Pearls That Shine: Poetry & Prose

By Hank P.Luz

'Pearls that Shine' comprises poetry and prose written mainly in 2013. These are writings in various forms of poetry mainly by way of Free Verse, Haiku, Limericks and Micro Fiction. Readers are also exposed to other forms such as Tanka and Shadorma, among others though these are of lesser numbers. It is an experience in contemporary poetry that is shared among the group of bloggers in cyberspace. It is now brought forth in a book form (in both soft-cover and ebook) to be shared among readers. Contemporary poetry shared with poets from around the world is most interesting as one tends to experience different context of situations in real time. One will also get to experience different cultures currently happening in various locations. What sets it apart is that it is contemporary poetry relating to events current and relevant to the current political and social scene.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Partridge Publishing Singapore
• Release date: Nov 28, 2014
• ISBN: 9781482828795

Hank P.Luz

Hank has been a blogger for over 6 years. He relates to a group of poets in cyberspace who write poetry every day. The interaction helps to hone the poetic skills of those among the group. The richness and enthusiasm is now shared in his book of poetry.

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Copyright © 2014 by Hank P.Luz.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Toll Free 800 101 2657 (Singapore)

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Contents

Part I Free Verse

A Debutante

Patience

Water Hyacinth

Retirement

Bliss

Why?

The News

Pop Music

Questions, questions!

A Raintree

A Library

That’s Greed

Loving You!

Sacrifices

Curiosity

A Destroyer

Graffiti

Hustled

A Lady’s Plea!

Dry Humor

Innocence

Unlimited Wants

Moths

At a Loss!

Peace so elusive!

Nature’s Wrath

Flowers

Who am I?

Cracks

A Kamishibai

Future Twin Godfathers

No. #1

Elvis the King

The reason why mothers are invented

A Speed Fiend

An Irony of Life

The Bard

‘to carry on’

Honey

Visual Satisfaction

Come With Me!

The Fruit Gatherer

Come what may!

Hurt

What Choice?

A Crushing Blow

The ‘Keeper

Layers of Flow

Flowers

The wild truth

Lure of Wealth

A Calling

A Couple

Good-bye

Authority Stifled

Dreams

Tunnel of Love

Scenic Waterfall

Stormy Encounter

Volcanic Eruption

Secured

Destination

The Sound Barrier

The Prince

Beauty in Danger

The Jazz Great!

Fireworks at Disney World

Hustling

Needling the Conscience

A Face of Innocence

Don’t Play Mickey with me!

An Island Paradise

Life’s Journey Well Taken

Being Cruel To a Baby!

Misgivings of Mercantile Mayhem

Puzzling to Puzzled Minds

Locked in or Locked Out

Desires in Calm Waters

A New Planet

Recycling Old Car Models

Melt-down, Pessimism Ahead?

Lethal War Machine

A Superhero of Old

Wonders of The Universe

Greener Grass The Other Side

Musical Sounds Unplugged

Seeing Double

The Fro-yo Re-emergence

It’s a Tuft War

The Salar de Uyuni

Cowboy Stories

Lonely Long Distance Runner

The Sound of Silence

What Could have Been…..!

Erotic Fan Dance

I Cried Out For Clyde

Warrior of the Jungle

It’s All About Advertising

bitter cries filtered through

Being a Master Chef

Having Fun with Slogans

Landing a Big Catch

Unwittingly He got Entangled

Just So There’s a Good Laugh!

A Godfather’s Natural Take

Hitting Hard on Punctuality

The All-Important Announcement!

It’s Beyond Redemption!

What of a Trash Heap!

Candor Not Asked For!

An Old Love Returns

Deprived of Decent Living

A Companion to Obesity

Gone With the Wind!

Misconstrued Insanity

Ghoulish and Macabre

I’m The Greatest

What About the Letter

Feeling Flighty with Flights

Ode to the Eyes

Toying with Abstracts

Old Habits Die Hard

Drifters Moving Along…

Ideal Peace On Earth

Strength of Character

He was not Indispensable!

