Until You Know the Color of Pain
There’ll always be
tomorrow without her,
him,
you,
or me.
Pay no attention to the fall of Icarus.
Look no further than
the darkest corner.
Shredded by the scissoring gust.
A spider with a heavy heart
mending her web,
after tempest fades.
Bleakness, rupture, hidden
under glorious blue sky.
Sorrow is the place to dwell.
Naked, uncoated,
the home of
tears,
the dawn of happiness.
Revolution
(Inspired by: Gershwin: Rhapsody in Blue –
Leonard Bernstein with the New York Philharmonic)
You came to change us.
From the beginning
you sounded a different tune and rhythm.
The whole orchestra
synchronized
embarked on a pulse out of nowhere.
Announcing the change.
Heart, thinking, soul, mind…
everything.
You look calm.
Yet we all know,
you are trying to change yourself
before you can change us.
Everything has a purpose.
With so many noises,
you thread a stream of notes.
From the moment your fingers
pound those black and white keys.
The pressure is mounting.
I can hear the whining of a clarinet
echoed by a wah-wah muted trumpet.
You insist to break the norm.
Every syllable is breakable.
Period, comma.
Every word can be torn apart.
Grammar, syntax.
No concern to create a sentence with broken characters.
You grab the horn of a charging bull.
And you have no fear.
Yes, change is coming.
As though you understand
what a heart is made of.
You dig deep into the atrium,
forcing the squeezing of blood to open
the valve into the ventricle.
Set up a much potent demand,
drum the oxygen-rich blood
through aorta to every part of the body:
brain, lung, heart, torso and limbs,
skin, tissue, flesh and bones.
Your intention is clear.
The transition is on.
Lin Wen Chao has been published in 28 poetry journals in the U.S., U.K. and Taiwan (2 in the U.K., 1 in Taiwan). In addition, many of his poems won or were selected as honorable mentions in 8 different poetry contests.
There’ll always be
tomorrow without her,
him,
you,
or me.
Pay no attention to the fall of Icarus.
Look no further than
the darkest corner.
Shredded by the scissoring gust.
A spider with a heavy heart
mending her web,
after tempest fades.
Bleakness, rupture, hidden
under glorious blue sky.
Sorrow is the place to dwell.
Naked, uncoated,
the home of
tears,
the dawn of happiness.
Revolution
(Inspired by: Gershwin: Rhapsody in Blue –
Leonard Bernstein with the New York Philharmonic)
You came to change us.
From the beginning
you sounded a different tune and rhythm.
The whole orchestra
synchronized
embarked on a pulse out of nowhere.
Announcing the change.
Heart, thinking, soul, mind…
everything.
You look calm.
Yet we all know,
you are trying to change yourself
before you can change us.
Everything has a purpose.
With so many noises,
you thread a stream of notes.
From the moment your fingers
pound those black and white keys.
The pressure is mounting.
I can hear the whining of a clarinet
echoed by a wah-wah muted trumpet.
You insist to break the norm.
Every syllable is breakable.
Period, comma.
Every word can be torn apart.
Grammar, syntax.
No concern to create a sentence with broken characters.
You grab the horn of a charging bull.
And you have no fear.
Yes, change is coming.
As though you understand
what a heart is made of.
You dig deep into the atrium,
forcing the squeezing of blood to open
the valve into the ventricle.
Set up a much potent demand,
drum the oxygen-rich blood
through aorta to every part of the body:
brain, lung, heart, torso and limbs,
skin, tissue, flesh and bones.
Your intention is clear.
The transition is on.
Lin Wen Chao has been published in 28 poetry journals in the U.S., U.K. and Taiwan (2 in the U.K., 1 in Taiwan). In addition, many of his poems won or were selected as honorable mentions in 8 different poetry contests.
