Tanka

The conch, now useless

Civilization is lost

No specs and no fire

The power has been shifted

Ralph, hopeless, helpless and lost.

You Can't Have it all

You Can’t Have it All

By: Kun Hee Yeo

But you can have the sweltering bright sun rays of Panama,

Like thousands of light bulbs all merged as one.

You can have the friendly buzz of mosquitoes

Waking you up at 3 A.M, asking for blood donations.

You can have your neighbor’s small dog, barking at every single

Movement you make. And when it is November,

You can have the infinite pouring of water every day. You can have love,

Even though rejection will occur often, like small little earthquakes,

Happening all around the world every day.

You can have the guitar noises of Slash and incredible singing of Axl Rose,

All in the songs from Guns N’ Roses. You can have hopeless “friends”,

Giving $20 to the cashier just for one box of Marlboro Light.

You can insult anyone out loud freely in Korean,

And them making mysterious faces, showing no clue about what we are talking about.

You can visit the grave of your great grandpa,

Ride 100 miles every year for someone you never knew.

You cannot turn invisible, an ability that everyone wants,

But what were you planning to do with it, anyways?

You can always dream,

Go back to your sweet hometown in a second, get millions of crispy green papers with the face of Benjamin Franklin, jump down from a 63 story building and still live, become the king of the world,

Until the disgraceful beep of the alarm clock waking you up at 6 A.M.

You can see your grandpa at least once every three years,

Not knowing when to say “Good Bye” to him.

You can have great friends,

A friend who always corrects you when you make a grammatical error,

A friend who always accompanies you with basketball,

A friend who beats you in math, just by a single point,

And a friend who is always busy with tennis.

You can live in seven different countries,

The sombreros of the Mexicans, bare footed kiwis, dirty Argentine taxi drivers,

And the unique “Que Xopa” from the Panamanians.

You can have the sweet blended banana smoothie from your aunt, the spicy pork ribs only your mom can make, and the mysterious soups with unknown ingredients from your grandma, which you are forced to eat.

There are the voices of your friends strengthening you in clutch situations; they are always there, no matter what. You can’t have it all,

But there is this.

Poetry Notebook

Basketball

Selected by Kun Hee Yeo

Description:

Being one of the most popular sport worldwide, basketball is played all around the world by a lot of people. It is also proven that playing basketball helps growing taller when played at a young age. Basketball is also scientifically proven to increase your agility if played continuously. Here are some poems by veteran basketball players. Some of the poems show about the feeling when playing basketball and others compare basketball actions to other activities.

Synopsis:

My favorite sport is basketball so I decided to make the topic of my collection as basketball. Here are some wonderful poems by veteran poets.

Poems:

• Slam, Dunk, & Hook by Yusef Komunyakaa
• Buzzer Beater by Zack Fick
• Old Men Playing Basketball by B.H.Fairchild
• Ex-Basketball Player by John Updike
• Foul Shots: A Clinic by William Matthews
• Basketball by Zack Fick
• Love of the Game by Josh Underwood
• Chasing Perfection by Zack Fick

Gray Owl-Benjamin Moore-2137-60

By: Kun Hee Yeo

Cold, frigid, and frozen

He sits on the field of

Clear, milky white snow

Bare-foot,

Basic clothes,

Broken down.

Above where he sat,

Was a luminous streetlight

Eating up the darkness

His hopes were

As fragile as a candle light

In the open storm.

He sets up

A rusty tin can,

His only hope.

Revealing

Three shiny copper pennies

His hair

Was turning white

By the settling snowflakes

A man

Stroll pass

The snowy field

As if the boy wasn’t there

Showing no sign of pity.

Only

The Great Grey Owl

Sitting on the pine tree

Looks at the boy

With its

Wide eyes

As the freezing winter

Wears upon him

And puts the boy

Into a deep sleep

Never to wake up

But to reach

The world

Above the sky.

Beast from Water

Beast from Water

Perhaps that’s

What the beast is-

A ghost.

My dad says,

There’s things-

Squids.

Beast my foot!

He lost himself

In a maze.

Did not know

Where.

A thin wail out of the darkness chilled.

Who are you

Anyway?

Sitting there

Telling people

What to do.

Bollocks

To the rules!

Who cares, Ralph?

Ralph stood

Knee-deep

In the central grass

Looking down

At his hidden feet

Powerless to help himself.

Like dry leaves

Drifting,

And going rotten

Jack was

The broken storm

A thin wail out of the darkness chilled

Broken down,

Shaken by the wind,

And lost

In deep waters.

Too late to stop

And the spring had been tapped

Beyond the reach

Of authority.