The Train Station

I wait at the station

My ticket in my hand

For this paper tears and sweat

And years of my life were spent

So now I can take a train

And go off into the unknown

To the places I’ve never seen

And every hope that’s grown

A train arrives clad in gold

It brightly shimmers and shines

Surely it must go somewhere

Really great and fine

I hand the conductor my ticket

He does not allow me inside

For he says my ticket

For this train isn’t right

So with regret I watch the train go

And vanish into the mists

And wait for yet another

Certain there’ll be nothing amidst

A train of silver comes

Sparkling like a dime

I hand the conductor my ticket

But this train isn’t mine

So I go back to waiting

Watching people come and go

So many board, all going somewhere

While I am waiting so

Stuck on the platform

Watching wrong trains go pass

Platinum, diamond, even lead

Hoping they’ll be mine at last

But they’re not and I have to watch

As I stay despondently still

Watching as people move on and go

And wondering if I ever will

Again and again I try

But the answer always seems to be

“This train does not go where you’re going”

“So wait for the next please”

So I wait and I wait

Agony eating at my soul

I’ve spent my life on this ticket

Is it as worthless as fools’ gold?

But each conductor tells me wait

The train that is mine will pass

For surely this stillness in time

Cannot forever last

And finally a train rolls in

Its carriages beaten and old

I hesitatingly hand in my ticket

And up on board I go

Surely there must be some mistake

This train is a wreck

I did not work for years

To ride in something like that!

But then the train leaves the station

And where others turn right it goes left

Out of the concealing mists

That leave so many bereft

It leaves it all behind

And ahead I see fields of gold

Oh. Now I understand

That’s where I’m meant to go

Copyright © 2018 by Kwek Yi Zhen

Originally from: http://poemsforocassions.blogspot.com/2018/10/the-train-station.html

A Life Lived

Eat and drink for tomorrow we die

So the old saying goes

But how can food and drink ever satisfy

The constantly yearning soul?

With its yearning for the beyond

And dreams of the blue sky

Of the stars and all its wonders

Where dear wishes could fly

With its hopes for tomorrow

And its fears for today

With its constant wish for a light

To show one the way

With its aching for a kind word

And hearts which understand

With its inexplicable desire

To reach out and lend a hand

For all these a soul yearns

In words felt but unspoken

But if one could simply reach out

And to the heart’s beat listen

They’ll know food and drink won’t satisfy

For a soul needs so much more

And to give it all up for brief pleasure

Is to die before death falls

So yes tomorrow we die

But let us at least have this

A life not shrouded in mindless pleasure

But a life lived!

Copyright © 2018 by Kwek Yi Zhen

Originally from: http://poemsforocassions.blogspot.com/2018/10/a-life-lived.html

The Bridge

Here on the forest bridge

I quietly sit and stare

At the leaves and the rippling stream

At the life everywhere

Some children run pass me

Waving as they go

Off they are to adventures

Daring, brave and bold

A young man returns

His eyes determined and grave

He is off to make his fortune

He says so as he waves

A young couple then come by

Lost in each other’s eyes

They don’t see me in their dreaming

But that is no surprise

The moss grows on the stones

As the people come and go

From budding leaves to summer flowers

Autumn leaves turn cold

Till at last an old man comes

And sits by my side

Looking about him in wonder

At all in his sight

“It’s beautiful” he says

In a voice soft and low

“How have I never seen this?

For I’ve passed here often so”

And so we sit side by side

Where the river’s song does not cease

And there on the bridge between moments

We rest in contented peace

Copyright © 2018 by Kwek Yi Zhen

Originally from: http://poemsforocassions.blogspot.com/2018/08/the-bridge.html