And yet another installment: Sparks

What is it for, this little spark we have

Flickering in the wide cold dark
In the vast universe, too large for comprehension
Empty, burning, frozen too
Over space and space again
Time and time again.
And these little lights burn


So small, so fragile
These little lights are
They may end at a moment
Never to be seen again
Their color unique
In every sense of that word
And yet of all the same matter
Tomorrow you die, they say
Expecting some far off day
Not realizing that tomorrow could be
Tomorrow. Or even today.


Watch as it dims without fuel
That little light of mind
The spark weakens as it loses itself in false worlds
Worlds created for its comfort
To make it feel important
To make it feel like meaning exists
Must exist
And that it is simple, small
As if this little light were in a room
And all there were was this room
Small enough that it's light reached every corner.
Is it any wonder that the dimmer the light, the smaller the room must be?
So there be no dark corners, no answers to seek, no mystery?

The space beyond this gilded, painted room
The real
Is cold and dark. One might be tempted to believe
That it is cold and dark and there is no light
But we must remember what we are, we sparks
We ARE the light

Bring the sparks closer together.
Watch as they grow in brightness
Watch as they grow in warmth
These special little points of light
Seeking shelter with themselves from the cold night
And they can look out
From their warmth
And see the real, see it again from calm, unfrightened eyes
And see that it is beautiful, and moving, and frightening, and exciting
But most of all: REAL.

Poetry Post! #1

I promised myself I would write a poem every day this summer, and write my novel. So, to add to the incentive, I will post whatever I have at the time, embarrassing, unfinished, or otherwise. Wheeee! Here is the first one I will post, the first one of the ones I wrote here at work:

Excuse me
pardon me
I'm sorry to bother you but
I don't mean to be a nuissance but
I just wanted to say
I just needed to say
If you don't mind
If it is not too much trouble
And I don't want to make you feel uncomfortable but
And I know that you probably will think I'm crazy, but
I just wanted you to know
I just wanted to show
Without ruining what we have
Without making this awkward
I just had to get this of my chest
I just needed to get this out
I just really wanted to shout
And I know what you might say
I know what you're probably thinking
But I would really appreciate if you'd oblige
Just a little bit of a consolation
I know this might make me seem complainy
But please remove your knife from my skull
(My shirt is getting quite brainy)

Wow, I fail so hard. I am going to try to start posting my writing on here now, just because having fodder for the blogging might help me keep going. But First! I took a trip down to Pyeongtaek a few weeks ago for the annual teacher trip (yay!) I was late, so my day started a bit crappily, but soon we were on the road, drinking beer and soju. Man koreans know how to drink.

First we visited a couple of temples:

Then after spending a drunken night at a ski resort, we woke up at 730am and went out to some Lee Hyeong Seok's birthplace. He is most famous for this short story: The Buckwheat Blossoms. The area we were in was famous for the buckwheat, so we took pictures in fields and ate at a buckwheat specialty restaurant. But the best part was stopping by this art center off the side of the road by a buckwheat field.