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Dr Peter Lim Nov 2019
I had no quarrel with time
     but it looks askance
     as though saying too long
     I have been around
     or worse--that something wrong
     I have done--

     the sentinel eternal
     the judge inimical
     the party unfaithful
     the heart unsentimental

     but
     I'll not be cowed
     to myself I belong
     if life is a battlefield
     I would be my own general

      winter chills in season
      unforgivingly
     but my heart
     shall not be frozen
     man shall never
     be smaller than fate
     there's no glory
     in out--living
     if with meaning
     I have lived

     life's chaos and angst
     has not diminished me
     I have stood up
     with dignity
    
     in my nameless humility
     and my naked humanity
     I am content  
     and joyful
     ( despair and regret
      set aside)
     with what remnant
     to me
     has been given.
Dr Peter Lim Nov 2019
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Peter Lim <sonatavivace@gmail.com>
11:06 AM (6 minutes ago)

to me




     I had no quarrel with time
     but it looks askance
     as though saying too long
     I have been around
     or worse--that something wrong
     I have done--

     the sentinel eternal
     the judge inimical
     the party unfaithful
     the heart unsentimental

     but
     I'll not be cowed
     to myself I belong
     if life is a battlefield
     I would be my own general

      winter chills in season
      unforgivingly
     but my heart
     shall not be frozen
     man shall never
     be smaller than fate
     there's no glory
     in out--living
     if with meaning
     I have lived

     life's chaos and angst
     has not diminished me
     I have stood up
     with dignity
    
     in my nameless humility
     and my naked humanity
     I am content  
     and joyful
     ( despair and regret
      set aside)
     with what remnant
     to me
     has been given.
Dr Peter Lim Mar 2021
I don't want to fly
I'm scared of any height
as long as I am on my two feet
I'll feel completely all right
Dr Peter Lim Oct 2015
I suffer from
roses-allergy
all because
of the rose you first gave me
you pinned it
on my chest
and said
'I'll love you for the rest
of my life and the end of time
believe me'
but your restless heart
went on a wild journey
too soon you said
'good-bye, I'm sorry
I've to go away
our love is not meant to be'.

I can't stand the sight
of roses, especially on Valentine's Day
while lovers their love and kisses exchange
my allergy keeps me away.
nil
Dr Peter Lim Nov 2018
The rose does not weep
it knows its withering season
the heart knows when it should sleep
after the rage of passion--

the nightingale has sung
future songs it will keep
when love ceases to be young
age cuts unkindly and its pain runs deep.
* after Shelley, John Clare, Christina Rossetti and the Bronte Sisters'.
Dr Peter Lim Jul 2019
Allow me to speak--I would rather
that me you should remember
for my glaring faults (in such large number)
than my few merits--whatever
Dr Peter Lim Dec 2019
Nothing is heavier
I dare say
than the weight
of an oppressive thought
that refuses to go away.
Dr Peter Lim Oct 2021
All that I am

is enough for me

in my nakedness

you see my totality-



love I can't chase

it might or not find me

I won't weep nor feel pity

I'll accept that which must be
Dr Peter Lim Aug 2018
Alone
the more so
I know
me I more own
Dr Peter Lim Oct 2021
...but don't chide me

