Category: My Poetry & Fiction

Caveat: Random Poem #165

A Daily Poem / Book 1 / My Poetry & Fiction

(Poem #466 on new numbering scheme)

Everyone seated on cushions, around a long table for late night
eating and drinking, a constant slow patter of talk in Korean
that I can't quite understand: the ubiquitous Korean group dinner.
I have decided to write down and publish this ode to the hweh-sik.
What is an ode? You expect me to tell you about bouts of fondness,
share some congenial anecdote. No. I just sit and absorb words.

Caveat: Random Poem #164

A Daily Poem / Book 1 / My Poetry & Fiction

(Poem #465 on new numbering scheme)

sun
shining
down on me
through my window
actually it's
annoying me a lot
so i think i'll pull my shade
and get it out of my eyes now
it's not that i don't like the sun
but well sometimes it gets on my nerves

Caveat: Random Poem #161

A Daily Poem / Book 1 / My Poetry & Fiction

(Poem #462 on new numbering scheme)

A twilight settles like dust on sand,
the sky consumed by lavender,
the clouds slightly soft and vague,
the roar of cars on streets
imperceptible
until you pay
attention:
zooming...
hiss.

Caveat: Random Poem #158

A Daily Poem / Book 1 / My Poetry & Fiction

(Poem #459 on new numbering scheme)

Kay turned, saying, “My birthday was Saturday. Were you aware?”
Next to me, she pushed out from her desk, but not looking at me.
“I didn’t know.” Put my head down, sighed. So she said, “And my sister
died early Sunday. She still knew – in her coma – her deathday
shouldn’t be shared with my birthday.” Suddenly tears were appearing.
“I didn’t plan on this… why am I crying again?” I sat silent.
Gathering scattered cool remnants of calm, she returned to her work.
Just an odd, errant outburst of emotion disturbing smooth water.

Coda. I watched a small orangegold leaf twist, struggle, detach
float and then hang, now suspended against a wide orangegray sky,
held there in place by a wind that was blowing from somewhere quite far.
It was so strange. Maybe life’s endless terminations grant
sweeping perspective on things – if not hope – and so, pulling my eyes
down and away from the spinning dead leaf, in the end I keep walking.

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Caveat: Random Poem #155

A Daily Poem / Banalities & Journaling / Book 1 / Life in Korea / My Poetry & Fiction

(Poem #456 on new numbering scheme)
신의 은총이 없었다면 저도 저렇게 되었을 것이다.

My coworker was sad. Her sister died.
The cancer had declared its wish at last.
The funeral was all the way across
vast Seoul. These Koreans mourn the dead
as they live - with kimchi and alcohol.
The grace of god descended, so we kept
our silences while poking rice with spoons
and fetching bits of food with chopstick-thrusts.
Of course my own unlikely failed demise
was apropos - but felt indulgent too.
I spoke about it with reluctance till
at last we drove back down the Han to home.
The night was cold. It carved heavenly paths;
expressways sought to give us maps of hope.

Caveat: The Lonely Black Cat vs Alligator Zombie

Banalities & Journaling / My Poetry & Fiction / Teaching & Methodology / The Wonders of Work

I gave my ED1-M cohort a task to write a Halloween story. I gave them a prompt paper with a phrase like, "One day, there was a lonely {halloween creature: zombie, vampire, witch, black cat, etc.}." 

Most of them made very interesting stories. I'll post a selection of those, with corrections, soon. But meanwhile, I had several students who failed to make their own stories. Since the next step in the exercise is to memorize their stories for presentation to the class for their month-end test, I had to provide these students with a story to prepare for presentation. So I imitated my students' style and created my own story. Here it is.

One day there was a lonely black cat, named Cat. Cat had no friends, because everyone believed she worked for the town witch, Puckle MacBeth. That wasn't true. Cat only visited the witch because sometimes the witch gave her something to eat. Every day, Cat sat outside the town, wishing someone would be her friend. But that day, everything changed. You see, a giant zombie alligator came to the town. The zombie alligator was very terrible, with big teeth and no brain. It bit the people in the town, and started eating them. Even the other cats in the town were running and hiding, and the witch, Puckle, flew away on her broom. Cat was scared, but she knew she had to do something. She knew alligators liked to eat monkeys. She found a rainbow monkey doll and she put some poison inside the monkey doll. She put the monkey doll out by the road. The zombie alligator came by and saw the monkey. It ate the monkey doll without even slowing down. It went into the town to eat some children. But the poison from the monkey doll was very strong. Soon the zombie alligator was weaving and getting sleepy. It grabbed a small child with its giant mouth and started to chew. But the poison made the alligator stop chewing. Finally, it fell down in the street. It died. Everyone the town was very happy. They were thankful for Cat's smart thinking. The child who the alligator had been about to eat was very grateful. The child became Cat's best friend.

[daily log: walking, 7km]

Caveat: Random Poem #148

A Daily Poem / Book 1 / My Poetry & Fiction

(Poem #449 on new numbering scheme)

“What is appropriate,” she asked, “when all around us the world burns?”

“Well let’s discuss the gold sky’s hues, then, or instead, let’s sing,” I said.

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Caveat: Random Poem #142

A Daily Poem / Book 1 / My Poetry & Fiction

(Poem #443 on new numbering scheme)

Lately the poems are not coming so easily. Epics and haikus are
difficult; weather and sunsets and student behavior become tired.

– some kind of effort at a heroic couplet (dactylic hexameter)
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