Best Thailand Poems
I once knew a Thai man
Who had an affair
And at the time he said
He did not care
Well it was not long
Before his wife found out
Now she didn't scream
And nor did she shout
She simply walked over
To the kitchen drawer
And pulled out a carving knife
Need I say more!
Very swiftly and at the double
She cut of the thing
That was causing the trouble
She tied it to a helium balloon
With Some string
And let fly in the air
That troublesome thing
That was not the end of the story, oh no
To the Thai County Court
She was summonsed to go
There she was charged with
Grievous bodily harm
Although I've heard say that
She kept very calm.
But here husband was charged
With a serious offence too!
Indecent exposure to the passengers
Of Panam flight 742!
Trumpeting sounds of elephants
Pleasant rides, tricks, and children’s chants
In a place called Thailandia
The tourists come from Sandia
They visit their uncles and aunts
Ride the bulls, play, touch, watch them paint
Unaware of treatment, restraint
A few people saw the dark side
The brutal industry must hide
You are led into tours quite quaint
Taken away from her mother,
Trained to toil for another
Enslaved as a beast of burden
Sweet baby calf called Lily Len
White as milk, she’s like no other
Len’s father a combat hero
And although she would never know
He, equipped with iron armor
Knee pads, and sounds of drums of war
Strongest was he, true warrior
In colorful costume adorned
For royals to ride she was born
Her spine aches, he is too much weight
Len resigned to this awful fate
Between two worlds she is now torn
Crying for a hopeful sign
Recalls Airvata the divine
He, the legend water child
Len prays to him so beguiled
And in her sleep their souls align
Airvata reaches down with his trunk
To the underworld she’d been sunk
Sucked up and sprays her in a cloud
Awakened she feels safe and proud
Happily sprayed with muddy gunk
Separated at birth, now three
Len is saved, taken to Nuwee
A lovely rainforest in Lanark
Near a river, Phant’s Nature Park
Where she washes, where she roams free
They are not from Chiang Mai,
they are a tribal people
who speak a hill language.
They ride through the night
on bicycles to settle at dawn
beside the Ping River.
Girls' unroll rattan mats
squat beside straw hats brimful
with the tang of burgundy chilies
They have vegetables
grown in lime green waters,
parched salty anchovies,
and plump spearheads
of opalescent fish -
all these are bargained for,
bundled in newspaper,
tied with pink raffia.
Our lives cross here.
A few coins dropped into an open palm,
nods and smiles by a river,
a common currency bridging
alien worlds.
T-he haven of beauty with its brightest tree- flowers strewn in bloom,
H-ailing as masterpiece in one’s heart overwhelmed in deep admiration;
A-pril and May are chanting in triumphs claiming their grandest season,
I-n kaleidoscopic colors arching a warmest welcome to every nation.
L-et your tarried gaze saunters for a while,
A-nd inhale the most scrumptious fragrance in squiggled file;
N-uzzle on their petals as you close your eyes,
D-ream a dream that is never elusive in your life.
©2014by Leonora Galinta
April 27, 2014/12.20pm
Second Place
Contest: A poem you have not entered in contest #2
Judged: 6/12/2014
Sponsor: Dearest Poet Linda/PD
Beauty and splendor,
the unoffender,
scenic blue skies,
masked a great disguise,
of one's intimate demise.
What is beauty?
What is paradise?
Is it in temperature?
If so then I'm too hot here.
Is it in visual sensation?
Here the sea is vivid blue,
and expands generously embracing wondrous unfathomable islands
Of a million greens,
The girls of every colour make my guts flutter and my eyes roll
sighs through gritted teeth
Exciting in vision,
Is it in odour?
It smells like rotting corpses and poorly designed sewers,
I struggle to not heave and wretch with every step.
Is it in tactile sensation?
I am covered in mosquito bites and scratches,
my throat burns and I itch itch itch
The echo of warm hands leaves me wanting.
Is it in taste?
The food burns my stomach and blocks me up,
all the many flavours blend into one overpowering taste of foreign grease.
Is it in sound?
Screeching Thai's make me wince,
complaining mothers,
tuk tuk drivers,
massage girls,
suite sellers
assault my ears with their constant cries for attention.
Is it in sex?
In the act of sex- yes,
Only in the same way that salt water feels as if it quenches your thirst as you drink it.
But inevitably just makes you more thirsty.
Is it in friends and company?
Too little loneliness and I start to hate,
feeling suffocated by their ignorance,
drowning in their shallowness.
Too much loneliness and I go to places I can't explain.
What is beauty?
In form?
in sense?
Does not paradise belong in the thinking so....
It's all subjective.
