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Dr Peter Lim Oct 2017
Either be accepted
or be exiled
no other choice
is open.  They have
the power and the means
you can't beat them
they are too strong
they are everywhere
they will hunt you down
some time , somehow--

though I'm alone
and weak
without a single ally
to them I won't cow.

' Big Brother' -the role
they claim.  Either I'm in
or out. But I'm no one's tool
or fool. Their rancour I've incurred
and I'm exiled never to be accepted into society again. They mock while I wriggle in pain.

But I survive. Without them I thrive. What exile?
Dr Peter Lim Oct 2021
So often

all the light outside

is blotted out

by the heart's darkness inside
Dr Peter Lim Feb 2019
Not wounded
nor paralysed
but the desolate lingering
life that's marginalised-

the pause, steps faltering
time that's circumcised
living has lost its shimmering
nothing is left to be energised.
Dr Peter Lim Nov 2019
Today is a repeat
of yesterday's  music
but in a minor key
makes life rather sick
Dr Peter Lim Aug 2019
We weary--too easily-
the same old grind
of day and time-- the ennui-
nothing seems to assuage the mind-

we worry--so frequently
peace seems so hard to find
to love, laughter and joy
our eyes are dim and blind-

we blame-- so unreasonably
whether the person stands in front or behind
discontent tears apart our inside
we have hardened and ceased to be kind-

how I long for  those moments so tenderly
when I was a child with so much innocence and wonder combined
where has fled the vision, the dream, the smiling sunshine?
some vague melancholy  has settled in that couldn't be defined.
Dr Peter Lim May 2020
Life's major part--in brief-
is lived in the ngawing interim
a bridge to the future unknown
the cross-over from the past's every unrealised dream-

the lacuna, the conundrum, the angst
the contradiction, the mirage--it does all seem
a barren and arid land-- what's to becoming
never ever falls even to the best-conceived scheme

hence, the panting, the gasping
the longing--the darkness without a single beam
after all the struggling, striving and sighing
what's left is but the emptiness and nausea* that perennially teem.
Dr Peter Lim Mar 24
Existentialism
in just five words:
life is meaningless
and absurd
Dr Peter Lim Feb 2021
The self is not luxury

it's the bearer of misery
Dr Peter Lim Mar 2020
No let off-
the burden
of living

all that is
the none -realising
of dreaming

all that desiring
ends in
not having

all this writing
is only words
destined for forgetting.
Dr Peter Lim Apr 20
Life is over-rated:
mind the chagrin
the se-back, the regret
the little to be celebrated
Dr Peter Lim Apr 2019
It's an effective exit
only when you axe it
Dr Peter Lim Sep 2018
Having no useful word to say
quietly and unnoticed I walked away
Dr Peter Lim Nov 2024
I usually have
more reasons
not to do some things
from troubles me they do save
Dr Peter Lim Jul 2018
Every experience
is a waiting seed
plant and nurture it well
it will serve your every future need
Dr Peter Lim Jan 2021
You are the continent undiscovered
what else is there to be explored?
Dr Peter Lim Mar 2019
Never mind- whether
  we look up or down
  no matter if mid-level, either
  if there's enlightenment to be found.
Dr Peter Lim Sep 2021
Eyes that can't see

one should be

donated to the blind freely

who will see life's timeless beauty
Dr Peter Lim Sep 2018
Oh, not me
my photo is not in FaceBook
I don't have
that Hollywood look!

Every morning
as into the mirror I look
that dreary person frowns
at me--as though I were a crook!
Dr Peter Lim Jan 2019
Summoned for bad driving
   caught over CCTV---can't get off the hook
    9 a.m  1st April 2019 will be the hearing
   in local Magistrate's Court---to face the book!
Dr Peter Lim Sep 2015
FACES
I share the joy of happy faces
But sad faces linger long in my mind
There is no Arcadia or paradise on earth
So much pain and misery is inherited by mankind.

