Reading Jane Austen

Reading Jane Austen

By May Kwek

I am reading Jane Austen

As I have said above

About riches, marriages

And alliances in the disguise of love

I have heard the characters speak of money

Being the almost literal measure of a man

One with a good income must eventually

Be captured with a wedding band

They talk of balls and fortunes

Of people and not much more

Because back then, it really seems

It was a much smaller world after all

Their idle lives of leisure

Singing, music and dance

With inheritance and all that propriety

Very little seems left to chance

Yet when I look at all their riches

The seemingly idle utopia they enjoy

They feel so miserable deep within

That I think they would do better for some toil

Copyright © 2016 by May Kwek

The Secret Garden

The Secret Garden 

By May Kwek

Hidden away so no one can see

Is a place wild and free

Where the grasses grow everywhere

And the sun shines without a care

Where the Spring bursts out with a leap

There no man can find reason to weep

Where the summer is flowers in full bloom

And night is the beauty of the stars and moon

In there the waters are always clear

And in the wind God seems ever so near

Where the bright blue skies brings laughter to the eyes

And no one shall any reason to sigh

There the ivy creeps on the walls

And the mighty trees stand proud and tall

Where an invalid boy in the face of laughter

Can stand up and say, "I will get better!"

Copyright © 2012 by May Kwek

Books

Books

By May Kwek

There are books on my table

And books on the shelves

There books in the cardboard

And everywhere else

My family read all the time

Especially me

I have a friendship with books

They are my companions you see

They are time machines

That travel through the ages

A ship through which I can travel

And learn without wages

They are an open door

To a brand new world

So though the journeys can be sore

I would forsake it for the world

The words become pictures

And dance in my brain

The stories read quickly

Like a torrential rain

And I can fly away

To the mountains high

And like a bird

 I can touch the sky 

Books bring me to the oceans

They bring to space

And then they return to earth

To where a poor man once laid

They teach me to feel

What others might have felt

For books have a certain magic

To bring me there as well

And so I say 

Books are my friends

For when I am lonely

These adventures they send

Copyright © 2011 by May Kwek