Straight pine in crooked forest
As we go walking along mountain trails,
surrounded by bent and twisted trunks,
a singular pine stands tall and straight commanding attention
so that it seems to offer light rather than shade
and silence the noise of vanity, hate and fear with loud assertion.
We stop to remark how such a feat of nature should exist
in all the crookedness
and marvel
before we carry on with affirmed step and refreshed mind.
By Barbara Waldern
election day in South Korea,
December 19, 2007