   for choosing to be alone

   amidst life's cacophony

   I risk losing my own-



  none shall rob my liberty

  in solitude, seeds of joy I've sown

  closer to understanding life's mystery

  all my doubts and sorrows are gone
Dr Peter Lim Apr 2018
If I can't be alone
myself I can't own
Dr Peter Lim Jul 2019
The ambiguity is ours
we mar the hours
Dr Peter Lim Feb 2019
Dear Daisy
1    I am a dreamer and write a lot of nonsense. I seldom plan what to write..it's just comes from nowhere
2    life is full of sorrow and having humour gives me another perspective of things---I can't afford to take things too seriously
3   as a humanist, my heart weeps over the tragedy and suffering of people--15,000 kids die A DAY! due to malnutrition
when there's a surplus of food in many countries
4    language and words fascinate me---they are my life and my means of understanding and feeling-
through this, I am able to relate to life and people I meet--how do we use language to make the world a better place?
5   I have talked to nearly every street musician, artist, etc and also have spoken to more strangers than any Melburnian-
out of 10 I talked to, I think 7 responded well--only 2 or 3 regarded me as a con-man.  I am always gladdened when
people trust me implicitly
6    capitalism is bad as it breeds competition and discontent.  Contentment is hard to find in a restless word.
7    I have loved life and this gives me every ounce of strength to meet my death-with utmost tranquillity.
8     Women are tougher and smarter than men and you are the best example.

You write so well and your good-heartedness vibrates through your words.
Knowing you and your husband Morris has meant a lot to me and I count myself most honoured and fortunate.


I remain
yours truly
Peter
Dr Peter Lim Jan 2019
Finding a metaphor of life
so many have tried
I'll just call it a burning fire
that goes extinct when I have died--

until then, its flame I'll carry*
through my torch and won't set it aside
my heart shall be a boiling cauldron
to an erupting volcano in kinship allied.
* a tinge of William Blake's immortal poem JERUSALEM
Dr Peter Lim Jun 2020
There's no reason
for optimism--at least not now
the air is choking
civilisation has about lost its knowhow

there's every reason
to be pessimistic---a frown
is written on the faces
of people I meet-- in town

and country-- desperation
looms with the lockdown
cities are dead, people live in dread
the fragile are facing a nervous breakdown

amidst this savage ravage
wars and conflicts still abound
the worshipful pray and plead
as hopes turn to dust and drop on the sombre ground
Dr Peter Lim Jun 2019
I chose to miss
my life never went amiss
Dr Peter Lim May 2020
Am I too harsh?
tell me in the name of love
I've given all my trust
do I this rejection deserve?

You said: I love too much
you would rather I don't
but my heart is made of such
walk away admittedly I won't.

You wrote: freedom I seek
your freedom you desire to keep
some words about yourself you couldn't speak
I sense your past hurts still run deep.

Farewell, farewell then
I could not love less
I wish at the end
you would find your true happiness.
Dr Peter Lim Dec 2019
The moment      you and I in time
we could have been  so close    but you stood away
I remember     the sky was grey that day
and I did hear      the church bell's solemn chime

strangers?         hardly so     that our hearts did silently know
a vow we made    in youth's sunshine--days    so  long ago
our past         wrapped in silence     captured now only in shadow
a messages   our eyes exchanged     the language of lost-love's sorrow.
Dr Peter Lim Jul 2021
What's trusted might not be understood
what's understood might not be trusted
Dr Peter Lim Apr 2018
'Hello' she said and just a moment we shared
my heart she touched-- she was intellectually impaired.
Dr Peter Lim Feb 2019
There I couldn't stay
I knew I didn't belong
I needed to go away
from the enslaving throng-

no voice I had
I couldn't sing their song
it would have made me sad
even if I knew I would commit no wrong-

they were wildly glad
their voices rang so strong
their uniforms were steel-clad
as in the city they marched along-

those who were in power bred
had ambition in multi-prong
I would rather be dead
than be part of that senseless throng.
Dr Peter Lim Aug 2020
It will be easy to repeat
we'd then suspend thinking
the mind is like a mint
currency it would continue printing

such addicted by time compounded
we hardly know the essence of living
night follows day is all we believe in
the persistent grind leads to moral dying.
Dr Peter Lim Jun 2019
It's very hard to be truthful
much easier to be a liar
the former is not always fruitful
I readily choose the latter
Dr Peter Lim Aug 2020
I am dying, dying     
       regret I've none       
       flowers are still dancing     
       under the glorious sun
           

        I am dying, dying  
       to a new beginning           
        celestial music is playing     
       I'll still be listening
Dr Peter Lim Jul 2018
The beach
and I
alone
the winter night
I hear its sigh
mingling
with my own
there are words
in silence
between us
a strange kinship
forged in stillness
I can't explain why
my feet  touch
the soft tender sand
a vibration
it does seem
to travel through
my total being
am I in a dream?

