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Original poetry and translations of poetry. © Warren M Tang.
i walk the path
that many have walked
for a millennium
watched over
by the green life
the network
beneath my soles
the quiet over sphere
the pulsing
under the surface
connecting but
separating us
all at once
led by my dog yet
constrained by my lead
i am now convinced
she knows infinitely more
about the world than me
your life in forty volumes
shows you had your art
from almost the very beginning
it only takes one word
an adjective perhaps
or an emotive one
to change the meaning
of the work, to give it
a nuance not found otherwise
be it a few pages or a hundred
unmistakably it was always there
and forty volumes later
you have had enough
if it is not with your eyes,
then what is it that you see
the world with?
some say
you see
with your mind.
if so, then why did god
bother with giving us eyes
in the first place?
the “mind’s eye”
is a great metaphor, but
in there it shall remain.
for words can do this –
make things appear
from paper thin air
and their appearance, it
may linger in the wind or
on the page for far too long.
Time is too precious
to think about
eternity
.
Time is important.
Change and difference create value.
God means nothing without man.
The imperfections of man generates
the perfection of God.
Yet, God’s perfection
is nothing and everything.
For that is the power
of a knowledge that comes
from nowhere.
forever, we come in
“halfway through the show”.
never to go back
to the beginning of time,
to our parents’ birth or
even to the last minute
or second that had just past.
for that is time’s character.
there is neither reverse to reality,
nor fast forward, but only ‘play’
we must live with it, deal with it,
but also enjoy the show while it’s on.
where is the law
when the law
is standing over you
and standing on you,
that a man can die
for no better reason
than for his colour
simply is unfathomable.
one has to wonder
why so little
has been learnt
all this time,
all these centuries.
how can someone be a threat
when one is cooperative,
patient and forgiving
only to be toyed with
then killed, murdered
as it were
in the darkness
that was apparently
not dark enough
for it to be captured
on film, as if
we do not have enough
evidence already
that racism is still
hiding in the shadows.
a blank slate
or white paper –
our minds are
from the start
like this.
a mind
without sense-experience
will continue to be
a blank slate.
no perception,
conception, or signification
is possible
unless
we have
the initial
sense-experience.
hollow awe followed by
the complete decadence
of drums
the scene is set in cold
cold waters
what exactly is happening
only we can guess
to be sure
the throng of people
is imagined
like a painting by Bosch
only in my mind
in psychedelic blue
no conspiracies here
just airy travel trails
high, up in the stratosphere
wild guitars stop abruptly
only to fade in once more
the drummer boy
not wanting to end
the euphoria of music
must continue
for thirty-years
and a little bit more
you had become pacified
the past still haunts us
as long as there are
those who remember it
brightly but not luminous
you leave us
we are grateful, not sad
for not since
two centuries
has this happened
an orderly and peaceful
end to the gentle
quietude of your reign
by your side
the strength of your queen
so to speak
and now it shall continue –
the common good even
if it is with spiritual overtones
welcome
welcome
new era
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