Long Antwerp Poems

Dedicated to my pastor, Dean Andrew Cheah

Come, hear me now as I tell you a tale
An inspiring tale of William Tyndale
A man who poured out his life to translate
God's Word from Greek, not the Latin...

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At The Gates of Auschwitz

Today, I stand
At the gates of hell;
“Arbeit macht frei,”
(work sets you free!)
That is Auschwitz.
Where they burned God’s children,
And the world stood by;
Oblivious,
To what was happening inside.

The League of Nations
(Whose mandate was...

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Providence rode,
I land
On the island
To learn its code
Of conduct, as
taught by Mr. Rhodes,
emeritus professor of jazz,
etiquette & odes

He says it's like an
Amorphous Z,
a
venomous ignominy
that obfuscates your
vexilology
& depletes its logic,
tantalizing a tarantula
with ubiquitous uppity.
It's the maximum...

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October 9 is  the 283rd day this year
In history many died and she'd tears
1594  Portuguese empire defeated in Sri Lanka
Bringing an end to the campaign of danture 

1604 kepplers supernova found in the...

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Egon Hedin the cook
When I joined the ship as a second cook I had trained as a baker, on a tank ship with forty crews, one, who could bake a passable loaf was needed
The cook’s...

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love on the high seas

He was a happy man, had passed the catering exam, and got employment as second cook on a tank ship 
To make happiness perfect his girlfriend had a job on the...

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Remembering a dog


When I was young and for us not rich there was
navy academia you could learn engineering, navigation 
and catering, with my eyesight I settled for catering
After going through the grades, I got a...

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Why people somewhere so kind and gentle
and somewhere not? 
Why people in Saint-Petersburg ,
Moskow,  Astana, Bishkek
Look so impolite, inhospitable and  unfriendly?
Ask about it the happy inhabitants
or better look himself for what 
is the...

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In an old briefcase
capsuled for years in a corner
of the shed, I found a rolled up wad
of poems, stalled, still looking 
for something to say, frozen 
in a futile gasp for air. 
I should have...

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The Voyage 

The big seagull sat on the bow of my rowing boat 
                     ...

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Vincent Willhelm van Gogh
a difficult talent to truly know
unwise love choices-Eugenie Kee&Sien
made him stick to brush not pen

Finance support from brother Theo
loosed his giftings to flow
in dark landscapes&still life
too bad,  without a  wife

From Ecole de Beau Arts a matric
In Antwerp he creates his pics
Then to Paris to mix with the best
lived an artist  life with great zest

Upon the death of Pa Theodorus
Vincent does portraits&busts
as his love life to Margot ails
so also his pointillism fails

He then met Agostina Segatori
& a brief affair the world did see
An interest in all things Japanaise
then to Arles were the sun does blaze

The artists colony  was not a success
Vincent cut off an -ear-but I digress
progressively VG became deluded
'a mad redhead,'the locals said

Genius & delusion marries as one
but a recognisable usp is done
with broad brush& wavy line
a reputation to outlast his time

In Arles he is hospitalised
&unique art realised-
then with a gun suicides
on canvas though his genius resides...

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In an attempt to establish an uncertain linkage between 2 parables,
Ivo Torena resorted to impress his colleagues all night long; hence,
awkward as a cow on a crutch, he was cowed into pilfering bananas,
and when he...

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A ship's cook 

The sea is dark, clunky, and calm today
 slowly undulate 
turns white where the ship's bow has plowed a furrow
that stretches for miles.
Gulls still follow us, shrieking and waiting for the cook to
throw overboard waste...

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Patrasche loved being a rescue dog in his youth
husky with one blue eye, one brown eye and a curled tail
his reputation was solid; he could track an owl’s beak
older now, he felt the frost and...

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An oil port

He is looking on to shore and sees an oil terminal
waiting for the pilot, he may arrive today or tomorrow.
Well he is not going ashore at this Arab port it is 
usually boring...

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The collectors' job is to get the drugs out of the container
and away from the docks,from where they will be transported
to Amsterdam, Germany, Poland, Holand, Lithuania, Latvia,
Estonia, Finland and other parts of Europe.Over 150 tons...

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