Contemplate Mountains
Spiders have taken all night
to spin webs
in the middle of this rough road
we are not their first choice
but get snared just the same
when I stumble over rocks
it is how I contemplate mountains
churning and shrugging off boulders
as blithely as a tree would shake off
leaves
while land shifts out of place
in the company of creatures made to resemble
lichen and moss
inertia as action
as the Eastern Bluebirds escape
their fossil identities
to summon winds
from the east
the north
and the sea
worthy muses
breathing into us
the light of
the world.
to spin webs
in the middle of this rough road
we are not their first choice
but get snared just the same
when I stumble over rocks
it is how I contemplate mountains
churning and shrugging off boulders
as blithely as a tree would shake off
leaves
while land shifts out of place
in the company of creatures made to resemble
lichen and moss
inertia as action
as the Eastern Bluebirds escape
their fossil identities
to summon winds
from the east
the north
and the sea
worthy muses
breathing into us
the light of
the world.
September / October, 2022
Jiwon Choi is the author of two poetry collections: One Daughter is Worth Ten Sons and I Used To Be Korean, (published by Hanging Loose Press), which both deal with issues of identity as a Korean in the diaspora. She is an early childhood educator at the Educational Alliance where she works with children and teachers on developing emergent curriculum. She is a long-time gardener and coordinator at the Pacific Street Brooklyn Bear’s Garden near Downtown Brooklyn, where she collaborates with local organizations to bring workshops and cultural arts/music events into the garden. She started her garden’s first poetry reading series, Poets Read in the Garden, to support local emerging writers and poets with live reading events in a safe, outdoor space. She lives in Brooklyn, NY.
Art: Madge Evers. Kousa. Mushroom spores on paper, 2020.