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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
I change
or I'll wither

human I am-
to myself alone
I belong
to none other

I'm what I am
because I change-
if people don't
that'd be truly strange

it's moving ahead
to meet odds
and every challenge
I might not achieve
but not changing
is to be enslaved

I'll not be the same
but from others
and life
I'd not be estranged

no tricky game
I'm playing
only myself *******
to a new enlarged stage.
Dr Peter Lim Dec 2024
When you are
your own agent
of change- you create
the desired environment
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 2024
We change more than life
   it's only a passive watcher
   we are our restlessness
   the perennial wanderer and seeker-

   stop or pause we know  never
   there's no end to our endeavour
   too often fruitless is that we hanker after
   ourselves we undo--wherever, whatever
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 Mar 31
I choose freedom

over wisdom

without the former

all is doom
Dr Peter Lim May 5
I'd rather be
an alive coward
than to be
a hero dead
Dr Peter Lim Dec 2024
Between success
and honour
it's the latter
that I'd prefer
Dr Peter Lim Jun 24
I choose
the life of freedom
lived in poverty
over the serfdom
of prosperity
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 Jul 2019
Of course, my friend
you didn't get the sun
you hid in the shade
preferring the company of one
Dr Peter Lim Dec 2019
They said to me
'remember'
I chose to forget
I didn't suffer-

they said to me
'forget'
I chose to remember
I had no reason to regret.
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 Sep 2017
I could
but would not
my choice I made
then on that spot

certain words
I would have said
I turned away
my voice I forbade

kinder I could have been
generosity I did lack
the encounter is lost forever
time I can't turn back

yet I still know not
was I right or wrong--and why?
life is not pure science
straight answers it does deny.
Dr Peter Lim Jul 2018
Others I can't follow
wherever they go
though they claim
the right direction they do know--

I'll stay where I am
let them chase their rainbow
my little boat is old but reliable
on my own I'll gently row.
Dr Peter Lim Nov 2019
It makes no difference
whether it's hard or easy
I'll choose in preference
that which makes me happy.
Dr Peter Lim Jun 2019
Life is possibilities
let me not pursue the improbabilities
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!
Dr Peter Lim Jan 2019
Give me the epigram
NOT the Instagram!
Dr Peter Lim May 4
I can't go
your way
mine I'll choose
this is all I know-

where it will lead
I can't predict
yet to my faith
I'll tenaciously keep

we are each our own
in heart and spirit
free to discover and explore
such, destiny cannot beat
Dr Peter Lim Apr 2018
People want to be 'something'
all I want is to be 'nothing'.
Dr Peter Lim Nov 2024
Forget:
you'll not regret
remember:
you'll be sad-

if tightly
you hold
it's very hard
to let go-

that which is heavy
is hard to bear
that which is light
makes easy wear-

will it be
this or that?
who knows
what you'd get?
Dr Peter Lim Mar 16
They said:
' Die for love!'
this I say:
' I'll live for love!'
Dr Peter Lim Apr 2018
Like, admire
adore or love
choose as you may
from the said above--

whatever you desire
I'm here to serve
love I can't demand
I'll receive only what I deserve.
Dr Peter Lim Jan 1
Happiness is not a word
I'm fond of
my music has tears
for those who have heard-

I'm lonely and unwell
life is but a veil of sorrow
so heavy does it hover
upon me-- wherever I go-

I compose best at night
when the day's harshness no longer does burn
a mysterious force guides my hand
the outcome is my every weeping nocturne-

longing, dreaming, melancholy
are found in my every note
I care not for the light of day
only for longer  hours of night I hope
Dr Peter Lim Dec 2018
Why wait for Christmas
to do the gifting?
it should be every day
every hour to be giving.
Dr Peter Lim May 2019
It's the greatest mystery
  this ubiquitous circularity
Dr Peter Lim Jan 15
We need an Age of Innocence
    civilisation is in moral collapse:
    men are against their fellowmen
    kindness and humanity are at their lowest ebb --

   we the ordinary folk have no say
   all we desire is happiness and peace
   all that's before us is the untold agony
   and tears-- our hopes fall away piece by piece-

   who will save us from the apocalypse ?
   How will mend the hearts in brokenness ?
   Will our prayers be heard and answered?
   When will we return to grace and blessedness?

   We need--urgently- an Age of Innocence
   how we weep over the tragedy before us!
   When will light appear in our direst hour
   of need, to dispel this unbearable darkness?
Dr Peter Lim Feb 5
Modern society is afflicted with TMI (too much information),  truth and sense are missing.  Civilisation is dying a little every day and is on the brink of insanity and inanity.

Are we better in the face of science and technology?
Dr Peter Lim Jun 2018
I can't claim
the sun shines only for me
nor the stars and moon
in all their splendour and beauty

But what would I
really be
if I don't have the courage
to ask: 'Would you love me?'
Dr Peter Lim Jan 2019
Claptrap
it would be wise
to give its face
a tight slap!
Dr Peter Lim Oct 2020
What has to be said
need not too contrived be
speak has your heart bids
that's enough clarity
Dr Peter Lim Mar 2021
I close my eyes

so clearly I see

what is in sight

is not reality
Upper class
middle class
low class

measured
by wealth
inheritance
education?

I'm a humanist
hence
humanity is my class

no distinction
do I trust
Dr Peter Lim Oct 2021
It's most worrying

when words begin

to betray or distort

the mind's intended meaning
Dr Peter Lim Dec 2018
The moment cracks
in cleavage-- nothing
anymore seems to be the same
only the regretting and aching

the rock once impermeable
is in ravage-- weather-beaten
the last rose falls in late winter
the change of season has spoken

the sea has lost its vibrant voice
by its own waves neglected and forgotten
the night hides away in furtive silence
the heart of love has broken

the past belongs to me no longer
into the nowhere of time I have been driven
beauty asserts at my darkest hour
in vengeance: 'you have not been forgiven!'
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
Dr Peter Lim May 2020
Cliches we all are
but most don't know by far
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