In the hands of those who were wronged,
Freedom
Is a gift from the Heavens itself.
But in the hands of those who are free,
Freedom
Without Heaven's light
Is in the hands of the wrong.
•
Which basically translates to the fact that I've just got to stop writing so many freeverse poems! I've only done one with rhymes so far, and the rest is just boring, boring freeverse. I'm thinking about exploring more poetic styles in the future; I've had one style in mind for the longest of times, but I can't seem to remember it's name. I've once tried writing one about flies and death to give me a clue, but I couldn't find it anymore. Not to be paranoid and overbearing, but I have the teensy suspicion that the entity of fate must have eaten it.
In the meantime, anyone have any suggestions for other poetic styles I can study?
Pearls
In which Yao strays from his preliminary tangent
There is nothing else to need.
•
Since
You had it all
From the start anyways.
Everything I could ever
Needed
And wanted
Finely encrusted into just
One
Significant someone.
•
Who is you,
My dear Kiku.
My world and
Everything in it
Just a strait of ocean away from
My needy arms.
•
And thus
I now hate myself
To the ninth layer of heaven and
Back.
For my needy arms are still
Devoid
Of a gift for our anniversary.
•
Just a mockery of a
Month
Away.
•
The morning is pleasant,
The maples
A brilliant red
In the thoughtful autumn sky.
•
You are at the porch,
Admiring the
Children at play,
When I smuggled myself beside you.
•
And ask
Without regarding your
Tender features.
•
"Kiku, my dear.
Our anniversary is just a
Fleeting month away."
•
Your wind chimes
Giggled overhead, to
Merge
With your soft laugh.
•
"To think that I would ever forget
Such an important occasion.
You know I won't, and
Therefore,
What I know
Is that you opt to inquire",
You read me
As deftly as ever.
•
Yong Soo's bellow
Stray us for a mere second,
Before I ramble on.
•
"You know?"
•
"My dearest Yao,
Once I was your pupil,
Your friend,
Your lover,
And now, your wife.
You are a map to me now.
•
"So what
Of this question of yours?"
•
I pause for a moment,
Contemplating, as
The frigid autumn breeze
Sliced
Into my thin shirt.
Yi Ling is bawling,
But it's white noise to me.
•
"The question,
Is what you'd like for our anniversary."
•
You start,
Before a gentle fog
Descends over the chocolate of your
Beautiful eyes.
•
"Let me see…"
You beam,
Knowing
That I was hanging onto every word
You said,
"I would like…
•
"Something strong.
Something
That dazzles with light
But with a lambent luminescence
That does not blind.
Something smooth
To the touch,
Well-rounded,
And rare.
•
"But most importantly,
I'd like
Very much, for this
'Something'
To come from the Sea,
My home."
•
Baby Jia Long's sobs
Relinquish our idle chatter,
For that morning.
•
But that night,
As I lay
Sleepless
Under our covers,
The bud of an idea
Spurs
Where my arms were once empty.
Pearls.
•
Soft and lambent.
Sultry as silk.
Round and rare.
And of your home
The Sea.
•
The mother of pearl
Fits the riddles of your story
Like a flower to a bee.
•
And so, I
Resolved
The very next morning
That one shall be yours,
The day of our anniversary.
•
I stalled no seconds more.
•
With your fine complexion
Lingering
At the back of my mind,
I hopped the next junk,
In an expedition of the World,
To find the
Best
Mother of pearl
To instill upon your dainty fingers.
•
For days and nights,
I road the crests of the Ocean,
And sifted through strange,
Foreign soil,
If just to find a pearl
Worthy
Of meeting your beautiful eyes.
•
Strange, foreign peddlers
Flocked to the harbours
Of their mystifying land
Like moths to a candle,
As they see
The magnificent Middle Kingdom
And his titan of a junk
Cruising the
Waters
Towards their shores.
•
Brilliant amethysts.
Livid diamonds.
Ornaments of finest jade.
And gold.
Hundreds and thousands of gold,
That would cram even the imperial treasury chambers.
•
All these riches
Were deliberately shoved
Under my nose, by
These ignorant peddlers.
•
"Come, sir,
and feast your eyes on these fine jewels!
Amethysts, red and
Brilliant,
Do you see!"
"No, these
Diamonds
Are much better! Come,
Good sir,
And behold their chiseled edges – "
"Not so!
But these ornaments of
Finest jade,
Crafted by talent, to have acquired
Such an exotic shape."
"Or gold, sir!
Do, I implore of you, have some!