Elegance of Being

Change For the Better!

The Cowboy in Him

It Worked All the Time!

A Treasured Black and White

Part II Haiku

Happy Family

Tulips

Instinct

Anger

Politicians

Dusk

Danger

Sweet Memories

Heath

Rescue

Volcano

Pride

Happiness

Sakura

Stork

Holland sojourn

Greed

Jealousy

Wisdom

Hope

Courage

Castle

Shielded

Caterpillar

Dolls Festival Day

Usurai (thin ice)

City Park

Warmth

Anaconda

Aomugi

Haru ta (Spring Paddy Fields)

Shunto (Spring Lanterns)

Cherry Blossoms

The Pink Moon

Chocs

Strength

Damage Control

Adam and Eve

Bridge

The Weak

Friends

Human Failures

Frustrations

Sumo

The Moon

Judgement

The Young and Lively

Change

What of Julius

Stoned

Mijikayo

A Feeding Bird

Of Moral Fiber

Seeing Double

Taue (Rice-planting)

Hotaru (Firefly)

Morning Glory

Hasu (Lotus)

A Flower

Chirpings of a Male Chaffinch

Piercing Night Calls

The Dusk in Rain

Right of Presence

Ravished Coconuts

Affections Most Transfixed

Talents Thrive Most Times

Birthday Bash at Age Three

Nonsensical Nibblings

Companions at Hand

Measure of Strength

Trials and Tribulation

Mood Swings Malady

Desert Pit Stop

The Kagura Dance Moves

A Water Baby

Beauty of a Sunset

Brilliance of Ancient Times

Separation Without a Word

Joys and Laughter at Gramps

A Star Blue Sapphire

Silent but Vibrant

Luscious Lips

Elusive Inner Peace

Risshuu and Beautiful Japanese Moon

The Guardian Angel

Rain in September

A Shepherd’s Lot

The Will was Absent

Orchids - A Gift of Beauty

Wase - Early Rice

Rivers - Laughter and Tears

Wonder of the Rainbow

What of The Eclipse

An Eclipse to Outshine

What of Vision Quest

The Privilege of Older Men

Strangers in the Night

Behind the Mean Look

Blessings from Heavens

Spur of the Moment

Fight Back Against Bullies

A Book Launch and Poetry Reading

An Energy Flow

A Beautiful Dream

Contrast in Nature

Unsure and Unfaltering

The Sacred Earth

Ashes to Ashes

Dreamy Dreams

Alvae - a Forest Tribe

Expectations Abound

Movements in the Desert

Up the Ante

Gift of Good Health

Circle of life

Cry Long Forgotten

Softly music treads…

Tenacity of Wild Flowers

A Wish List

‘Cracked Pot’ Resolutions

Part III Micro Fiction

Cheer Up!

Two Hearts

Piggy-back

Whassup pussy-cat?

Tabby

Micro Fiction - Sunflower

A Maid’s Concern

To Meet Her Craving

Fun and Games

King of the Jungle

Water Babies at Play

A Traffic Crawl (MF)

A Luminous Luminary

In a drunken stupor!

A Hot-Dog Dog

Thanksgiving Jitters

A Special Guest

Dark Shadows

To Your Future

Part IV Limericks

Part V Forms for All

A Wish - Collum Lune

Feeding Time - A Cinquain

Post Vacation Blues - A Sijo

Stormy Encounter - Dada Poem

The Haze - A Sedoka

What happened to the

Music by Karunesh - a Tanka

Space to Move - An etheree

Wonders of The Universe - Twitter Poetry

Happiness is Infectious - A Tetractys

The Slick and Sly - Senryu

Endorsement of Perfection - A Tanka

Tummy Pains Determined – A Pensee

Relationships - Fibonacci Poems

Dastardly Delinquent - A Huitain

Never Had it so Good! - A Sedoka

Preference for Flowers - a Cinquain

Regal Bearing - Trireme sonnet

Being Thankful - Shakespearian Sonnet

On Being Nice - Terza Rima Sonnet

Merry Christmas - A Kyrielle Sonnet

This book Pearls That Shine is dedicated to my wonderful family, my loving wife, Shadah, my children Azlin, Hafidz, Azhar and their respective families, Norman, Kimie, Qaty, Nabil, Sara Ayesha and little Naqib. They are the inspiration and also the subject for many of the postings in my blog Rainbow

