Three poems from Alaska
By Choi Yearn-hong
Alaska
American people rushed to Alaska to find gold.
Whales swam into Alaska to find their cozy summer house.
Salmon set their hometown in Alaska’s cold creek water.
I found my blue solitude in Alaska’s Glacier Bay.
Salmon
Salmon travelled the Pacific Ocean for seven years
In order to return to their hometown.
I travelled the world for 50 years
In order to find my hometown.
We shared a couple things in common:
One was the clean-water creek hometown
And the other was the vast ocean and the world.
Oh, one more:
We were seafarer and wayfarer.
Salmon escaped and avoided brown bear’s sharp and brutal teeth and toes
On the way to the sea,
Huge fishing ship’s widest net in the sea,
Killer whale’s very big mouth,
And eagles waiting for their home coming.
Homecoming is always touch and rough
Through life span.
I overcame penniless poverty, cultural and language barriers, racial bias
And prejudice in the world,
And returned to the hometown.
What sustained our lives had been our common desire to survive
And return to the hometown safely.
That was victorious and glorious to both of us.
My ancestor could come from the salmon family
Or I will be a salmon after this life.
At the Glacier Bay
The waters are cold and blue;
The mountains are modestly high and steep.
The clouds are always hanging on the waistline of the mountains.
The whales, sea lions and sea otters are the living things
On and under the waters.
The sound and sight of the iceberg falling into the waters
Awaken my sleepy conscience,
Making the solitude so deep.
The glaciers are crying for their disappearances
From the Earth,
From the Glacier Bay in Alaska.
The poet can be reached at yearnhchoi@gmail.com