We have many, so feel
Free
To purchase as much as you can!"
•
"No, no, NO!"
I'd cry,
"Do you all not understand?
These amethysts are
Far too bright
That they will blind my beloved's eyes!
These diamonds
With their chiseled edges
Will slice his delicate fingers.
These ornaments are
But
Silly shapes,
With no purpose at all.
•
"And all this gold!
It will not do
To present something so
Common
To the man I hold before all else
•
"And nothing in your
Hands
Are gifts from the Sea itself!"
•
"All that will do, is a
Mother of pearl,
The softest, rarest of all gems,
For a specimen as fine
As my dear Kiku",
I wail,
Flocking back to the junk,
With a pair of
Empty arms,
And a sullen,
Aching heart,
"treasure which you men
cannot grant me today."
The Ocean is calm,
An entity of tranquility,
In the crisp autumn morning of our anniversary.
•
And yet a
Roaring tempest
Wracked the chasms of my head,
As the junk made its silent retreat
Home
To the crestfallen Middle Kingdom.
•
And the deeper parts of me,
Unperturbed
By this haunting tempest.
•
Felt bitterly empty.
•
As the junk drew into the harbour;
As I skulked off the vessel,
Feeling empty, empty,
Empty.
•
As a blur of
Raven fringe
And thick autumn kimono
Tackled me to the hard floor of the promenade.
•
My dear Kiku!
•
Tears welled your eyes
As your
Dainty fingers
Flew around my neck.
•
And nearby,
Cheeky Yong Soo and Yi Ling,
Tittered behind coat-sleeves.
•
"I didn't know
Mommy knew how to cry too",
Baby Jia Long's
Eyes
Are wide with awe.
•
"Yao, where did you go!"
You sob,
"What were you doing!
Why say nothing of it to me!"
•
"Because", I sigh,
sitting up,
And evading your eyes,
For my empty arms brought me endless shame,
"I was out
looking or a present, for you
On our anniversary.
Something sultry as silk.
Round and rare.
From your home,
The sea.
But there were no pearls."
•
You squint at me,
As if you've never spoken Chinese before.
"Pearls?
But Yao,
Who said anything
About pearls?'
•
"It was everything you wanted.
It was perfec – !"
•
SLAP!
•
Words we've warned her
Never to repeat
Erupts
From Yi Ling's mouth.
•
"Fool!"
You snapped,
"sweet, stupid, stupid fool!
For what would I
Ever need
Pearls,
If I already have…
•
"You?"
•
You release me, to
Kneel
By my side,
The ghost of a coy smile
On your sweet lips.
•
I cross my legs,
Too dazed,
Too confused,
To say anything but;
•
"I don't think I quite understand."
ª
"Then you are more of a fool
Then I'd deemed you to be",
You tut,
"Just look at yourself.
You've travelled worlds over,
Made me
And the children
Worried sick,
If just to pursue an answer to my riddle
That is incorrect in all the senses.
•
"You are a fool
Yao
To see not of your strength,
Nor the dazzling
Brilliance
That spurred my nation
As nothing but your pupil.
•
"A fool
To never feel
Your tender person,
Carved smooth and
Well-rounded
Bu that heart which swells with pride.
A rare combination
To come by.
•
"But most importantly,
You are a
Fool
To have forgotten…"
•
"That I am just a
Strait of ocean away from
Your islands",
I gasp.
•
"And",
You help me up,
"that you
are my home now.
A gem in the Sea,
To the
Isolated, regressive eyes
Of one truly stuck in the Sea.
•
"There is nothing else to need
But your arms
Around me
On our anniversary day",
You beam,
Eyes catching the
Brilliance
Of the autumn leaves
That lie scattered at our toes
As we crossed back to the children.
•
"But now,
I will need to punish
You
For slipping away
And saying nothing of it to me."
•
And I,
My dear Kiku,
Will need an excuse
To start cramming the imperial treasury chamber
With all this
Gold
I brought home from the expedition.
The summary for this poem implies two meanings. One was an aspect I had bore in mind all along. The other came to this poem as a surprise conclusion. I like one meaning more than the other.
Find out which one I had in mind, and which one I liked best, if my favourite colour is chartreuse.
... And that, ladies and gentlemen, is the reason why my mathematics teachers makes the questions, and not me. On a completely irrelevant note, I do like maths. Very, very much.
-Plumeria-hi
P.S. Don't bother trying to find the answer to my random mumbo-jumbo, it's not related to the colour chartreuse in any way, ha-hah!... Heh.