#9 I Heard A Voice Through The Discord

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NaPoWriMo, or National Poetry Writing Month, is an annual project in which participating poets attempt to write a poem a day for the month of April. This is my attempt at 30 poems in 30 days.

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Do you hear these clashing chords?
That is us and the noise we make.
But a single note played indefinitely
can stir up these strange feelings
draw us out like water from a well
from the darkness of this prison we've created
This personal hell

For many, music is a mystery
It is the next bend in the coastal route
or a birthday present in the middle of a room
A plunging neckline or an infant's cry.
Women's shoes or a quiet sigh
So the search for another note begins,
the key to this melody, come sing with me

We are all notes on a keyboard
clashing, shoving, struggling to be heard
But there is a Pianist who plays
and beauty spills like blood
and fingers flow like water
and dissonance turns into a delicate sonnet
with gentle rhythms

We blend, becoming one
our purpose is found, our dream fulfilled.

-Daryl Goh

#8 In The Back Of My Mind A Voice Speaks, Spells Out The Master Plan

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NaPoWriMo, or National Poetry Writing Month, is an annual project in which participating poets attempt to write a poem a day for the month of April. This is my attempt at 30 poems in 30 days.

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It grates against me like singing a different key
A half beat slower and way too loud
It isn't natural, this restriction
Its wrong like a broken finger on a fretboard
It drains me more than when you have to dissect a song,
Tearing it apart with these hands, desecrating it before they understand.
Why not let the song lead you? Listen to what it has to say?
Let it into your heart and out again
Let it show you what to play.
Because some songs are weapons loaded with the right words
So sing what needs to be heard

We've branded truth as selfish pride
And pride often exists in the shadows, in solitude.
And sometimes humility is called into the spotlight
where they are crucified and cursed for the attention they receive
Some callings require a sacrifice of fame or fortune
On some days, that might just be easier then having to embrace it.

- Daryl Goh

#7 Gravity Release Me And Don't Ever Hold Me Down

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NaPoWriMo, or National Poetry Writing Month, is an annual project in which participating poets attempt to write a poem a day for the month of April. This is my attempt at 30 poems in 30 days.

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These hands, my greatest weapons
They will be great
I know this
I have heard it said
These hands, meant for service
they know how to imitate
They learn in different ways
They play so they can learn to create

Give me more chances to fail without being a failure
to learn where they would not humiliate
let us remove these barriers
and if we cannot then let them depreciate
so that they are no longer a hindrance
let knowlege permeate
and give these hands,
these creator hands, a chance to be great.

- Daryl Goh

#6 You're Mistaken For Someone Who Cares

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NaPoWriMo, or National Poetry Writing Month, is an annual project in which participating poets attempt to write a poem a day for the month of April. This is my attempt at 30 poems in 30 days.

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Can we try something for just a moment?
Let us be different
we'll swim upstream find out what it's like
What it's like to have your whole world against you
Like hands holding back a flailing assailant
Jealous of the direction, desperate for failure

Try this:
Fold up your compassion, put it in your shirt pocket
keep it close to your chest,
but keep it hidden, keep it secret
Think of only yourself. Be selfish.
Sacrifice nothing, give nothing.
Love no one.

Do it intentionally and realize the effects
spread like disease
or radioactive waste.
Will anyone be able to tell the difference?

- Daryl Goh

#5 Making My Heart Feel Sore

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NaPoWriMo, or National Poetry Writing Month, is an annual project in which participating poets attempt to write a poem a day for the month of April. This is my attempt at 30 poems in 30 days.

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my primary school friend added me in facebook today
and through his friends, i found another classmate.
she was the only girl i really remember from primary school
we hardly talked even though we were in the same class
she was royalty and i, i was shy.
we would wait together at the shelter beside the gate for our parents to pick us up after school
that was "us" time.
i would show her how brave I was by jumping into the drain beside the school gate
almost climbing into the darkness to come out the other side
but i wouldn't dare.
i would tell her about giant spiders with glowing red eyes that were in my path
red eyes meant they were poisonous.
she believed me for 2 days,
and then she jumped in herself to see.
she came out the other side and declared that the spiders were gone.
i fell in love and shame...
her dad's car was bigger than my dad's
i think it was white
and it would whisk her away
i haven't seen her since
there's a guy and a child in her display photo
and a dull ache in my heart

- Daryl Goh

#4 She Moves In Mysterious Ways

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NaPoWriMo, or National Poetry Writing Month, is an annual project in which participating poets attempt to write a poem a day for the month of April. This is my attempt at 30 poems in 30 days.

