winter is great

i thank you for winter
that hides your flower
and with it all colors

i thank you for summer

that reveals your flower
and with it varied colors

i thank you for seasons

that, for sure, makes me value
flowers and colors fill my heart

© henry victor     22.07.2003

Note: Creative colours in the photograph are from Justin Victor (A child artist)!

 

lend me

lend me your eyes

as i drive through your garden
that i may see
what you see

lend me your heart

as i pass through this life
that i may love
what you love

lend me your feet

that i may walk
where i may find you
that i may at least once wink at you

© henry victor     31.07.2003

bamboo branch

with vacuum i have filled

my vacant mind

transforming self

into an empty bamboo branch

now i wait for you to blow

your whispering wind

bouncing rhyme and rhythm

by being in that void

singing a song in my heart

making my soul to leap

and dance as my dead body

walks to my grave

that final empty space

for a final sleep

as my soul braves your surface

like a lion not un-brave

© henry victor     01.08.2003

walking Joseph’s path

as i struggle inside the well, like Joseph

who was thrown into for his bloated ego

and boundless ambition, will you cease

listening to my groans and inaudible prayers

as i struggle inside the prison, like Joseph

who was thrown in for his imprudence

and lack of tactical strategies, will you ignore

my loneliness with my feeble will to escape

as i struggle inside a strange land, like Joseph

who by the inescapable fate and destiny

strong as death walked into, will you cease

to take account of my presence in your world

© henry victor     04.08.2003

am i listening to

with no words constructed

i pray to you

to express my joy

and my anxious sorrow

but at times i wonder

whether i listen to my broken self

with traces of both

you and the beast within

© henry victor     23.07.2003

old shoe

it’s torn around

yet i brush and dust

to put on my feet

for that comfort

no new shoe will give me

© henry victor      31.07.2003

age to come

i like Jesus

and later Rumi

Nietzsche and Vincent Van Gogh

belong not to this age

but for the one to come

and if this world

rejects me

am i surprised

© henry victor     31.07.2003

declining to teach

after spending almost my entire life

canoeing in the shores of the Palk Strait

surrounded daily by dolphins

and hammer head sharks i feel

a sense of defeat to teach

my daughter canoeing in the banks

of Athabasca where salmons swiftly swim

with Athabasca Falls only few blocks away

i shudder and cease boasting

my past boating, soberly announcing:

‘boat making and boat paddling

are butterflies, discovered and caught

and never taught’; politely

but with no dithering, declining

to speak of sailing

to the sacred, into the ultimate

© henry victor      04.08.2003

 

small and brief

a bacterium, a virus

bugs so small

causing damage so huge

a smile, a kiss

an orgasm, a brief joy

alleviating sorrow so large

 

© henry victor

cabbage from home depot

four little cabbage plants

i bought at the home depot

to plant in my not so huge backyard

feeding my young plants with dung

from Belvedere, South of Barrhead

in no time i saw my tiny plants

grow into four huge green balls

like an American Military Base in Mid East

attracting fluttering butterflies, gliding dragonflies

and more dotting leaves and punching holes

eventually when i harvested my cabbage

and began to peel off the dotted leaves, one by one

i discovered, in between the leaves

worms, like bulging women with exposed bodies

crawling and creeping to hide their faces

© henry victor     13.08.2003

Note: When I first published this first in May of 2017, I had this note added on top: “

OMG, to use the texting style of my daughter, I have hidden this for so long in my attic. Good that my grandson keeps nagging me to know where I have kept my treasure, my gold! I climbed up there and pulled this out and dusted swiftly, posting as my …”

brevity

in another three weeks

summer will be spent

providing space for fall

and soon it would be winter

forcing me to shut shutters

announcing me that secret:

brisk and brief is beauty

and bidding me to enjoy

lightning in lightning speed

© henry victor     06.08.2003

 

hope: merge with the large

money, always, easily slipped

through my fingers

lands that i tried to own also slid

quickly from my hand

the bed i slept in the night

someone else secretly

occupied in the day

the juvenile bird i cuddled

in my bosom

to give warm comfort and a nest

flew away to build her own

my remains too, soon

the fire will consume

leaving, perhaps, my soul

to merge with that larger soul

that welcomingly smiles

from behind the veil

© henry victor

living nightmare

my waking from slumber was too sudden

also, announcing others, my companions

in journey, about the entrance of our train

at the destination, with effects to un-board

before the carriage is shunted to the yard

to be locked for hours, may be for days

before becoming a carrier of another herd

in ride to a distant land, a different moment   

 

but it was nightmarish to unclutter dream

filled minds, purposeless lives, lumped

in the baggage of laziness with scattered

shoes and stocks of habitual procrastination

© henry victor            24.06.2014

gray jay in my campsite

like that camp thief, the gray jay

boldly inviting herself

into my campsite, my grace to enjoy

i bravely venture into your precincts

hoping you will take note of my presence

and drop scraps of manna

or at least, take pleasure

in my being in your vicinity

that you may in your sketchbook

sketch my form and note my color

to later open your guarded tablet

to cross check and tick my name

© henry victor     05.08.2003