Poems for Thay today.

Poems for Thay today.

What Priest Wonhyo Said to a Poet?

On my way back from the interrupted journey

The mountains were pointing gingers

Stretching towards the heavens.

The birds ere prolonged incantations

Flashing through a forest of myriad mirrors.

Wonhyo the priest was nowhere to be found.

I was a bundle of burning womb memories and tomb agonies.

My pilgrimage to that place turned out to be

My journey back to my own ecstasy

In a village with fluttering kites and a suffering people.

Back in my country

The ripe fruit and the calling voices set fire to my soul.

As I entered my hometown,

The Anap Pond reflected my skeleton,

Making me drink from my own skull.

My flesh pointed its fingers at a wind-swept cliff

With the wild ocean of Avidya roaring below.

The sight scared me to death.

I roamed the deserted streets of my hometown,

Gripping my own skull, calling Princess Yosuk’s name.

Wonhyo Priest was a Buddhist scholar-priest who lived in the 7^th century during the Silla kingdom