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Dr Peter Lim Nov 2018
By then, my friend
you wouldn't remember my name
but both of us would readily admit
we are no longer the same
Dr Peter Lim Jun 2020
By the way
I can't buy
my way
through life

all I know
is I am just
a passerby

just to
keep an eye
whatever
the way

I'll dance
laugh and sing
and will happily
say some day
'Good-bye!'
Dr Peter Lim Sep 2020
..by which time
  the river has run its course

  by which time
  winter has smothered
  the last autumn rose

  by which time
  all leaves have turned grey
  the barren garden has nothing to pose

by which time
the stars have grown weary
not a single light--beam glows

by which time
love has its farewell bade
all feelings wither and close
Dr Peter Lim Apr 2021
..by which time

the river has run its course



by which time

winter has smothered

the last autumn rose



by which time

all leaves have turned grey

the barren garden has nothing to pose



by which time

the stars have grown weary

not a single light-beam glows



by which time

love has its farewell bade

all feelings wither and tearfully close
Dr Peter Lim Oct 2020
That which can be counted
does not for anything count
the intangible of love and kindness
how can such be calibrated?
Dr Peter Lim Apr 2021
I don't have time to dream
too much to do on hand
a moment lost I can't redeem
towards the call of duty I should bend
Dr Peter Lim Aug 2018
Impatient male driver
shot the traffic light
caught by the policeman:
dad, I've to do what's right !
Dr Peter Lim Nov 2017
Call to duty?
whose call?
the law?
who made the law?
to war?
who created the war?
die for country's honour?
what about mine
my family's?  Don't sober
us with words of national grandeur--

I'll only answer
to one call
that of my conscience-
talking and walking tall
taking arms to see the enemy fall?
why don't you legislators
walk with us through the battle-mall
instead of smoking your cigars
and drinking whisky or brandy
mindless of the horrors
that haunt and plague us
night and day, careless of the sorrows
of our loved ones we left behind?
will we who are here live
to see the morrows?
where's the solace that we would find?

In Flanders Fields we are stranded
with the hard stones as our bed

will you remember us
when the war is won?
but by then we would have been dead.
Dr Peter Lim Feb 2020
In every heart
there's a candle
waiting to be lighted
by the individual
* this appears in IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF ZEN-
THE PATH TO A CALMER AND HAPIER LIFE  2018,  Google
Dr Peter Lim Nov 2018
Too much candour
could land you in dolour
Dr Peter Lim Jul 2018
Capitalism is a leaking septic tank
corporations its foul odour imbibe
when Wall Street suffers from diarhorrea
its illness infects worldwide.
Dr Peter Lim Oct 2019
The hours are late
for some, early for others
they don't suit everyone
a whole bag of bothers--

whoever and wherever we are
we are never the true winners
held to ransom with impunity
and scattered all over as feathers
Dr Peter Lim Nov 2018
Heiress in Line
  sweet Caroline
  but dad was stingy
Oh! won't buy her a CAR
unless she turned forty!
Dr Peter Lim Aug 2019
You can't wait too long
the song would have been sung
not a single note will be repeated
into the nothingness of time it has flung.
Dr Peter Lim Jul 2020
Cast out
by them?
you are no outcast!

without doubt
you are blessed
them you'll outlast

life is all about
what you are
yourself you must trust!

take out your pen
write and shout aloud
sharpen your brush!

they some day
will be cast out
while you last!
Dr Peter Lim Oct 2020
People are not short of ideas
whether they are here or there
many speak like prophets
of your health you must take care!
Dr Peter Lim Jul 2019
It's not that
those with arm
who is the cause
of harm
Dr Peter Lim Sep 2020
Let your words dance
to the tune of your heart
they belong to each other
they never stand apart

a poem is a celebration
not just a piece of verbal art
herein is life crystallised
where beauty dwells never to depart
Dr Peter Lim Dec 2019
Time will catch up
anyhow but not yet
the heart longs for love still
it shall not forget-

the moment is the miracle
letting it languish would be regret
write your love-poem, sing your lustrous song
embrace, rejoice, celebrate!
Dr Peter Lim May 2019
It's either centripetal or centrifugal
    none could stay in the middle
Dr Peter Lim Apr 2018
You said: 'Certainly'
All I know is that life has no certainty
Dr Peter Lim Apr 2020
The moment
I feel sure
I lament
such certitude
I can't endure

for the window
of my perception
would have been shut
my sense of direction
I would have lost

give me doubt
let me have
questions
unanswered

they shall set me free
as I would be
unencumbered

life is a kaleidoscope
peering through
its prism a new world
is waiting to be discovered

indeed I can't say
or accept--a certain colour
is all I need to define myself
that would be totally absurd

all that's before me
is a challenge and test
I stumble and fall
many events do hurt

but these shall only make me
larger than I could ever be
in the vicissitudes of living
all that which obstructs
I would have conquered.
Dr Peter Lim Dec 2018
Of course I am sure
that I am unsure!
Dr Peter Lim Oct 2021
Life, first, the engagement

