Rejoicing

Rejoicing

An Easter Poem

By May K.

Come laugh with me! Oh laugh!

Come sing with me! Let’s sing!

Singing is too weak so let us dance!

Oh what joyful news we bring!

The tomb is open! Open!

The stone has been rolled away!

Night has ended, the sun has risen!

Our God has won the day!

Ha! Oh how can I not laugh?

Even my weeps of joy seem to sing

The Evil ones danced yesterday

But look! Look! The light now rings!

He lives! He lives! He lives forevermore!

The darkness has fallen away

The day shines new, it shines forever

Oh blessings on this day!

Come run with me! Come Run!

For nothing can contain our joy!

Run to him! Let’s go meet him!

The reason for our joy!

The time of waiting is over!

The night is over. Silence has passed

The world now sings in an endless laughter

What a glorious thing has come to pass!

Death’s blade has been broken

The grave is forever no more

We thought He had fallen. Not so

He reigns forever more!

So let the light overflow this day!

Come! Now all is new

He lives! He’s won! He’s saved us all!

Oh praise the Lord, it is true!

Forever and ever will we remember

These past days shall be forever retold

How he came to save and died to live

Oh to our Lord let us sing an ode!

Amazing Grace! Amazing Grace!

A victory by his blood won!

He lives! He breathes! The darkness flees!

The work is finished! It is done!

Ever a remembrance. Ever a celebration

Ever a reason for great joy!

Whatever trials, whatever temptations

This certainty we shall forever enjoy!

So laugh with me! Come laugh!

Sing with me! Oh sing!

Dance with me. Oh dance with me!

It is the day of rejoicing!

Happy Easter!

Copyright © 2024 by Kwek Yi Zhen

Waiting

Waiting

A Holy Saturday Poem

By May K.

Waiting. I am still waiting

Waiting and waiting still

For what exactly? I do not know

But I’ll keep waiting still

Light of lights has fallen

They say darkness will now reign

Somehow the world seems a shadow

And waiting is a silent pain

That aches, that burns, that slumbers not

Long it makes the hours

Yet we must wait. Wait!

Victory will yet be ours

There was a promise he made before he died

But now I cannot remember

Why does it seem important though?

Is Death not forever?

Light of lights. Light of lights

Into the darkness did descend

No. No, it cannot be

This is not the end!

So wait. Wait. Keep waiting still

Waiting is the hardest thing

To keep hoping, to keep believing

In whatever the Lord will bring

When there is naught but silence

Naught. Indeed, nothing

Good is quiet while Evil dances

With victory drunk it sings

It seems the world has ended

Even before it has begun

Whipped, killed, crucified

Oh! They killed God’s son!

But no! No! I’ll keep waiting

Waiting and waiting still

Despair will take all it can

But my hope it never will

So wait, somehow, wait

Another minute, an hour, a day

Wait! Give me strength to wait!

Are the words with which I pray

For darkness cannot vanquish the light

Though, really, it seems we lost

I am freed. I am redeemed

But oh! At what a cost!

Please. Please. Please

Let us wait not in vain

Give us strength for this agony

Near drives us insane

Hope is coming! It is coming!

But I don’t know yet when or how

It’s not the end! I don’t believe it

But victory? How?

Never mind. Time answers all things

My task is simply to wait

Wait for an answer, wait for a moment

Wait for the truth?

I will wait.

Copyright © 2024 by Kwek Yi Zhen

Darkness Falls

 Darkness Falls

A Good Friday Poem

By May K.

I am nothing. Worthless
Not even worth a thought
Or a tear, or a moment
But that’s all I’ve ever sought

Did I perhaps sense the gulf?
The heartbreak? The isolation?
That though without memory, my heart knew
Something dearly precious had broken?

Leaving a great sorrow, a stain of pain
A black so black it overwhelms the white
That can’t be removed, that can’t be fixed
That just can’t be set right

I can almost see it
That whiteness turned to black
Not only see it but feel it
What’s lost cannot be gotten back

For we’re nothing. Nothing.
A man’s life is but a breath
The wind blows and it passes
And then there is nothing left

So how can this be repaired?
Who would bother? Who would care?
Evil ones even laugh and chuckle
Then mock and hurt with their stares

But before my very eyes
I watch as the black fades away
With a drop of red, too vivid to bear
It turns as light as day

I look up and behold
A sight too terrible to see
My Lord bleeding to his death
To fix the brokenness in me

Drop by drop, pain by pain
What was broken is renewed
Remade, reformed, not just white but bright
Into something we never knew

And I hear a voice say from above
‘Come home! Come home to me!’
Then to my Lord it says alas!
‘For her wrongs I punish thee’

Drop by drop, pain by pain
The blood continues to flow
I fall to my knees, tears fill my eyes
Oh Sorrow. Sorrow!

