For more than three years,
      I labored on this my poetry column,
      pouring out my heart to you -
      everything and anything that have touched me,
      from the ridiculous to the sublime;
      from the tragic to larger than life;
      from idle thoughts to deep contemplation;
      from art to fashion;
      from home to outer space;
      from statesmen to supermen to ordinary souls who have made a difference to our lives...

      For more than three years,
      I have given you my best,
      laughing and crying with you -
      I have celebrated lives regardless of race or creed,
      and wept for the deprived and the abused;
      I have paid tribute to those who have given us hope and admonished the vicious and the wicked who have fouled the air we breathe in.
      I mocked the bizarre and the burlesque,
      wrote on scandals caught on tape,
      and lamented all those young lives
      lost only too soon.

      For more than three years,
      I have been in there,
      and I have been in there for too long -
      I need to go and open the door.
      Yes, I need to go and open the door,
      just to see if there is a rose, or a tree, 
      or a garden on the other side...
      I just need to go and see,
      even if there is only a veil of darkness,
      or the echo of the wind,
      or nothing at all,
      yet I need to venture out and experience for myself.
      There are so many new challenges yet to conquer.
      There are dreams to dream and hopes to hope.
      There are stars to embrace,
      fires to kindle and wonders to marvel at.
      I want to fill my soul
      with awe and beauty -
      I want to look for that golden ladder that I might climb up to the heavens...
      And so,
      this is the time to take leave and say goodbye for newer paths.
      For all good things must come to an end,
      just like when we enjoy the warmth of the sun,
      we know it will soon fade beneath the horizon.
      Yes, good things have their comes and goes,
      just as we see the most beautiful flower that too must wither and that it is then when we will find it the sweetest,
      that we know for sure that the end of something good today just means that something better might come tomorrow,
      and we shall be looking for that rainbow in the full glory of their colours.
      So goodbye for now, my friends,
      I promise I will come back somehow.
      Farewell, my friends,
      you whom I have never met but you who must have known me a little by now.
      Fare thee well, my dear friends,
      I will return to you somehow.
      I hope some of my rhymes will be in your memories and when you perchance remember a line or two and think of me,
      I will be there for you.
      Farewell for now, 
      I will someday fulfill that vow,
      I don't know when, but I think we will meet again sooner than we think.
      And before we do,
      may you always have walls for the winds,
      a roof for the rain,
      tea beside your TV set,
      laughter to cheer you,
      those you love near you
      and what you desire most in your heart.
      This is really the best parting for such a humble beginning.
      Some of my poems may not rhyme to your tune,
      nor start or end in the way you wish,
      let's just accept that nothing is perfect,
      and life is about not knowing,
      having to change,
      taking the moment and making the best of it, 
      without knowing what's going to happen next...
      So adieu,  
      my friends,
      parting is never easy and I am so grateful to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard.
      Goodbye once again and fare thee well.
      Please remember,
      goodbyes are not forever,
      goodbyes are not the end;
      they simply mean I'll miss you,
      til we meet again...

      labored: 勞動   ridiculous: 荒謬的   sublime: 崇高的   tragic: 悲慘的   celebrated: 表揚   creed: 信條、教義   
      deprived: 被剝奪的   tribute: 感謝辭   admonished: 告誡   vicious: 惡毒的   lamented: 哀嘆   perchance: 或許   adieu: 再見