Ah, my love,  I see your tender face and your gentle smile
I wish I would never make you cry
If  in my duty I should fail
I would be unworthy—it would be best if I die.
Dr Peter Lim Jan 29
Life this is:
Should I?
Should I not?
Which is more worthy
of note?

Do I like
or dislike?
What are my grounds?
Which would be right?

Should I engage
or disengage ?
Which would be
to my advantage
or disadvantage?

Should I continue
stop, or pause?
Which would be
a better course?

Should I stand apart
or participate?
Which would give me
the cause to celebrate?

Should I stay here
or go away?
Am I sure
which would make my day?

Should I believe
or disbelieve?
Do I truly know
which would bring relief?

All said, of this
I'm sure I know:
this is my life
the path Ive chosen I'll follow
Dr Peter Lim Oct 2020
I have never wished
that you should believe me
I am not a fact
only a person-in-theory
Dr Peter Lim Jul 2018
Did you think
I failed just once or twice?
More than I could count
fifty, a hundred times? Surprise?
Dr Peter Lim May 2020
Failure is a friend
it leads to the road
where it will end
Dr Peter Lim May 2018
What's failure?
how do you measure?
Dr Peter Lim May 1
It's stronger than courage--faith-
unlike the former it doesn't vacillate
Dr Peter Lim Feb 2021
..but falling

is not falling apart

get up, take heart

make a new start!
Dr Peter Lim Jul 2019
I'm falling
falling, yes falling
but not apart
as I still keep my heart.
Dr Peter Lim Aug 2020
Your poem I did read
   but my memory has failed me
   a piece of music I owe you
   who could you be?

  Blossoms how they blow
in spring and how they fall
in autumn's last days
love sighs in its lonely recall
Dr Peter Lim Nov 2019
Falling
falling steep
a slip on the way
falling deep

falling
lesson to keep
remembering
even in my sleep

rising
slowly not by leap
falling is awakening
not failing-- a heap

of hope piling
just waiting to reap
a sweet beckoning
as joys gently seep.
Dr Peter Lim Oct 2019
On the farther side
of time I stand
much of old age
is memory bent
towards scenes
that defie ravage
and demand
to be remembered
and resurrected --

I am held powerless.

Life is now
falling foliage
the leaves have
dark-brown turned
days and nights
are serene and sober
enough of love
past love had yearned
pain and sorrow re-echo
in tearful refrain
over and over again --

at this dying hour
regret is but all in vain
night is a disdainful mocker
there's nothing left
either for loss or gain.
Dr Peter Lim Oct 2017
The leaves are falling
they aren't sad
they know their time
has come. This they've been expecting. We last but a season.
The sun burnt us. The storms ravaged us. The snow froze us. The night oppressed us with its mocking silence. We've been punished and bruised.

We are falling. Happy to be falling. To the sod we belong and it's waiting. We'll be trodden upon as that's our lot.

Do you humans suffer the same fate?

Let us say this. There's comfort in
falling--there's no struggling; light is the feeling; to the earth must return, all living things; desires are vanishing and there's some mysterious joy in the ending; beauty of a kind beyond knowing is descending. There's the gaining in the losing.

Don't feel sad for us, you humans who by here are passing.

When you hear the winds blowing,
it'd be our voice singing.
Dr Peter Lim Oct 2020
Falling out is
everyone's inheritance
only this-
don't fall out of your self!
Dr Peter Lim Oct 2018
How could we ever admit to ourselves or openly
on our sleeves we wear falsehood?
we could never be our own accusers (it would be silly!)
for we are always kind, decent, honest and good-

how convenient it is to feign
(this word we fear--the normative 'should')
surely life is for our comfort and gain
(how we forget we're the civilised brute!)
Dr Peter Lim Feb 18
Fame
    you don't need
    to claim:
    if such you deserve
    you don't
    even need
    a name
Dr Peter Lim Aug 2018
Rejoice when none does know your name
you have escaped the entrapment and misery of fame!
Dr Peter Lim Jan 11
My version:

