Voices in the Forest 

Regeneration

Listen in English (Sound Cloud)
Listen in Korean (Read by Jin Ting; Sound Cloud)

When its longest limb went wearily to ground
and from the bark and cambium
larvae bubbled up
and red-throated flickers feasted
there, a decision
the willow transforming to meadow
a coat now of moss, drinking meadow earth
and unmown grass
the approach of smallest daisies
with the odd purple-throated petal
marking daisy-time
kept by deep-rooted clocks
we could not say this willow is broken:
in the heartwood, see all that has passed
in the falling, the opening door 

Download the bilingual PDF  (English and Korean)

What Cedars Keep 

Listen in English (Sound Cloud)
Listen in Korean (read by Jin Ting)

This cedar carries everything on its journey
to the sky – the creek that seeps silently from banks
to deep root tips, insects in crevices the nuthatch listens for,
even the metal bones of this tractor. Its trunks swell
and engulf until they share the same body.
It just appears to be still to our quick eyes.
Cedars record entirety in their rings and breakage,
cracks and peelings: the stump perched on a crumbled log,
the brief stories of all who have been near.
Tremors of your footsteps on the forest floor
are felt in every root and mapped,
vibrate up through the newest needles. Your breath
soft as a mist on its bark-skin reverberates along
this body that takes in every encounter, all
that walks, flows, flies, pauses.

Download the English-Korean bilingual PDF

Voices in the Forest