Pursuing the goal in doubt

It's like a smile of no face.
Smile back, for it is 
the only armor against the doubt.

Go on, with all your might;
dance along the dry river 
unknown, sing as the poet.

In the end you are the wise one,
or you don't do it.

©Byung A. Fallgren

My two poems View on the side of the Road and The Doe 
have been accepted for the Summer printed issue of 
The Avocet, a journal of Nature Poetry--2022. 
Thank you, Charles and Vivian for taking these pieces. 

–Byung A.

Flying with the New Songs of the Clouds

Being a minimalist, I used to throw a lot of
things; caught in the frenzy of moment, some
valuables would disappear; then panic, search
in every hill and valley, like the mad woman
in the dream.

The selfie, with the idiotic smile, crumpled and
trashed long ago, haunts, jeers: 
with the original one gone, no way to make another.
lost not only the image but the time also,
acting on impulse,

the echo of the youthhood. Faces suddenly flash,
gloat, for had been tossed off, like the wads of useless
pieces. a pang in the deep; take a deep breath and smile.
They happened for reason, keep them where they 
were, fly off with the new songs of clouds,
and the ghost of failed one will live only in the dream.
Change within. 

©Byung A. Fallgren

Ocean Water
Dasha Kelly Hamilton

The ocean pushes back
Alive and vigorous 
The heritage of habitat
Leans against expectation
Muscles its due respect
Without regard
Without warning
Without reorienting the ones
With swimming perspectives
Limitations of consistent temperature 
and painted cement walls

The ocean rumbles its sovereignty 
Full weight of freedom on my skin. 

Dasha Kelly Hamilton is a writer and performance 
artist. She is National Rubinger Fellow and currently 
Poet Laureate for the city of Milwaukee and the 
State of Wisconsen. In 2021, she received an 
Academy of American Poets Laureate Fellowship. 

Most of Wyoming trees, the lesson (Gogyohka Sequence) 

in April
still asleep
shivering in the wind
like the children
in the war-torn land

in May
start budding
or flowering
like just awaken
lazy person in a hurry

sudden snowstorm
blankets the flowering trees
shuddering at the unexpected
after storm passes
dazzling smile

Wyoming trees'
lesson:
face the disaster
be patient
then rebound

©Byung A. Fallgren 

junipers don't need 
to be pruned by human 
nature did already

children don't need 
to grow under parental pressure
just put them in right track

what happens 
in woman's body
her choice

©Byung A. Fallgren