the adroitly placed word 

a multi-decade project

Press here for accompaniment music.

is a former Korean Army Lieutenant and a retired academic living in the semiarid part of Colorado.  His poems appeared in East and West, Quill and Ink, Subtle Tea, Dissident Editions, Snakeskin, Poetry Magazine, Spillway Review, Strange Road, New Graffiti, Sage of Consciousness and others. His music compositions appeared in Mad Hatters Review, Sage of Consciousness, Strange Road and Unlikely Stories.
 

Music:  A Place Called Christmas Hill (A War Memorial), composed and copyright, 2004, by Suchoon Mo

An Old soldier

an old soldier
does not sing

his heart is the grave
where his song lies

in silence
never forgotten

                                                      *previously appeared in The Surface, 2004



I Climbed The Granite Mountain

I was climbing the granite mountain
The freezing wind and shell craters
I scaled the near vertical slope
A 5-gallon can of water on my back
For those upon the ridge

No tear but sweat in my eye
No fear but pounding in my heart
Just watchful of each foot hold
Just careful about each loose rock
One slow step at a time

When would the enemy fire mortar shells?
Would they come screeching and land near me?
Would I roll down with a shrapnel in my guts?
Each question was a blurred fairy tale
Unspoken with each laboring breath

I kept climbing the granite mountain
A 5-gallon can of water on my back

                                        *previously appeared in Above Ground Testing, 2005



In An Abandoned Temple

I come here to pray
in an abandoned temple
seekers are long gone

the road stops here
no reason to look back

on a dusty stool
a fly is still and serene
a shaft of sun light

I sit by the fly
just two of us

the end of the long road
why am I holding a gun
aiming at nothing?

I seek no answer
there is no need

no end to turmoil
being awake in silence
stench of the temple

life and death are alike
soul is empty

a grave yard outside
flowers and grass are all dead
so are the tomb stones

here I am to stay
and rest

                                               *previously appeared in Taj Mahal Review, 2006




My Lone Shooting Star

my shooting star
a lone shooting star
of the stillness of night
have you come
or are you gone?        

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