I feel
there's life
hidden
vibrant
in its every particle
and atom
I'm reminded
all at once
nature is a miracle
in every manifestation
open to the sympathetic eye

the sea recedes
at a late hour
it sings a dirge
as though
in a painful cry

the sky
is empty
no cloud
is in sight
the moon shivers
the stars slowly
away they fade
and die

man and nature
each bears a heart
they share rapture
and pain they harbour
against the backdrop
of time and its temper
Sturm und Drang
the sweet and sad songs
they had at the beginning
together embraced
and sung

after tonight
I'll never be
the same again
for life's mystery
I have tasted
and drunk

the hours quicken
the trees they wail
and the winds they sail
in gentle sweep
the leaves are shaken
a voice ethereal drifts
through the waters
the ripples are silenced
I harken
as though
in obedience:
'  I'm the first
  of time
  but willed
  not to be the last
  enchained
  like Prometheus
  to unending years
  yet humans not one
  do know my tears
  and you whom
  I meet tonight
  will carry my message
  and relate my story
and agony
near and far
for how blessed
you humans are
to know
the taste
of mortality'.
Dr Peter Lim Apr 2019
I don't want to be
among the smart
it frightens me terribly
how loudly do they ****!
Dr Peter Lim Mar 2019
Space
I occupied
in the past
the present
is much about
the experience
of reminiscing-
what went before
could never be re-grasped
yet the images persist
and time it seeks
to overcome and outlast--

nothing would be gained
as is commonly explained
but how could a bird exist
if its wings were clipped?
I am the product cast
and forged in the past
could not otherwise be
that something which is  'me'-

the present is the bridge
spanning years gone
to what has become
an amalgam that goes on
to un unknowable outcome
and I couldn't but think that time
is a man-made phenomenon
that exists in my imagination
and I so often ask:
am I but an orchestration
of a nameless and cold continuum?

I am not dead
so I drift and live
doubting if
I were not a phantom
in a realm
beyond body and mind
reality is not easy
to grasp
even harder
to believe.
Dr Peter Lim Aug 2018
But I hear
a nameless song that others can't
do I have special ears?
what power unto me does this strange gift grant?

A tender voice spoke to me
in my dream last night:
your life is tuned in like a melody
your heart's compass has been set right.
Dr Peter Lim Oct 2017
Young man, don't you blame me
'twas the wind that lifted my skirt*
I know not what you saw
I wasn't out to flirt--

My dad is a Minister of the Imperial Court
to the Crown Prince I'm betrothed
your thousand love-poems I'll
not read
doubtless I'd be eternally loathed.
* skirt being blown by the wind is an idea from ancient Chinese poetry but the story and poem are totally mine.
Dr Peter Lim Dec 2018
I'll make a list today
of what items to throw away
I'll even count what words not to say
lesser is a better way to stay
Dr Peter Lim Jul 2018
Where's the anchor
of safe haven to be found?
you should be life's author
you set your own holy ground.
Dr Peter Lim Aug 2021
When human voices decay
and fade into the wilderness of time
and hopes seem so faraway
I will hold to music my soul to calm-

my forlorn heart will not weep
sorrows will not hurt or numb
I'll put the darkest hours to sleep
and rest in music's welcoming arm.
Dr Peter Lim Oct 2018
No, an irretrievable and solemn no
to the young I wouldn't wish to preach
even in these my fast eye-failing years
I know too little and nothing could I teach

for no living-life-well formula
does  I deem ever exist
knowledge is quagmire and sand
thinking belongs to the region of mist-

how I struggled and fell
the tears that brought no relief
the heart is numb and words it couldn't tell
in the limbo of  angst there was nothing to believe-

the little good if any I could do
is to allow the young to reach
out to life in every facade and tryst
in my silence their fondest dreams I wouldn't breach.
Dr Peter Lim Apr 2020
..and soon enough
comes the last draw
time has swallowed
all the past-
slowly
the hours crawl
into the vague
and uncertain
the sight stops short
at the forbidding wall-

is it life
or destiny
that makes
the call?