at the end, the dislodgement
Dr Peter Lim May 2018
Nothing does
ever add up
I can't be bothered
to think--happily I sup
Dr Peter Lim Dec 2018
I don't wish to be crude
but you are fast-spoiling my mood!
Dr Peter Lim Dec 2018
The Town Hall Health Department
  issued me a summon:
' the grass at your compound has overgrown'
  but that's the house of John Simon!
Dr Peter Lim Dec 2018
Your dog bit mine first
and got hurt
now your lawyer is suing me
how absurd!
Dr Peter Lim Dec 2018
You are a good trumpeter
  but don't play late into the night
  you cause me insomnia
  in your music I take no delight!
Dr Peter Lim Dec 2018
'Your call is important to us
you have been placed in a queue'
45 minutes have gone by and you said:
'after a few more,  it will be you'
Dr Peter Lim Dec 2018
'I'll return the book next week'
six years have since gone by
it's still lying in your book-shelf
who's the victim?  I !
Dr Peter Lim Dec 2018
The beautiful woman came last
  (in your efficient service I placed my trust)
  she's at that concern her dinner enjoying
  and you are saying:  yours is soon coming'.
Dr Peter Lim Dec 2018
Legal letter  I received and it did read:
'  this is a defamation suit'
   but there are two blokes by the same name
   in this our neighbourhood!
Dr Peter Lim Dec 2018
The weatherman made a wrong forecast
     it rained and there was no sunshine
     I got drenched in the city under a sky downcast
     what misery that was mine!
Dr Peter Lim Dec 2018
You are a skunk
  not a friend!
  why did you tell my jealous wife
  I was with Wendy at East-End?
Dr Peter Lim Oct 2021
If me you by chance

at some corner of earth should find

just think of me as someone like you

what I am you need not try to define
Dr Peter Lim Sep 2018
Am I the person
I was yesterday?
what would I be
in every future day?
Dr Peter Lim Oct 2020
There's no reason
yesterday's footsteps to retrace
every moment we somewhat change
never quite wearing the same face

neither the stars nor the moon
know how dim or bright they'd shine
I could love you in a thousand different ways
as you'd have sensed then that very feeling of mine.
Dr Peter Lim Dec 2017
Me, changing the world?--that's really funny
all my life I have been making sure
it would never CHAIN me!
Dr Peter Lim Apr 2019
Don't believe the saying
' chaos will be succeeded
  by order'  as though
it's an inexorability--for
I am too inclined to say: no
  it has devastated and destroyed
  without clemency--in total-
rivers and seas have burst their banks
trees have fallen all over
fields have been inundated
in the apocalyptic deluge
mountains and hills have fallen
and all land is buried and dead
salvage and revival is too late-

nature's episodes translate
into the affairs of man
who in extremity is trapped
helpless, hopeless, agape
even by love, sacrifice and duty
he finds no way of escape
and could not be saved-

hush, the deepest hush
silence, the eerie drawn-out silence
fear,  the all-consuming fear
tear,  the dry-less every tear
here, the unbearable here
near,  so perilously near
hear,  the last human sigh you would hear--

the final scene
the end of the hymn
where, where is the order?
* an experimental piece of mine
Dr Peter Lim Jul 2018
The epigram was intended to poke
fun.  Just an epigrammatic joke! (I'm not a nasty bloke!)
Take me not seriously nor chastise
Yes, kids and most of us adults do know Santa is nice!
* in case anyone should think I were a nasty bloke!
Dr Peter Lim Apr 2018
I'm neither rich nor poor
if you are hungry, come and knock on my door.
Dr Peter Lim Mar 2020
That which is charm
must, first of all, itself disarm
Dr Peter Lim Jan 2021
Even those who know less
can be among the best!
Dr Peter Lim Apr 2018
I don't count to ten
I don't have a hen
Dr Peter Lim Nov 2020
Of the two-
the experiential and the referential
I have no doubt
I'll choose the former--my essential
Dr Peter Lim Feb 2021
If life is a garden of apples
do not pick one that's oversized
it will fit poorly in your mouth
your teeth will be agonised
Dr Peter Lim Sep 2021
Kindness and intelligence

I can't have both

happily I choose the former

none would have me loathed
Dr Peter Lim Oct 2018
I aspire not
to be the bright star
it would be too pervasive
and watched by the world entire-
I would no longer be
my own but an ornament
courting displeasure
and arousing discontentment.

How I prefer just to be
a blade of grass hidden
from common view
unknown and never be spoken
of-- just among my peers
welcoming every drop of the early dew
blessed by the rays of the sun
with each dawn I myself renew.

How sad and despondent is the world
joys, wonder and beauty are espoused by so few
the striving, the craving and the in-fighting
to the path of happiness too many have no clue-
where's the splendour of living and loving?
from doom and gloom do we know how to eschew?
do we choose to shut out the world from our desolate room
or to sing and dance beneath the sky benign and blue?
Dr Peter Lim May 2018
If I have my way
  I won't be a writer
  or poet---rather
choose humour

  and this further
  I'd earnestly say
  if I have laughter
  it would always be my day!
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