Acknowledgement

Pearls That Shine is a compilation of postings of poetry and prose from my blog Rainbow for the early months of 2013. I had earlier started blogging through birdhouse with writings in prose from June 2008

I wish to thank my family for their patience, tolerance and support in helping me to remember events and places in the course of my writings through the years. My thanks are also extended to my blogging friends who keep me company namely, eminent author and poet Ninotaziz and Akhi Norzah together with Pakcik Hassan, abdulhalimshah and Zam.

Last but not least to Jo and his team in Partridge for their untiring efforts in making Pearls That Shine a reality.

Introduction

My blogging days in Rainbow started with my responses to prompts from other poets who dedicated themselves to creating prompts on a regular basis. Invariably one can write a poem everyday as there are always prompts to goad us on.

Parts:

The writings in Pearls That Shine are organized into 5 parts according to their forms. A major portion is in the form of Free Verse and Haiku. Then Limericks, Micro Fiction but these are of a lesser number. The last part grouped under Forms for All are the rare ones of various forms but of a few postings.

Images:

Many of the poems have notations of images but there are no images accompanying them. The images are there in the blog postings in Rainbow but are deleted in the book for want of space. All pictures are either from Hank’s collection or sourced from family members and friends. There are no images downloaded from the internet. All sketches and drawings are done by Hank himself or from Norman, Hank’s talented grandson.

Prompts:

There is also a notation on prompts at the bottom of the page for some but none for others. In blogosphere one can google for background knowledge. But in Pearls That Shine this is not possible. The notations will therefore help to put some light into the background relevant in the poems. There are no notations if they are straight forward cases.

Part I

Free Verse

Free verse is close to normal speech. It is prose broken up with line breaks instead of punctuations and paragraphing. There is a tendency in contemporary poetry to use shorter lines

Sunday, January 6, 2013

A Debutante

A debutante so alluring

Making an appearance

Susceptible to wild trivia

But unflinching by nature

Obliquely not connecting

Engaging rather shyly

Under extreme provocation

Where have the good guys gone?

Oblivious of hungry looks

Advancing cautiously

Amidst prying eyes

Stepping gingerly forward

With a come hither stance

Gliding with guarded precision

A lady for the offering

Sensuously intense

But where have all the good guys gone?

Thursday, January 10, 2013

Patience

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-0pjTubqAfRA/UO-FG9vwD0I/AAAAAAAAFf8/vwS9PZpepUQ/s320/IMG_1883.JPG

Attribution: Hank’s Collections

Image: Hank with a whopper

It was late afternoon. The heat of

the day still beating down on us. The

sea was calm. The sky was clear in

bluish hues with white clouds drifting

leisurely by. It looked to be so inviting.

The beach was filled with the shrieks

and laughter of youngsters stragglers

from the crowd barely minutes ago

It would be quiet shortly with dusk

approaching.

We put out to sea in the middle of

the night. The heavens above was

full of twinkling stars. A slight sea

breeze playfully rocked the boat

a little.

We shone the torch-lights into the

crystal clear waters. That was one

way to attract the squids to the

surface which were scooped up

as bait

Light waves kept lapping the sides

of the boat to a regular rhythm.

It rocked us in time preventing

us from having a shut-eye.

The night was uneventful with

just small bites. The regular rocking

was a bother. It was frustrating

and the night was long

The break of dawn was the clincher.

Bites galore, what a whopper!

Night fishing was a test of