john tiong chunghoo Biography

my enlightenment haiku --

ganges/
my first bath/
her last/

saw four sons washing their mom in a winter ganga years ago.


spring rain
under my feet
melting snow


This haiku poet is one of few to have won top prizes in traditional haiku, senryu, futuristic and free form haiku.

Thank you for visiting this page. John is known more as a haiku poet though he is as passionate in writing other forms of poetry and equally good at them.

His poems have been used by universities, colleges and schools in various parts of the world. Some have also been used for the internationally recognised GCE and the American International Baccalaureate Diploma examinations.

John has been published by the Oxford University Press, Oxford University Campus Poetry Magazines, Marshall Cavendish Education Singapore, Yomiuri Shinbun, Mainichi Shinbun, Asahi Shinbun, World Haiku Review, the Times of India and many other online magazines and journals.

The universities that have used John's poems for various arts and english programs/modules/courses include the University of Chicago, University of Southern California, University of Virginia, University at Buffalo, University of Texas, San Diego State University, Padang State University Indonesia, the Makerere University which is the the oldest university in Uganda, Batangas State University in the Philippines etc.

John's poems have also been used in Christian newsletter/journal/sermon in the United States and Canada.

You can take work here to use as course material, examination purposes, include in your city's newspapers, campus magazines, poetry magazines, personal blogs or read them on radio, television, poetry workshop and poetry slam but please credit any work used.


I have written many many poems including the real bad ones but without having written the bad ones, i wouldn't have arrived at the good ones.

HAPPY READING EVERYBODY! ! !

signature poems -

young women, old women
in their heart
despite the years
the yearning to be beautiful

young women, old women
they look at each other
one with envy
the other with fear and contempt of the wrinkles, old age

young women, old women
they look into each other
one for a mother
the other for a daughter

Dreams

hold on to your dream
it sweetens all your nights
brightens up your days
because dream is a compass
that shows only one aspired direction -
success, success and more success

Ulek Mayang
TO UNDERSTAND BETTER THE POEM PLEASE WATCH AND READ THE FOLLOWING:
https: //www.youtube.com/watch? v=lzRuFOwaUx0, https: //en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ulek_mayang

seven leaves
swept asunder in
a tumultuous
and roaring wave

a sea of longing
is played, replayed
this emptiness of night

the moon and sea are
a pair of star crossed lovers
in a futile grasp of reality

they hold onto the flickers
of thoughts in each other's
bosom; an unrequited
love swept in a luminuous
tide of make-believe - -

the moon reposes in a sea
of hope, the sea lets its fate
be guided by the light - - it holds
onto the tail of the moon in
a dance of grief that has
for so long crossed their way

the leaves grovel in
a churning wheel of fate
under the gentle glow of lace
spun by the moon

they are taken out to sea
again and again in a ferocious tide
that whispers, whistles, sighs and roars
to broadcast a destiny
torn and swept in separate ways - -
never to be seen again

john tiong chunghoo

Reading Pleasure

words take up the space
in the quiet of his mind
images sprout like whispers
a heart is stirred like the
rustle of bamboo leaves
in a garden of solitude
the writer is a world away
as we walk the lanes of
reality and dream admiring the
flowers and fruits of knowledge
taking the curves of alphabets

GARDEN OF EDEN -

what is this body
but the Garden of Eden
and the senses, God's apples
enjoy all, except the tree
of knowledge and death
dont be the master of
things beyond you
dont eat that apple
this body is not yours
Listen listen
let's the spirit run
without doubting its sustenance
there...is eternal life
there is the tree of life
there is....the Almighty

STOPPING BY THE WOODS ON A SNOWY EVENING

a squirrel runs across
frosty evening on a plain
of white carrying a cosy
warmth i would love to have
light greyish coat impeecably
patched and stitched for the season

time runs across space
mindless as a clock which
has forgotten to crawl

everywhere the trees
gently whisper sweet nothings
and cavort away the evening
baring skeletons and bones
to the heavens to swear their love

snow falls like mannas
onto a million stretched hands
that grovel to receive every
trace of divine providence

breathless, breathless
the white glides and bounces
in an evening that holds onto
everything like forgotten time

snow falls like mannas
onto a million stretched hands
that grovel to receive every
trace of divine providence

breathless, breathless
the white glides and bounces
in an evening that holds onto
everything like forgotten time

john tiong chunghoo

john tiong chunghoo Popular Poems
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