
Into endless beauty I will die
music to the end does keep me
to a happier realm I will fly
what there is, is mystery upon mystery

beyond the feel, the touch and sigh 
there's no throe  at all of  known misery 
I will dwell among the stars in the sky
amidst the flowers and the silent wavelets of the sea
* a world-famous cellist dedicated a piece of Schubert's  to me which inspires this poem.  It's called HEILIG (HOLY in German) a divine and hymnal piece.
It speaks of beauty in time and also life's sweet melancholy. To me the message is this---beauty conquers all and it never perishes as Keats had written.
Jan 2021 · 91
Paradise Lost
Dr Peter Lim Jan 2021
Leave love alone
it has problems of its own

let the most ardent lovers weep
but poignant past memories keep

let the heart nurse its pain
even though it smites time and again

let me be the imperfect
in such I'll have little to regret
Jan 2021 · 395
Miracle
Dr Peter Lim Jan 2021
Make the most mundane day

your tiny, silent miracle

chart your dream,  set the way

rise to the desired pinnacle
Dr Peter Lim Jan 2021
Our human life
                Is but part of nature
                Splendour is everywhere
                There’s endless beauty to treasure.


                My artist-eyes roam the earth
                I see the beauty, not the terror*
                Of wild life and animals
                 My heart feels no tremor.

                How else could I paint
                If I set myself asunder?
                I should be the observed
               As well as the observer.

               Life is the undefinable mystery
               Yet I would count no creature as error
               My art is gratitude and surrender
               To some deep Unknown Power
* she paints animals, mainly wild ones
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