Set free the doves caged in hope

Like prayer and incense to air

Or vapours a-breath elope

Drawing their very next share

Faith is not just holding on

But letting go – setting free!

As knowledge must chance upon

Finding its own verdant tree

Like doves alight on olive twig

So our hearts and minds bid settle

As did our eyes upon its sprig

To honour our faith and mettle.

Cheung-Ling Wong

Always carry the keys to life

With the love charm upon its chain

That we’ll never overlook strife

Or be locked outside in the rain.

Cheung-Ling Wong

Yes, I am insecure

But I’m no cruel spine

Or poisoned barb

I, delicate and vulnerable

Like a desert abloom

With fragrance delving deep

Deeper than a thorn

Into depths of heart

And I will hurt you even more

When I’m withdrawn and gone.

Cheung-Ling Wong

Loneliness beckoned

I chose a path less travelled

My wildling child free

…

Plodding on mere dust

My feet scattered pebbles loose

Mountains high I’d crossed

…

Christmas evening

Sanguine clouds painting sky red

Drains to lifeless grey

…

Upon a clearing

Swept clean by a windblown branch

Memories far gone

…

Empty boulevard

The trees stand stately and tall

Stills my silent night

…

Antarctic winds brace

As did my shirt collar white

My hearthside alight

…

Distant crowds cheering

Children afar play and scream

Abridging divide

…

Bounding home on dark

Over the river of stars

Night lanterns burning.

…

Cheung-Ling Wong

Not frankincense, not myrrh

Nor all the gold in the world

Sufficed before His ultimate gift:

To bear the burden of our sins

Worthy gift we too must forbear

With grace and crook spines:

One with the Shepherd’s sacrifice.

Cheung-Ling Wong

Bats have flown and

Owls have spoken

All that’s left

Is what’s yet woken

–

Malignant night

Set clocks ticking

Soon the sound

Of alarms screaming!

–

Dawn be soon

From delusion’s fate

Mutants flee

Before the light rakes

–

Stretching muscles’

Complacent stake

Wisdom’s depth

In breadth, widely-wake

–

Capacious mind

Our fertile ground

From shadowed depths

Our most profound

–

Humbled by daylight

Clearings swept

Watered by tears

Our sorrows wept

–

Plant a new seed

And we will gain

From deep furrows

We live again.

Cheung-Ling Wong

Eerily

The silent copse stand

Very soon

Dawn will pass this way

So feathered wings

Will have their say;

Faith in branches supporting all

Metaphysical shade befalls

Adding depth to our wanderings

As we cast our rings resounding

Around pine, birch

Gum and Cedrus –

Resonant with dreams resinous

’Neath fragrant shafts

Of sunlight calls

Guiding wings

To where nectar falls

Guiding souls

To where Hope restores.

Cheung-Ling Wong

Look before

So as to look after

Live many years

Bar one hereafter

Hindsight lends me

Eyes into foresight

Such was my journey

Through the long night;

Now caught between

Bright waves of wisdom

Love’s inextricable

Idiom

It gave me care

That I may take it

Given many a chance

To make it

Lessons burnt

Into my flesh yet earned

Till the day my soul

Is healed and learnt

Not for relief

From scars now at peace

But of sweet contentment

And release.

Cheung-Ling Wong

Beyond the seers

Those passing years

–

Life takes its course

Its only cause

–

’Tis no defect

We’re its effect

–

’Cos we adapt

And thus react

–

With authored clause

Hear the applause!

–

No blame or fault

It’s by default

–

That we be-kept

Life’s true adepts.

Cheung-Ling Wong

To be so agile

We must be fragile,

A moving beyond

The shattering point

–

Gather the pieces,

Read the shards scattered,

Our map of journey

Of no returing

–

What have we become?

Where are we to go?

Fissures rend new paths

Through old certainties

–

Trepidation treads

A new beginning,

Its footsteps fading

Beyond shattered lives

–

Our shell is broken,

And the yoke is drained,

Empty lies our nest,

Yet wings are woken!

Cheung-Ling Wong