Category: Poetry and Prose

Blue Knot

He often looks up the calming blue sky
That’s the clarity he holds on to
combating the tangled emotions he lives with

He has been him for so long
and he has been fighting this complex battle ever since
He cannot comprehend it all
not now or not ever
Some past is best left undiscovered
and some history is best unknown

He loves the blue sky as his earliest memory
He remembers looking up from the darkness and he saw the same clear blue sky

Writer’s note about Blue Knot
Knot – adults survived child trauma and abuse often experience complex trauma resembles a knot
Blue – the colour of the sky resembles hope

The Blue Knot Foundation Australia resources and services

Ten Minutes Sun and Letting God

She walked along the strip in front of her apartment
back and forth, back and forth slowly
with a tender back
It’s worth it
and all she could manage
ten minutes in the sun
in the middle of Winter

There was no work to go to
no appointment to attend
no fund to go out
Everything in life at that point
was out of her control
She had never learned to be doing nothing
up until that Winter

It was a humbling experience indeed
There was no help from anyone
when everyone else was experiencing more or less the same thing:
jobless and soon to be homeless

Now she is sitting in the garden of a women’s refugee
ten minutes in the sun
in the beginning of Summer
and she manages a few thanksgiving and prayer
She happily handed all control to the Boss upstairs
after she realised through all that
she was kept warm, well fed and the sun has been shining

Patience Expired

She lost him long time ago
ever since she deflected
whenever he asked her
what she was really thinking

桑树下的恋人 Under the Mulberry Tree

记得那年仲夏的傍晚
漫天的青绿彩云见证
桑树下我们互相许愿
我们的爱情果实累累
如今我独自旧地重游
透熟的桑果额前嘲讽
三十来年的果盛果落
黑发的恋人如今鬓白
我们的爱情早已消失
如桑果从纯白到紫黑
Remember that summer evening
under the mulberry tree
sky full of green and cyan clouds
witnessed our pledge of love
would be like the ripen mulberries

Now I am revisiting the scene alone
the heavy mulberries dangling on my forehead
laughing at my naiveté

We were once young and pure
three decades of success and failure
we are now with silvery temples
our love had long been bruised
like the dark purple mulberries

Beach Boy

Pencil drawing of Ben at Balmoral Beach, NSW Australia

黑暗的流星 (Meteor Blackout)

我一直在寻找暮夜里的繁星
竟然忘却了绵长的南方雨季
当碎星们尽力吸引我的目光
我却忽略了他们互放的光芒


I've been searching for the glorious stars in the ebony sky
forgetting the prolonged Southern monsoon season.

When the shooting stars gathered to attract my attention,
I was blind to their unifying light 
and missed the splendid meteor.

Car Wash Bay Ponder

Even hope is within reach
Beauty is far-fetched
When
Layers of shame and guilt
Ladened with self-disgust

薰衣草 (Lavender)

You used to bring me lavenders at sunset
The subdued scent lulled me into peaceful sleep
I blushed when dreaming your fingers subtlety brushed my hand
Before sunrise I'd already waited patiently by the window



他曾经傍晚时给我带来薰衣草
静默的草香总平安地送我入眠
梦里为你手指轻拂擦过而腮红
初阳时分的窗边我已静静等待

Shameless

The Living Poetry picture prompt

We were once young and wild
Skinny dipped under the pale moonlight
Beach bums in the California hot sun
Enjoyed onlookers’ glancing

In years gone by
We look at each other
Beer gut and love handles
Roly-poly
burst out laughing
We are playful and happy