Autumn Woods < by yearn choi > - poetry and art

Autumn Woods

I have never walked in this bright and clean trail;

I am now discovering the wonder of November

In the woods.

Trees are writing hieroglyphic characters

With their naked branches, and composing

A beautiful poem with disclosed nests

By birds and squirrels

High in the sky.

          

I have not walked this space before,

Even though I walked along this trail

From Spring to autumn.

In the Autumn Woods < by yearn choi > - poetry and art

In the Autumn Woods








When autumn is going deep,


The woods is going to lose green


And turn to yellow, red and brown.


Fish disappear, and


Turtles will disappear in a couple of days.


Squirrels and deer are changing into black.


Birds hidden behind the changing colors of leaves


Are coming down to earth.


The lake inside the woods is making waves


Along the northwest wind.


Wild geese are forming a V-format in the grey sky.


No one is making noise.


Everybody is quiet.

Post Office < by yearn choi > - poetry and art

Post Office

Written messages are coming to here and

Going out of here to there: this is the international house

Where the young man and young woman meet.

The young man’s first love letter is crossing the ocean and

The mountains to reach a girl in foreign land;

When she opens the letter, it becomes a poem.

A 90-cent stamp can go very far to the end of the Earth:

Isn’t this a miracle in this expensive world?

A fantastic travel containing the feeling of love,

Crossing the national boundary line and cultural conflict line

Generates understanding and peace between the two people.

We are the one.

This message is always and must be beautiful and glorious

As if Spring rain falling into the harbor of the South Sea,

……even at this moment.

dokdo - poetry and art

Dokdo

My heart was pounding hard

When my boat was approaching the three-peak island.

The island could be seen as an island from one angle,

So that the island was called by the name of Three-Peak Island

By Chosun fishermen.

Once the island was occupied by many seals,

Its name was changed into Gaji Island.

Gaji means seals.

Another name was Rock Island,

Simply because it was a rock island.

The Chosun Kingdom’s fishermen changed the name of the island,

But they are the same island you know Dokdo today.

Japan claimed that it was its own island in the 20th century,

Because it was no-man’s island.

It was no-man’s island,

Because no one could live in that island.

It was an island of the Woosan Tribal Kingdom

Which was part of the Silla Kingdom in the 5th century.

Don’t try to steal someone’s territory!

It has been the island belonging to Korea from pre-historic time.

My heart is pounding

When the island comes into my sight.

A Star < by yearn choi > -- poetry and art

A Star

I named the star most sparkling in the Milky Way

With your name,

After complete darkness creeps into my village.

The winter night is the cradle of my dream.

All nights from Spring to autumn did not present

Such a sparking crystal beauty to me.

I climb up the mountain in order to see you closely.

The star comes into my dream,

When everybody sleeps,

The most beautiful star comes into the poet’s dream

That may never return to the Milky Way.

Annapolis

                Annapolis




                               I fall in love,


                              A small city on seaside,


                              More exactly on bayside


                              On the way to the ocean.


                              It is not exactly a city;


                              It is rather a town


                              Of the 18th century town planning


                              In which the church is located at the center.


                              More than that,


                              It is a garden with the waters and yacht.


                             Annapolis,


                             A lovely name comparable to a young lover’s name:


                             Spring is beautiful with white and pink magnolia;


                             Summer is vital blue with crab swimming on the surface


                            Of water;


                            Autumn is melancholic with changing colors; and


                            Winter is snow covered garden once in a while.






                            I discover the town


                            On the way to discovering American history—


                            The English subject sailed the Atlantic,


                            The Chesapeake Bay,


                            And settled down at a placid bay area.


                            I love the town of historic preservation of


                            Of narrow roads and cobblestone streets


                            On the waterfront


                            In between the river and the ocean.


                             I love the crab and oyster harvested from


                            The best fishing ground


                            Of the Earth.

From the Idaho Potato Field

From the Idaho Potato Field




Idaho’s green field had small white flowers and pink flowers in July.

The harvest of potatoes is expected in September or October.

Sprinklers on the green field were making a rainbow against the sunset.



Grandmother who harvested potatoes in July came from her country house

To my city house with a bushel of her first harvested potatoes on her head

Along the 10-mile new unpaved highway.

All the potatoes that did not have any scars from the hoe were for me,

Her grandson who loved to eat potatoes.



Looking over the green field with small white flowers,

I saw my grandma who was walking from Oesachon to Chongup

With a bushel of potatoes on her head.

She was a white butterfly, or the white flower.

Tears streamed from my eyes to my cheeks.



“Grandson, are you still showing tears?”

She wiped my tears with her handkerchief.

“You are now 65.”