Another View Poem by john tiong chunghoo

if i could afford the world
a view of another world
through my verses like the
ocean that hides yet magnifies
a world so glorious of its own -

freewheeling corals, zizagging fishes,
multihued starfishes, shells that grant
the ocean a contest of geometric elegance
giant meditative clam that turns out a luxurious
ochreous pearl impervious to the pounding waves
a monk zooming on zero desires for nirvana -

my life as a poet would have been well rewarded

the rainbow the sun never fails
to illuminate in the fall of heavenly
sweats and tears