Familiarity breeds endless boredom
Dr Peter Lim Mar 2019
Many want to be famous
instead they are caught being infamous.
Dr Peter Lim Sep 2017
I was a shadow
then
a silhouette

( all that's
   in the universe
   is a process)

I dissolved
into mist-
next
I dispersed

transformed
into a vapour
then
disappeared

nothing
I became
nameless

from nothing
there could not
be anything

a state
of emptiness
in space

nothing
can touch
or capture  emptiness
as it's not there-
and ipso facto
it's beyond
death and decay

at the beginning
I had no form
I was nothing

now the process
has taken its course
and I return
to nothingness

and being nothing
is to be
in timelessness

and lastly
eternity
is that state
that brings
the demise
of time
and temporality-
that which at the start
was nothing
returns
to its source
the Universal Nothing.
* I welcome comments.  Please write freely, without fear or favour.
I had no intention of writing this but the theme came to me after dinner just now in Melbourne
Dr Peter Lim Sep 2019
I'll crack a joke
with life and wait
for its reply. With time
dialogue I'll create-

two entities they are
but intimately allied
in silent conspiracy by far--
none could challenge their might-

what would they say to me?
what words would they hide?
would they argue or dispute?
would both,  either or none take my side?

It would be like an unearthly meeting
in a dense fog or mist at some nowhere
neither could I see but only their voices would I hear
I wonder to sickness--what would they declare?
Dr Peter Lim May 2020
Has anyone
seen a fairy
or heard a mermaid
singing from the sea?

If you believe so
it would also be me.

If you say love has wings
I'll leap to the air with credulity
I have your assurance I won't fall
if I do,  you would be there to catch me.
Dr Peter Lim May 2020
Somewhere-
an imagination
someday-
self-deception

somehow
awaiting invention-
some dream-
an illusion
Dr Peter Lim Mar 2018
Do I choose my dream
or does it choose me?
am I the water or the stream?
which of us dwells in fantasy?

Am I the stem
or the flower?
the clock's seconds--hand
or the beat of the hour?
Dr Peter Lim Nov 2024
Place me where you may
I'll find my way home anyhow
for a short while only you might keep me
you'll never be able to put me down

for I'm an act of disappearing
a doppelganger or conjuror
when your hands were to land
on my neck-  they would be scorched by fire!
Dr Peter Lim Jan 2019
If I were ever The Ultimate Power to be
I would turn every aspect of life into comedy.
Dr Peter Lim Oct 2018
I followed you and your every step
though you were not in sight
through the eyes of my mind
during the light of day and more at night--

strangely I felt in a moment euphoric
you somehow knew my sorrow and plight
you didn't say a single word
but looked at me with a smile of unconcealed delight.
Dr Peter Lim Mar 2020
Who is she
in my dream?
I know her not
how should I deem?

Who is she
in such seduction
breaking every part of me
leaving me in utter desolation?

Who is she
stretching out her arms to me
in her mysterious beauty
drawing me  to such intimate proximity?

Who is she
how could I forget
so willing to yield to me
would I not live in regret?
Dr Peter Lim Nov 2017
Fantasy*

If we have wings
we can fly over the wildest sea
if we are clouds
we would never be weary--

we would fear no heights
if we are the sky
if we are the light
would the dark ever draw by?

if each of us is an orchard
we would have fruits in every season
if each of us is a running well
wouldn't thirst be out of the question?

wouldn't we be one
if in your heart
you invite me to stay
and we vow never to part?
* after Christina Rossetti
Dr Peter Lim Aug 2020
Fantasy and reality--
the former tickles
the latter stifles
Dr Peter Lim Mar 26
Far enough
I've gone
if no meaning
I've found
it's time
to step back
to once agan
reflect
on the why
of things
life's lacuna
its mysteries
at every corner

perhaps
I've travelled
too far
in senseless search
when the answer
is already within myself

but it's not too late-
to my heartland
I've  now returned
emboldened
freshly awakened
by experience enriched
nothing has been lost
or stolen--in no way
have I been diminished
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