or is
our will
that would
not give up
at all?

and soon enough
the game would
have played
and everything
would have ended
by then
day would have sunk
into nightfall

if we have held
our own
till the last
where would
there be the downfall?
Dr Peter Lim Dec 2019
.....and the last
shall not be forgotten
(the first has been laid behind)
the touch, the kiss, the embrace
this moment clings
closest to heart and mind--

farewells have been many
this, this is the hardest by far
our love is not meant to be
we know this is the deepest scar-

the last is that which will last
its poignancy time shall not mar
all that I could say is in these few lines
before restless time rushes in such to bar.
Dr Peter Lim Dec 2019
...and the night sets in
   in vengeful silence
   every human deed over time
   it has recorded in its bruised*  heart
   and felt pain in its every fibre-

   it refuses to be tender
  
  for lies and deceits
  too long it has tolerated
  another century will only
  be a repeat
  of that gone before
  it would rather perish in agony
  than being a helpless survivor-

   yet, yet, yet....
   how many crimes
  are committed
  in these unnoticed dark hours
  by those held
  to be wise, trustworthy
  and noble--

   secrets most abominable
   machination most cruel
    Machiavellian to the bone
    plots and murders
     in the plural-

    there is no peace
   nor respite whatsoever
   the culprits will walk away
   with the first light of day
   and once again
   venom and poison
   will in greater measure gather.
* pronounced as two syllables
Dr Peter Lim Nov 2019
I've hardly started
even at my wintry years
still at the early pages
of life's book -- some tears
there are but fewer fears-

I've never walked away
but looked squarely
at life in the face--

no story of worth
do I have yet
what I've written and done
I'm glad to forget--

no claim can I make
brittle and fragile
are the words I say
I still miss by many a mile

and so I walk my way
to history I couldn't belong
better to leave things to rest
than to sing an empty song.
Dr Peter Lim Jan 2018
Along a mountain-path
we met--after fifty long years-
it began to rain and we took shelter
in a derelict shed. Then the downpour
came almost drowning our voices.
It was early evening-how could I forget?

I said to him: '  It's fate
that brought us together.
I come here when the weight
of living oppresses. I need
to make sense of the why of things.
Where are you going?
(He had with him just an old tiny suitcase).

He looked at me
and held me spellbound
even before he spoke-
such penetrating eyes
and the mark of pain
I sensed in his pale face
(he paused and then said
in a quiet almost inaudible way):

'   Look, you can see
   the monastery over there
   that's to be my home. I've made
   a vow to become a monk-
   I've found at last the way
  to live for my remaining days'.

  But why? I did ask.

  '  Suffering of the world
    I couldn't bear--
    hunger, starvation, illness
    war-stricken men, women
    and children--man-created
   destruction is everywhere
   mankind is but a face of despair
   and I've run short of tears
   in a lost wilderness of my own
   for so many long years-
   if there were hope at all left
   that to me would be love
   and prayer'

   Before I could speak
    on my shoulder he touched me
   and these were his parting words:
  '  I'll be in the monastery
     and you'll be outside
     but both you and me
     will be one in heart
     by love, compassion and selflessness
    we'll  be set free'.

