Along the field as we came by
where i lived as a child
a little jungle thrived
opposite our row of
wooden houses
migrant houses
built just to live
with bare necessities
the beds, tables and chairs
mom's wedding presents
the only decor in the rooms
the few toys we begged
from dad and mom
strewn across the floor
the verandah sometimes
ended up on the shelf
oddly they sat to brighten up
our house
and over the jungle
a hive of activities
kept our days occupied
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poem by John Tiong Chunghoo
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On Growing Old
only the bayan tree
by the temple seems
to be growing stronger
tougher these forty years
while my legs have loosen
developed rheumatism
the old cement floor too has
given way to the bayan's roots
that rise to show its steely strength
bayan, the first to herald
buddha's enightenment
our ancestor's friend
ever strong, tenacious,
saviour to barren women
seen occasionally
at lonely dawn
weeping profusely
for a heaven sent
smoke of their josssticks
angled on crevices,
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poem by John Tiong Chunghoo
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Poem about Poetry - An Eastern Ballad
i long to be an eastern poet
to write about the Great wall
wean stories from every tearstained stone
that still echoes the cries of those
missing homes, wives and children
walk its length to measure the cold
and forlorn monolith borne from the
heart of stones of Shih piled high
over hills and mountains
i long to be an eastern poet
to write about the legion of
gods and goddesses in the nook
and corner on the pantheons
of the the temples of india
those alluring and well endowed
gods and goddesses who stole from
heavens to teach about salvation
senseless senses, seeds of bondage
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poem by John Tiong Chunghoo
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Famous Moive Poem - Phantom of the Opera
do you cry
the night away
when laughters turn
into a bottle of sobs
of an alcoholic?
your warm heart
finding itself floating
on a lake of ice?
is the fabled tale
in the warmth
of your hands
slipping away
from your grip?
an opera singing
a dissonant tune to
your fantasy?
the director you seek
leaving you in a valley of wants?
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poem by John Tiong Chunghoo
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I dance with the Gods and Goddesses
i could have danced away
in the lotus bloom,
the wood that
comes to life
under the hands
of a master carver.
my eyes fleet from
one sacred countenance
to the next,
the prelude to the
mystic dance
i am drawn to do
with the
gods and goddesses.
the first step
i learn from the
KuangYing (goddess of mercy)
with a thousand hands,
so graceful
and delicate
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poem by John Tiong Chunghoo
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Fallen into the other Realm
under the little picture
of the virgin mary
i lazed and lazed
until her impatient little angel
flew down to speak to my ears
in a mind lifting delightful language
prodding me perhaps to wake up
to face the world
still amazed at her musical tongue
this hasty chinese man
that ran into my dream
pointing to an antique
chinese wood carving of
an auspicious looking lion
perhaps to tell me
i should buy it
and i saw it in
my friend's shop the next day
he asked for US400
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poem by John Tiong Chunghoo
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Predictions 2004
Hello everybody,
here I am again
after 364 days,
caesar's soothsayer reborn.
my face is so hot and red
from all the wine parties
i have been to these nights.
all those congratulations
about my accuracy
have caused me to walk
with a heavy heart about
this year's prediction.
of course, only fools say i
know nothing; if i could foretell
caesar's murder with such
accuracy, i could foretell anything.
first did we not see china
nearly brought to its knees
this time by a tiny
unknown virus; so virulent that
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poem by John Tiong Chunghoo
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After rice harvest
the golden field
so apt the colour
that heralds its value
to the world
as the rice ripens
it pulls down the stalk
that has nurtured it
supporting it the way
warm mom carries child
round her bossom
it waves in the wind
as if to confirm
its value to the world
an entire gold field
an apt colour
just wonder god purposely
puts in the right colour
into his better creations
all over you hear the birds
chip in their bits
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poem by John Tiong Chunghoo
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Surprise in Malaysia - A State Assembly under a Tree
a State Assembly
held under a raintree
this awakening that the seed
of democracy was sown
in the streets of Athens
The Perak State Assembly Speaker V Sivakumar (member of Pakatan Rakyat) yesterday (March 3,2009) held an emergency State Assembly under a tree in Ipoh, the State capital of Perak. They were disallowed into the State Assembly Hall. Perak was well known for its tin trade in the 19th and 20th century.
Pakatan Rakyat lost its governing mandate last month when three of its members defected to the State Barisan Nasional (BN) . The State Speaker however said the three had earlier resigned from the Party and therefore their constituencies. The BN therefore cannot form the new State Government. Pakatan Rakyat wants a fresh election to be held to determine the new government for the people of Perak.
The following by Clive S Kessler is Emeritus Professor of Sociology and Anthropology
DATUK Seri Azalina Othman Said has characterised the attempt of the Speaker to convene an emergency sitting of the Perak state assembly as 'uncivilised' and as recourse to the 'law of the jungle'.
Never in the country's history, she avers, has a state assembly sitting been convened under a tree. Perhaps she is right. But some further historical perspective is needed.
In 1789, when the King of France sought to forbid the so-called 'Third Estate' or representatives of the people from meeting to discuss urgent national business, they convened on a Paris tennis court.
This too was, at the time, unprecedented and surprising.
They passed their 'Tennis Court Oath' that they would not disperse, adjourn or relent until their right to convene and discuss important public matters as the people's legitimate representatives was acknowledged.
That, too, was presumably seen as an 'insult' to the ruler, King Louis XVI.
It was also the beginning, for better or worse, of the French Revolution and of the entire drama of modern representative democracy and popular sovereignty. Those who seek to invoke history should know history. It may often prove a double-edged sword.
-
Clive S Kessler is Emeritus Professor of Sociology and Anthropology at the School of Social Sciences and International Studies at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia.
poem by John Tiong Chunghoo
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Ode to the Coffee
i am black
i am coffee
everybody loves me
dawn, noon, night
hot, cold, warm
blow, sip, drink, slurp,
kiss and be all afresh
i am black
i am your
coffee of the day
one two three
gulp
gulp
gulp
...
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poem by John Tiong Chunghoo
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