Autumn Leaves

Autumn Leaves


Low sun angle, shorter days and cool nights
Slow chlorophyll production, which made leaves green

As green fades,
Yellow, orange, red and brown colors show thorough
An orchestra of colors

The tree eventually cuts the ties between branch and leaf

Then, heavy rain and wind can strip leaves from trees,
Cutting the display short and
Covering my trails in the woods

Winter is nearby and first snow is ready to fall

By Yearn Hong Choi

Girl with Umbrella



Girl with Umbrella

Waiting for a bus at the bus stop,
a beautiful girl with an umbrella came to me and
shared her umbrella with me.
Could you imagine a man dancing under the rain
in the street with such a beautiful girl?

I returned to my home country after thirty-some years of foreign life,
and visited my old teacher at the end of the street
in that autumn morning in Seoul.
The rain was making me nostalgic and melancholic.
I did not care whether my thoughts were getting wet.

Suddenly, I was standing under a rainbow arch,
but the girl with the umbrella did not read what was on my mind.
She did not know the waterfalls upon my thoughts.
Fifteen or twenty minutes later, the bus took us to Shinchon Metro Station,
and we were heading to our separate destinations.

She looked at me, then head bent, bowed to me.
She waved and backed away.
I smiled at her. I was standing there for a while.
She did not know what was on my mind;
She did not see the rainbow in the autumn morning
and the waterfalls.
She passed by me in little curtsy motions.

She became a young, beautiful woman;
Ever since then she became my home country.

The Arizona Desert

 

 

 

The Arizona Desert

even at high noon

i cannot face this barren field:

the sun, which cremated the dead

and left only white bones,

is still bright as the Inca's

there a crow spreads his wings--

his wings really black

and his beak really red

cactus endured a long dry year

with scarce summer showers;

birds and chipmunks build their homes inside

indians make jellies

from the cautus flowers

and God happily lays out a silver mine

under this cactus field

In the New Mexico Desert

 

 

 

 

In the New Mexico Desert

a big shadow of two wings

on my way

proves

there are living things

on this empty land

yes, a strange river may flow

on the horizon

and

an indian village may be there

fortunately,

evening comes very slowly

and

light from a far village

comforts me

like a star's

now real thick darkness creeps

into the desert

but the sky is still blue

as in the sea

God draws a line

where the sky is meeting the desert,

as a carpenter

i wonder whether he is an indian

The Kiss

 

 

 

The Kiss

By Yearn Hong Choi

 

The first love led to the first kiss.

Or the first kiss led to the first love.

I don’t know.

No one taught me how to kiss.

But I naturally kissed a young beautiful woman

After so many love letters.

Inside the kisses, I discovered the deepest valley under the sea.

We fell on the comfortable softness in the valley.

I never wanted to get out of the wonderful valley bed.

 Tender  F

               A

                L

                 L

                   I

                     N

                       G

Into the bottom of the sea.

 

The first kiss opens a new universe  to young lovers,

Giving off a mystic soft, nostalgic glow.  Always.