Keeping My Nose Above Water

I've had just enough time to...   keep my nose above water

Taken of the turtle keeping its nose above water in Gunung Lang, Perak, Malaysia

Keeping my nose above water

That is what I do

As my whole body goes under

I fight to stay afloat

With my nose just on top

Pulled down by my weight

The world upon my shoulders

Pushing me under

I struggled to the surface

Push my nose up above

Desperate to survive

Another moment

For...

Maybe a helping hand

A chance upon a random log

Or to make it to dry land on my own

But that seems so far away…

I paddle there…

Bobbing up and down

Grasping air with every breath

I just keep going

Keep reminding -

Courage is in the struggle

That spirit is all

Keeping me

From going under…

I Saw A Blue Dinosaur One Day

I've had just enough time to...   hear what a blue dinosaur has to say

Taken of the blue dinosaur I met in Gunung Lang in Ipoh

I saw a blue dinosaur one day

And it told me change is overrated

Constancy is the key to survival

With a stomp that shook the earth

It said plant your feet firmly

If you don’t fly, you don’t crash

Before I could put my words in

They were blown away by its smelly breath

Who are you humans

With your short miserable lives

To tell us who lived million of years

That we are dinosaurs that lived and died!

I made a big bow and quickly retreat

For my key of survival

Is not to argue with someone

That much bigger

The Sorrow of the Lonely Urn.

I've had just enough time to...   appreciate Beauty while it last.

Taken in the Gunung Lang resort, Perak, Malaysia.

In the shadow,

The urn tells a timeless tale

In soft whispers.

To the attentive grass and

The slow climbing vines.

“Beauty is Truth, Truth Beauty”

It sadly said,

“But Beauty fades and Life goes on”

"Nothing last forever,

The truth of beauty is -

When it exists."

_______

Ode on a Grecian Urn - John Keats

Thou still unravish'd bride of quietness!

Thou foster-child of silence and slow time

            Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard

Are sweeter; therefore, ye soft pipes, play on;

Not to the sensual ear, but, more endear'd,

Pipe to the spirit ditties of no tone

When old age shall this generation waste,

Thou shalt remain, in midst of other woe

Than ours, a friend to man, to whom thou sayst,

"Beauty is truth, truth beauty," – that is all

Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.

The Old Man of the Mountain.

I've had just enough time to...   speak to the Old Man of the Mountain.

Taken in Gunung Lang, Ipoh.

The Old Man

by Robert F Doane
Published 1939 at 13 years of age
Campton New Hampshire 
On the crest of a mighty mountain
Looking over the lake below,
A face with a human expression
Watches many a century go.

It was made from a mountain of granite
With the skill of a sculptor's hand,
And guards the green valley below it
As time passes over the land.

At dusk when the birds cease their carols
And the wind murmurs through the trees,
There's a sense of sadness about you,
As you stand in the evening breeze.

You feel that a great respect's due him -
So mighty beneath the blue sky,
There are few who have not been inspired
By that face as they've passed it by.

And to me, as to Daniel Webster,
The thought comes now and again
That in the great State of New Hampshire
The Master of Sculptors makes men.

_______

Do not grieve that the Old Man of New Hampshire is no more,

He just left the granite shoulder of Profile Mountain,

To rest on the limestone shoulder of Gunung Lang.

(The Old man of New Hamsphire fell on May 2003, I found my Old man of Gunung Lang in Sept 2011)