    The rain had stopped
    my friend continued his journey
   as the mist gave way.
Dr Peter Lim Apr 2018
I stopped to look
the evening sky
above the emerald sea
was welling red
as though
it was still burning
with desire
portending:
' it's too early
for me to retire'

it was speaking
to me
in mystery
I could hear its voice
in the solemn moaning
of the passing wind:

'beauty and its glory
must not die--its hour
is not yet. I am still light
and won't surrender
in haste to the night

feel me, touch me
hold me, be with me
if you will, write me
a poem, compose me
a song, take me along
in your heart
paint me in colours
of passion and love
I am your muse
your inspiration
your heart's delight
embrace me
as a lover
and remember
I'll return
I fade but never die'

was I dreaming?

but there was I
and there was the sky
Dr Peter Lim Dec 2018
Every evening
this frail old man I saw
with a clutch walking
alone to the park
and then sitting
on the same wooden bench
mumbling something
to himself
oblivious to all that
which went by
and hours he would
there abide--

he would then
take out from his pocket
a faded photo
and stare at it
obsessed
for a long while
as he uttered
a deep sigh--
walking by
I could see
a silent tear
in his eye-

'twas not
my intention to spy
it was my daily walk
as I lived nearby-

next
he would write
something
on a little sheet
he brought along
as he looked away
at the evening sky-

he did give me
a nod once a while
( I was many years younger)
perhaps an avuncular look
and on some odd occasions
a suppressed smile-

was he trying
to say:
'young man
sorry I do feel
for you--youth
is but the gate-way
to pain and despair
which time could not heal.....?'

that silence
between us
at a point of time
shook my entire being
suspended my thinking
I stopped walking
looked at him
from a short distance
it was an experience
I could not describe
and my very feeling
was mysteriously drawn
to that lonely fellow-being
as though we were bonded
in a strange kinship
and somehow bore
the common mark
of sorrow and suffering--
or
what was I
just imagining?

dusk began
its tender descent
the last light
was fading

I saw him rising
from where he was sitting
then walking past the field
he disappeared
from my sight--

hungry and tired
I was at that trembling hour
but didn't want to rush home
but stood motionless instead
as though held in place
by some unknown power.
* after Wordsworth
Dr Peter Lim Apr 2020
A new person
every moment is born
awakened by a lethal virus
a vicious line it has drawn

on the canvas of living
peace and joy it has torn
all over is the painful cry:
when would this scourge be gone?

before this insidious advent
how the sun  so brightly shone
none could now soundly sleep
day- hours are like sitting on thorn

the heart trembles and falters
waiting for the promise of a new dawn
love gathers to heal and strengthen
while the faithful pray: Come, peace, come anon!
Dr Peter Lim Feb 2021
I like a new day

it will not be the same

along the way

I'll ascribe it a new name
Dr Peter Lim Jan 2019
Beware---
a new decision
could be
your deadly poison
Dr Peter Lim Dec 2017
Dear M,
                                       Do we really need to live forever?
Yes, it's the now-ness that matters--the immediacy--the light, the colour, the smell, the sound, the love and adoration , the tenderness, the touch and embrace, the beauty and splendour, the inspiration,  the effusion of fullness,  the heart in worship,  the music, the poetry,  the unity, the connectedness, the silence and stillness, the unfolding, the awakening, the coming into being, the mystery, the forgetting and dying of self, the leap into the unknown,  the purity, the quintessence, the simplicity, the acceptance,  the resurrection and renaissance.
                  Then time is forgotten and loses its potency, it stays aside and wakes  in reverence to the religion of living that we have created from our heart-- It would say--I am learning from mankind-- its true self I'm yet to fathom and understand.  
                   To be is the eternity.

copyright 2017
Dr Peter Lim Jan 2019
Promise yourself today
( I mean 24 hours strictly)
you would put the word 'I' away
and then write back to me!
Dr Peter Lim Aug 2018
Anger in words unconstrained
the heart, a boiling cauldron
the poisonous arrow must be shot
aimed directly at the target-person --

stand aside, you watcher, be silent
this is none of your concern
you would not know the thickness
of my blood nor my hidden reason.
Dr Peter Lim Jul 2018
Most anger
is ill-justified
directed blindly
folly-allied
Dr Peter Lim Nov 2018
He who could his anger overcome
the wildest waves he would calm
Dr Peter Lim Mar 2020
Every anger
has a hangover
Dr Peter Lim Apr 2018
What purpose does anger serve?
The irate lady didn't realise she was to such a wretched serf
* real incident yesterday
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