Silver Knife Pendant

Grandmother left us her small wooden chest

containing rice paper, ink stone, and writing brush,

and a small silver knife trinket.

A woman of the last Chosun Kingdom,

She maintained her duty as the only daughter-in-law

of a landed gentry household that she managed with class and dignity

after her husband took a modern educated woman

as a concubine in the city.

She happened to have only one daughter 

and a kind of a son.

She raised one nephew who lost his parents at a young age

and he became the first first-class licensed pilot 

in Korean history,

the first Korean pilot 

who flew through the sky from Japan to Korea 

with his own airplane.

So she taught all of her family members 

not to kill any flying insects,

and she prayed for her nephew's safety 

at the Sunwoonsa Temple nearby.

The silver knife trinket 

and the ladies’ treasure chest

reflecting the spirit of the women of the Chosun era

is now worth more than any million dollar antique treasure.

The knife is supposed to be 

the knife with which she would kill herself

under disgraceful circumstances.

 My Mother 

 

In 1982, she came to my house on the way to visit her younger son in Belgium 

and her daughter in Cameroon. 

During her stay with me, she washed dishes and mowed the lawn. 

I told her dish-washing and lawn mowing were my jobs. 

She told me,  

“I am still healthy. You are working hard at your work. 

So these are my jobs while I am here.” 

Then I said, “Dish-washing was my first American job. 

Now, I like this job in the kitchen.” 

Then, 

Suddenly her tears streamed out from her eyes

“I could never allowed you to step in to my kitchen.  

You are my precious son.” 

I comforted her, “I know you raised me as a prince.” 

During the Thanksgiving Holidays, she knitted my sweater and hat. 

I am still wearing the sweater and the hat on this Thanksgiving 

As has been and the whole winter. 

I believe my mother's sacrifice and love, 

and prayer that sustains my life from here to eternity. 

“Mother, I love you forever.” 

 An Empty Field

Below the Simchon railroad station,

There was a vast field. 

My grandfather planted turnips and cabbages there in the summer.

Several trucks from Taejon hauled the harvest away in the late fall.

The following dawn,

The vacant field was now covered with bright morning frost,

And I stole a glance at the sparkling tears in the eyes of

My grandfather. 

 The woods in the rain

The sound of the raindrops on my umbrella

made music to my ears.

The clear powerful sound of the stream

Flowing into the lake made another note.

Or, I heard possibly the last chorus of the locust, too.

The sound of raindrops on the broad paulownia leaves,

The sound of raindrops on the long machilus leaves,

The silver crystal on the pine needles,

And,

Their Chorus made me happy!

So, the woods always greet me with such a delight.

 Autumn Woods

Falling leaves taught a small bird on the branch 

How to fly to land on the earth, by dancing in the air.

The fallen leaves down on the gentle wave of the water

In the creek scaring the small school of fish, 

And then the fallen leaves taught the fish, 

How to ride the down-streaming to the lake.

I learned the art of falling

As Judo's first lesson in my high school days.

Now, I try to learn how to float, down-streaming,

Peacefully toward the lake.

Photo by Joshua Woroniecki on Unsplash

 In the Woods

I see a blind man walking the trail with a long white cane.

The woods must offer all kinds of pleasures to everyone.

Today, I see a young woman jogging the trail with one normal leg and another artificial.

She smiles when our eyes meet.

God bless them!

I am the last person to be blessed among the three.

Photo by Timothy Dykes on Unsplash

 A Scene in the Woods

He can hide the acorns, no one can find them.

Smart fellow!

When there is an invader, he can find a spot to hide on top of a tree,

In a blink of the eye.

Smart fellow!

He can fly from a branch of one tree to another, 

Quicker than a bird.

Really smart fellow he is!

Wonder if the squirrel is the ancestor of the bird.

Or, the bird is ancestor of squirrel. 

God even gifted a pair of wings to dinosaurs

Did He mean to make all the living thing angels?

And then,

Wonder if He collected all the wings back.

Or, there were too many bad guys trying to fly away. 

When we watch the squirrels flying with no wings

I could be careless of what Darwin said in his theory.

I am just happy.

Smart fellows make my life happier, at times

in my woods.

 

Q and A in the Woods

in one summer morning,

i was standing 

on the bridge over a small stream

to see the water.

a young boy approached me,

asking me how many fish were in the water.

“Well, I did not count the fish, but about ten.”

Then, he started counting,

“one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten!”

“You are right. There are ten fish.”

That was the way my day began and

I was happy with a young boy greeting an old Asian man.

There was no racial discrimination between an old man and

a young American boy in the woods.

I started to count the fish, but they were moving constantly

upstream.

--Yearn Hong Choi

 

Seattle

 

---Honeymoon Haiku

 

 

One full week in poetry reading

and poetry-dance ensemble, every evening

The brunch at the Market Place, and

Seafood dinner at the sea-side restaurant 

Made the best honeymoon

To the bride who loved poetry and dance.

He was a poet.

She was a dancer.

Seattle was his first port of call

On the way to Indiana University in 1968

From Korea as a penniless foreign student.

-- Yearn Hong Choi

Auguste Rodin's The Kiss

I look into your photo once a day.

At least once a day.

Someday, I look it ten times.

You gave me this album, small yet a most precious gift.

in it you are in front of Rodin's sculpture,

the Kiss in the National Gallery of Arts.

Even though all our letters and photos stored in my computer may be erased.

I will still have this small album, pictures you have collected in your first Virginia trip, 

in which the one photo that makes me so happy.

I can breathe when I see you in that breath-taking photo once a day.