Walk Away with Me

The road is long
My burden is heavy
I pray but I'm talking to the air
The ancient map we have is flawed
It makes no sense

But my bitter companions push on
I walk in silence afraid to speak
My complaints are answered with platitudes
It makes no sense

I close my eyes but the questions never stop muttering
We took a wrong turn again
But they do not stop
I try and argue but they laugh; is this a joke?
It makes no sense

I cannot go on.
I cannot.
Then as we pass a shadowy overhang
I slip away.
And find you

Take me away you say.
Walk with me in this field of green
Hold my hand
And share the sunset with me

I feel you close to my heart
But you look away with a smile.
You look beautiful in the twilight my love
But you already knew that.

Yauming Chiam June 2013

I'm fed of going to churches where they preach a gospel so devoid of life and bear no relation at all to the real world. I'm fed of going to churches where they seem to be brain dead and spouting biblical cliches as truths. I wrote this poem because of this new realization - that I don't want to go to a church which worships tradition and a book over a real God.

Bridging the Sea of Tears Draft 2

Some place far and foreign my lover sleeps
She dreams, she dreams
An unfathomable sea separate us
I stand on a distant shore and wonder

Is she lying, is she rising, is she weeping the
tears which fill that sea?
Is she crying? is she mourning?
for the death of her dream?

Can I help her? Can I comfort her?
Does it matter what I say
To a strange lovely girl I met one fateful day.
And took a fancy to in a special way



From my shore littered with grey shingles
Tormented by a cold scathing wind
I am hurling the pebbles into that dark grey sea
Trying to bridge that salty body of water.
A naive boy thinking he can fill up that saline chasm
with pebbles...
with small pebbles he gathered from his beach.
What a silly boy to dream.

 Yauming Chiam July/September, 2013

A work in progress. Still not happy about the 2nd last part.

Niue

If you are free
Come!
Come with me across the South Pacific Sea
To a faraway isle
Where dolphins roam free
And whales are on sight from the land
Drown our sorrows
Wash away our tears
Let us not bring our past into Niue

By my balcony

A moment in time,
A touch of your hand
A side smile.
Your eyes gaze back dreamily into the distance
On my balcony.

Another time another place
Another man another place
A different life A different face
All a distant memory
History

Ancient History
What matters it now (to me)?
when you are here

On my balcony.
Chiam Yauming June 2013

***
SJ came today - and there she lingered by the back balcony next to the laundry. She seemed mesmerized by the view for some reason. I asked whether she liked me and she replied - I like your place more in that cavalier tone of hers. I affected scorn at her jest but secretly I hoped that she could stay longer.

She sets

SJ
She lingers for awhile.
Then I feel her gaze drift.
Her boredom is palatable.
I coax her but it is useless.
She must leave.

And Darkness descends.
It is dusk.

Chiam Yauming June 2013

SJ came to my place. And she typed her name on my antique typewriter. I like her but I'm afraid the feeling is not mutual.

In this dishearten mood I wrote this poem underneath her name using the same sheet of paper.

I just hammered it out. It was probably evening time when I typed it out. I showed it her and she took it home and smiled somewhat bemused. We've not spoke for awhile. I wonder whether she still has it or has thrown it away.

The Marlin, Layang Layang May 2012

I took this photo of a Marlin fish off Layang Layang Island in May 2012. The sight of its luminous electric blue tail in the deep will grace my dreams til the day I die.

I swim the deep blue
At depths unknown to man
I am wild I am free
You will not get close to me.

Morning 25th June 2013

(I sent this to her via a text message. Just wanted to see her again. She liked it it seems as she came shortly after.)

To SJ

Give me your peace for a moment in the day. 

Let me slumber in the presence of your grace. 

Wait for me as I idle and draw a smile upon my face.

  Chiam Yau-ming, Singapore, copyright 25-6-2013