Beside the River the Fisherman Left Behind

Between the reeds—
between the reeds,
the wind poured out its breath
and was no more.

A future bent in longing,
its spine cracked,
its back bowed low—

like time grown brittle,
time thinned to ash
by indifference.

The mother returned
after five thousand years,
her breath folded down,
buried deep
beneath the frozen soil—
a name carved in frost,
where silence still remembers.

The Tower of Babel lies fallen—
its rubble the confusion of tongues
still binding humankind.

One sound slipped away.
One sound—
between the reeds,
between the reeds,
by the river’s edge—
and the fisherman searched,
and still he searches.

[Wind Series – Part 1]

• Original text written in Korean.

© TaeHun Yoon, Early Spring in 1969 Original text written in Korean.As begins study in the Seminary