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Culture is a thief and a prince,despised for his crimes, yet adored for his rugged charm
His silhouette, strong in the dawn of a new day, adds to the mystery, and they worship him
Revolution is an elegant dancer, always with an open invitation to join her delicate dance of time
to move in step to the rhythms of change

She is shunned, maybe even feared
In the proud world of their shallow minds, their envy turns to hate
They ridicule the story she longs to tell
Her movements restricted because she is bound
And she is battered by the fists of their stares
Bruised by heavy criticism, thrown like stones

He watches from beyond the crowd
wanting to come to her aid
but their desperate hands keep him away
their frantic cries prevent him from being heard

Let us handle this, let us defend your honor
We serve you and love you
We will discipline her and teach her some respect
This is how it is supposed to be

He shakes his head,
His eyes dark, hard to make out
This is not what I wanted
This is not how it is supposed to be

She is hard to look at now, a bundle of shame
Just a glimpse, a glistening of tears
a glance which looks a lot like forgiveness.
Tomorrow she will nurse these wounds
She will bind them up, put on a smile
and she will dance as if pain was never felt

- Daryl Goh

#3 Be Careful How You Frame Your Argument

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NaPoWriMo, or National Poetry Writing Month, is an annual project in which participating poets attempt to write a poem a day for the month of April. This is my attempt at 30 poems in 30 days.

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I sit alone in this café.
The cheap fake wood that lines these walls
Covered with lines and lines of words that make no sense.
The lull of the evening crowd punctuated by explosions of laughter
I hide safe, shielded from distractions by a mug of Chai,
pushing thoughts, twisting them as they flow
from my mind to will, to the pen on paper.

I summon confidence and creativity,
I wield them like a scalpel in a surgeon's hands.
But I'm not used to their cold precision.
And yet I ready my pen as if to make the final incision.

Possibilities stack up like a deck of cards,
and I remember the conversation with the Queen of hearts
I remember the heat of the day spilling over into the heat of her words
An angry red painted on an angry face
Forgetting for a moment that we were all hearts.
That we were all on the same side.

What consequences are left to be carried?
Her raw, rude gestures, suddenly drastic.
As if deliberate, as though practiced,
The fury of words released like a rehearsed script,
The delivery perfect. Brutal. Award-winning.

I never stood a chance.

- Daryl Goh

#2 Go Do

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NaPoWriMo, or National Poetry Writing Month, is an annual project in which participating poets attempt to write a poem a day for the month of April. This is my attempt at 30 poems in 30 days.

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There is a song I have in me
And I stayed up all night to sing it
I won't leave unless you're with me
Could that just be procrastination?
I could pretend that I didn't hear
That I was unaware of this call, this undying call
That I'm not made for here, not meant to stay

My heart is painted with envy, slapped on thick and heavy
When I see others go before me,
It makes me wish I knew how
Makes me wish I was there now
Makes me wish I could go do
Make these wishes come true

- Daryl Goh

#1 A Revolution Has Begun

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NaPoWriMo, or National Poetry Writing Month, is an annual project in which participating poets attempt to write a poem a day for the month of April. This is my attempt at 30 poems in 30 days.

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A revolution has begun today for me inside, the ultimate defense is to pretend
I let these words reverberate within me
I repeat them like a child discovering echoes for the first time.
There are love songs, their lyrics like the texture of a well-made suit
They wrap around shoulders like a lover's whisper

Our purpose and our passions press down
Words are wheels, carrying the weight
After all, our pretense sprouts from fear
We all fear.
Or we all lie.

We accuse the Revolutionary of stirring up the people
As if pointing to dreams and fuelling the pursuit of vision was a crime
God is light and we are afraid of being exposed
He is seen but He is not understood
We prefer our flaws kept hidden in the shadows
Why do we keep crucifying Salvation?
Does what has always been mean that it should always be?
Separate these heavy expectations
They are beyond me

- Daryl Goh