For only his blood could return to white
That black blacker than night
For a mere breath, for a mere nothing
My Lord hangs there, crucified

His life ebbing away with every drop
Wretchedness in his every breath
Pain – It ought to be mine! – Pain!
Until the moment of his death

His last words are ‘It’s finished!”
And the Enemy laughs in glee
And I find that blackness gone entirely
At long last, I am free

But he is gone. He has paid
His life for a mere nothing, for mine
But it’s no longer worthless, not anymore
His blood now flows in mine

I was broken but now restored
Lost and alone but now found
Even so, the Enemy still declares
That it has won this time round

But a white whiter than white
And brighter than the brightest light
Has now descended into the darkness of hell
Does the Enemy think it’s right?

No, I’ll wait. I’ll wait
I’ll wait and wait some more
Hope is not lost. It’s just beginning
And I shall see the darkness fall

Copyright © 2024 by Kwek Yi Zhen

Christmas 2020

 Christmas 2020

By May K

Empty chairs and vacant halls

Lonely streets and quiet malls

Christmas is here, the façade's the same

But oh everything seems so changed

Absence and echoes where there were none before

Missing footprints on the snow fall

A screen on a phone for a smile to our face

A meal alone instead of a gathering place

Oh where's the Christmas heart and cheer?

Where’s the spirit that rejoices the year?

Where's the laughter? The joy? The fun?

Where's the promise? Where's the Son?

Sometimes it feels to ask in vain

In the silent tomb of pain

Sometimes it feels like empty space

Is all the fills this gathering place

Yet as the lone meal is set

I hear a voice saying, “Don’t forget!”

And somehow it seems to me

This place isn’t quite so empty

For a promise has filled the void

A remembrance I can’t avoid

Of times now past, of times to be

That our now is not eternity

And at the table, across time and space

I see into that eternal place

Where all are gathered together as one

To celebrate the birth of the Son

I see them there, our family

Unbroken by sorrow or misery

Cheers and laughter with glasses raised

The air singing with songs of praise

A promise, a remembrance, as the vision fades

And before me the lone meal is laid

For though this moment we must be strong

It’s to that hope that we belong

So as I sit alone, I’ll pray

And say thanks for this Christmas day

For that promise to which I hold on

And Thank God for my savior was born

Merry Christmas, Everyone. Still. 

Copyright © 2020 by Kwek Yi Zhen

The Chair beneath the Tree

The Chair beneath the Tree

By May K.

How forlorn that chair is

Resting there on its own

How sad and grim it is

That companionable seat, alone

There ought to be a soul there

Content beneath the tree

Where with the souls of nature

It could be set free

Or perhaps two souls could rest

On that plain old chair

For to talk of pasts and of futures

Requires a charming air

Or maybe three could cast

A lovely and joyful spell

One for the past, one for the present

And one for the future as well

But whatever it is

Leave not this chair alone

For a place meant for others

Should never be on its own

Copyright © 2020 by Kwek Yi Zhen

Hoping and waiting

Hoping and Waiting

By May K

Days come and nights pass

The sun rises and the moon sets

Time flows with terrible consistency

And all is soon! But not yet

Not yet. The time has not come

But who knows when it will?

For how long will I stand by the door

And continue waiting still?

For a sign, for a promise

For a tomorrow I still believe

Will come if I keep on waiting

And grant my heart some relief

For it’s burdened with hope as I stand

Waiting at the door

And until the last second falls

I’ll hope and hope some more

In spite of fears, in spite of doubts

For hope’s a tenacious beast

That has latched onto my heart

With a hold it will not release

But oh it’s trying to wait

To see the sunset and nothing more

To let hope fade and then grow

So I can wait some more

To fall with pain, to sooth with sighs

To stand up with a persistent smile

But I’ve done it for years

What more’s a little while?

So I’ll stand by the door

For lo! Tomorrow’s coming

And so long as it comes

I’ll keep on hoping and waiting

Copyright © 2020 by Kwek Yi Zhen

Castles in the Sky

Castles in the Sky

By May Kwek

I should like to lie in a garden

And look up at the sky

Where the clouds would freely roam

And the gentle birds would fly

I would watch the changing colours

The varying shades of blue

And when the sunset comes

The reds and yellows too

The sun would shine his radiant rays

In bursts of angelic light

The sky would seem a paradise

Singing in glows dreamlike

And I shall watch and I shall see

The clouds and time roll by

And while watching spent a while

Building castles in the sky

Copyright © 2019 by May Kwek