february collection

slide show

climate chaos

The climate is rapidly changing.
The science warned us we must change our ways.
Bigger terrible storms and floods bring devastation.
Deeper terrible droughts bring starvation.

It’s chaos out there.
Fly away, enjoy life, deny the obvious
Riding a contrail fouling the sky.
That’s the message we get.

The science of facts is the opposite of beliefs.
Yet this might as well be an old time prophet ignored
Calling to deaf ears that the end is near.
We need a mass awakening to begin the change.

Yes, we all make our individual choices
And fairness, thrift and making a better future
Are good personal values to sustain us.
But we need a government that will lead us there

Not this government run by big business
Convincing us to consume more and more
Exhalting the rich denigrating the poor
Maintaining the status quo.

holding hands

We are living together now
As two people in love do.
Your sweet smile and bright eyes,
Your gentle touch, your kind words,
You’re so good to me and for me.
Every day I am glad we are together.

lunar new year in Korea

Imagine a feast table set with 4 rows of foods
Two place settings served, one for male and one for female,
A written message in Chinese characters on a paper beside this,
And a lower table with liquor and 3 incense sticks in a rice bowl.

Imagine the door is open
And you bow two-and-a-half times to the unseen guests
And stand there ten or fifteen minutes or longer with your family,
Waiting for the ancestors to partake.

Later their food is put outside,
You serve yourself at another table,
You talk among yourselves of the ancestors
And finally you eat this feast meal.

The table is set very early in the morning.
The ceremony takes several hours and then repeats,
First in the home of the husband’s family,
Then later in the home of the wife’s family.

The husband sets the table with the food:
A row of fruit, a row of poached sliced fish with egg,
A row of japche noodles with meat and vegetables,
And a row with rice cakes and meat soup stew.

This is the way of the Korean people
To celebrate the lunar new year
As explained to me when I asked
How the Song family observes this day.