Thailand endures rout
Record-setting 13 goals-
controversy brews
I am an old man
a deep well
an epoch marriage
a raven haired beauty
five above average kids
Orion deckhand and cook
teacher of the year
Bible study leader
jail preacher
song worship leader
NAU graduate --graduate school
ASU graduate --undergraduate school
life guard
breakfast cook
English tutor
Archie Brokeshoulder's well puller
grain elevator operator
pizza chef
dishwasher
mental hospital patient
prisoner
welder
all region linebacker
wrestler
pole vaulter
3 high schools
4 jr highs
2 elementary schools
8 states
2 dads
5 moms
6 sisters
4 brothers
13 presidents
I am an old man
I'll swim a mile
this morning
and dance
all night
golf tomorrow
backpack Europe
visit kids in Montana
come back to Arizona
visit kids in Kentucky
do more Europe
come back to Arizona
swim and golf
then who knows
India, Nepal, Tibet
I am an old man
looking for something
Visting Jazzee, my mate in Northern Thailand
the sights i seen i can describe only as astound
that i would only see once in a life time
and would like to put this accross in rhyme
I travelled eight hours North of Bangkok
all the views taking on stock
on a bus, stifling hot and brash
but cost a pitance of food and cash
Arrived in Nokon Sawan late doors
looking back now,was well worth the cause
he took me to see crocdiles monkeys and bats
for the latter i must take off my hat
The monkeys were amazingly cool
my jaw dropping open, locals thought i a fool (lol)
1000s gathered the road all along
some only babies,others dominantly strong
Yet i sat on a bench feeding nuts from my hand
apprehensive at first,but then i did land
a sense of calmness that they also sensed
i gained their trust and felt influenced.
HELL OF THAILAND
two men beat their chests
contest of very hot spice
the hell of Thailand
first man’s sweat pours out
a linen napkin’s laughing
vainglorious plight
eyes of number two
tears streaming grow big and sting
vein-bulge vanity
admiring friends
cheer and jibe in kodachrome
racing pulse of weak
4/12/2018
‘Krasue’
(A woman’s head with viscera hanging down from her neck.
She paralyzes like ice-cold lightning).
Where will you be tonight when the moon is shut?
Woman hater, where will you be
when the womb of your soul is shut tight?
Krasue will chant these lines over your stunned body,
her incubus birthed in you.
She will keep you pregnant until
your male belly bursts.
Then she will come out of you,
and the moon will open and shine again,
but not for you.
~~~~~~~~
‘Mae Nak’
(She's a female ghost who died at childbirth
and can extend her arms).
Mae Nak loves you.
She wants to carry you in her limbs
to the birthing couch. There she will
stretch her arms to the dawn.
Mae Nak loves you,
but you are a ghost to her,
she sees only an endless umbilical cord.
She believes you dangle at the end of it.
She believes that one morning
she will hear you mewing like a kitten
at her door.
Until then she lengthens her arms
like a sea anemone at a watery reflection
of the morning star.
~~~~~~~~
Nang Mai
(Lady of the Woods’, ghost-fairy related to trees).
Texture and grain are her domain,
but she will appear
if you are near her spider woven eyes.
She harms none,
but she can break the ties
to your own self,
make you see the mask
you’re wearing,
then she will send you home
weeping
until you break a thousand mirrors.
~~~~~~~~~
Sad Detritus It In Eight
Sam Adams looked back
at the lost loves
Failed opportunities
And monolithic blues
That he concluded
Was the sad detritus of his life.
He sighed and went out
To the Cosmos bar for another drink.
Thai's - out of respect,
may not look directly at you
until they are sure you are riddled
with the dead.
There are village ghosts and mountain ghosts,
river ghosts and jungle ghosts,
some ghost haunt each other
and form clouds in the eyes of children.
The ghosts of Thailand
tend to linger in this world for a while;
for the roads to other realms are jammed
with ox-carts, trishaws toot-toots,
and gaily painted trucks.
Here is a strange thing:
the female ghosts will attach
to good men and their dreams;
they make them love dead flowers,
blooms that shine again in the afterlife.
Each specter has one of those
in her long black hair, but the flowers
are all bright and bone-white.
If you are a bad man,
there are other female ghosts,
with even longer hair,
they are remorseless; they will bind you
to a fiery night-horse evermore.
Males, even foreigners,
are natural hosts for female ghosts.
Men may go home to their wives;
perhaps to a far land,
but a she-ghost will sleep between them -
this is normal.
men who have no female ghost to sleep with
are not worthy,
according to Thai folklore.
‘Krasue’
A woman’s head with viscera hanging down from her neck.
She paralyzes like ice-cold lightning.
Where will you be tonight when the moon is shut?
Woman hater, where will you be
when the womb of your soul is shut tight?
Krasue will chant these lines over your stunned body,
her incubus entraps you.
She will keep you pregnant until
your male belly bursts.
Then she will come out of you,
and the moon will open and shine again,
but not for you.
~~~~~~~~
‘Mae Nak’
She's who died at childbirth,
she who extends her arms.
Mae Nak loves you.
She wants to carry you in her limbs
to the birthing couch. There she will
stretch her arms to the dawn.
Mae Nak will keep you safe,
but you are a ghost to her,
she sees only an endless umbilical cord.
She believes you dangle at the end of it.
She believes that one morning
she will hear you mewing like a kitten
at her door.
Until then she lengthens her arms
like a sea anemone at a watery reflection
of the morning star.
~~~~~~~~
Nang Mai
‘Lady of the Woods’, ghost-fairy related to trees.
Texture and grain are her domain,
but she will appear
if you are near her spider woven eyes.
She harms none,
but she can break the ties
to your own self,
make you see the mask
you’re wearing,
then she will send you home
weeping
until you break a thousand mirrors.
apricot tea in Thailand
breakfast fruit set up on balcony
welcoming rain greeted us
I felt grateful that I had come
this gentle ambiance worth remembering