Is this all?
























Is the best of me gone?  
Have I skipped my years of youth  
Or is this it? 
Is this all?  
JNU, 2008

Comments

  1. Sao TunyiNovember 20, 2008 at 5:19 PM

    I sent out this poem to friends through SMS and got some responses:

    My cousin thought I was depressed and replied

    O thou of little faith
    Why dost thou lament
    that thine prime is past?
    Tis vanity to sail in the sea of defeatism
    Thou dost well know
    we are in a fallen realm.
    Hither, leave alone youth,
    One's life itself is
    but a mere speck of space-time.
    Grieve not that thou hast not
    had a frolicking youth;
    but rejoice that thou
    has willed thine life to God.
    Rejoice that thine is the Kingdom come and coming.
    Hence I say unto you,
    cease being pathetic,
    but summon thine companions,
    and I charge ye all to go forth,
    forage for disco-bars,
    court multiple damsels,
    smoke fag, snort coke,
    behold porn, drink strong wine,
    eat till you can eat no more,
    ... and lo, what would it be like
    if thou were to behold back
    at these years later?

    Another friend replied in a more serious note:

    "Sao, I've been thinking on the same thing for two years now but more intensely these past few days... This is not it. This is not all. Hence prayer and resolve."

    He thinks that the youth should ask these questions before it's too late. What have you done with the best part of your life?

    He was surprised that I didn't intend it to be a serious poem. It was a fun poem, where I was trying to pull the legs of 'youth'. People say youth is the best time when you are strong, active and has enormous potentials. so I was telling Mr./Ms. Youth, "All the fuss and this is it??"

    My brother caught the funny side of it and replied with a second stanza to the poem:

    Alas! fallen so quickly
    Like a barren desert
    Like the autumn leaves
    Spring comes every year with no help
    hope for hopelessness.

    He was referring to my receding hairline

    ReplyDelete
  2. Sao TunyiNovember 21, 2008 at 8:46 AM

    It's an open ended poem. I thought of the last line as
    "Is the best yet to come?"
    But if I added that line, the poem is gone. If I say it all, what's left for the imagination?

    ReplyDelete
  3. UnknownNovember 23, 2008 at 4:46 PM

    Hey Sao,
    I like the picture you have added with these lines. Goes well with your verse:)

    ReplyDelete

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