Emeritus Professor Gay Pak Presented a poem at "Lift for Peace: End the Travel Ban to North Korea Conference" on June 23, 2021.
Crossings
By Gary Pak
…I live / Only so I can search for what I lost.
Yun Dong-ju
We have gone on this road before, many times.
There are no blades of grass,
Not a bird to be heard or seen,
Not a star uncovered from the bleakness of midnight's cold.
A wall runs alongside,
Its ragged top too high to look over,
Reminding us of stories of love
Damaged by wind, sun and snow.
The road does not end
But goes on and on
As straight as an artist's line.
Sometimes in the day
We come across a steel gate,
Its long shadows spilling into our path.
When we dare to look through its bars
White light blinds our eyes.
Looking above we see empty blue sky.
We saw a turtle once cross our path
But startled it scuttered under the gate.
Why do we continue to tread down this road?
Our soles have long worn thin,
Yet we trudge on.
And we spin lamentations and excuses
As if it is the only thing
We can do in our lives.
Why do we live to look for what we have lost?
What have we lost?
Is it the singing of our grandmothers?
Is it the bravery of the tiger roaming the mountains?
Do we remember how to fly a kite
On icy winds of a new spring?
We follow the long shadows of the wall
Tread on this road with no blades of grass
With no birds in sight and no stars
To guide our way.
But ever so often,
When the sun is high and sure
When shadows have shrunk
We look above and breathe
In and out
And smile
At the blank blue sky.
