You Are Not Alone and Other Poems

You Are Not Alone (2019)

Of being sufficient in aloneness

Dark veil wraps the inadequate soul

A pang of void, a chill shiver of solitary

The silence deafens with no one breathing

I make others laugh

Why can’t I make myself laugh

Even when I’m by myself?

Who is to say I can’t dance by myself?

Or twirl in delight at the sound of my own rhythm?

Why have I left the door open for

Someone else to step into and fill

When I am the best fit

Those are lies.

These are lies -

You are inadequate

You are alone

These are truths -

You are adequate

You are enough

You are loved

You are whole

You are capable of love

You are capable of joy

You are lovable

You are sufficient

You are never alone.

-Angeline Tan, Feb 17, 2019

A girl in Madrid, Spain. April 2018.

Picture credit and rights: Angeline Tan

Fields of Gold (2012)

Of the dance of nature

The expanse over the horizon stretches endlessly

across the canvas of blue sky

Fields of gold bloom and beckon under a tropical sun

Swirling gaily in their stalks

Tossing fine chaffs of hair

Laughing gleefully

As wind waltzes through a fine carpet of wheat

Slapping high five with golden friends.

She twirls around without a care in the world,

Her hair falls, long and flowy, on her shoulders.

-Angeline Tan, May 23, 2012

White Mountain in California. August 2017.

Picture credit and rights: Angeline Tan

Tis’ Not Mine (2009)

Of lost love

Many a splendid thing - not all are mine to possess

Great a blessing, the little that I have

Many a years between

Many a miles apart

Many a paths crossed

Though none between the two

Many a friends made

Many a joy had

Many an adventure rode

Though none shares the two

Many a beautiful thing - we have been blessed

Our halves our greatest possession, everything that we have

-Angeline Tan, Mar 17, 2009

A blurred couple walking in Brighton, England. September 2018.

Picture credit and rights: Angeline Tan