The Stray Dogs

By Sung Yol Yi

The Stray Dogs is a book of poetry written by a man whose memories of war have poignantly affected his whole life. A feeling of sadness pervades many of these poems as they are the compositions of a man whose heart has been deeply broken by his experience during the Korean War and the memories of it that continue to haunt him.

As a young boy, Yi had to tighten his belt to alleviate his hunger pangs. And now, in his award-winning poem The Belt, he declares to the whole world that Then I buckle up my belt, I am ready.

His poems also encompass a variety of other subjects, like the challenges of being an immigrant, the frustrations of the language barrier, his affection for his children, inspiration drawn from nature, the environment, reflections on his travels, and so on.

Mr. Yi discovers himself, and the world itself, through writing his poetry.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: May 8, 2008
• ISBN: 9781453595350

Book preview

THE STRAY DOGS

Sung Yol Yi

Copyright © 2008 by Sung Yol Yi.

Library of Congress Control Number: 2008901087

ISBN: Hardcover 978-1-4363-2122-8

ISBN: Softcover 978-1-4363-2121-1

ISBN: Ebook 978-1-4535-9535-0

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted

in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying,

recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system,

without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This book was printed in the United States of America.

To order additional copies of this book, contact:

Xlibris Corporation

1-888-795-4274

www.Xlibris.com

[e-mail]

46239

CONTENTS

Preface

I.  The Twenty-first Century

1.  Lone Dance

2.  Drum Dance

3.  Fan Dance

4.  Choosing My Poem

5.  The Scene

6.  I’m In

7.  The Belt

8.  About Salt

9.  Haircut

10.  The Bottle

11.  The Shaking

12.  Soong-Nyung/ Rice Tea

13.  The Sound

14.  When the Wind Meets the Flower

15.  Two Little Sticks

16.  In That Morning

17.  Boundaries

18.  Playing the Harp

19.  Poppies

20.  A Certificate

21.  Tinnitus

22.  Bats

23.  Eagle, D’You Have Heart?

24.  A Pine Tree

25.  Arirang

26.  Lord Over a Newcomer

27.  Second Language

28.  At a Baseball Game

29.  Remember in June

30.  Unbelievable Things

31.  The Stray Dogs

32.  Divorce Not Allowed

33.  She Didn’t Close Her Eyes

34.  Uncle Is Coming Home

35.  What I Remember about My Mother

36.  Tumbleweeds

37.  The Bold Bird

II.  The Twentieth Century

1.  The Last Moon

2.  Peach Flower Sting

3.  Blessings

4.  A Certain Cry

5.  What Did You Know?

6.  Arrow

7.  Concert

8.  Eggs

9.  The Singer

10.  On Spring Days

11.  Hamburgers and Blue Jeans

12.  The Passing Flowers

13.  The Flower’s Scent

14.  At the Sickbed

15.  Sunlight After a Shower

16.  The Circulation

17.  The Trials

18.  The Gambling

19.  Seed

20.  Vacation

21.  Taking a Walk along the Coast

22.  The Trace

23.  A Certain Elegy

24.  Day Fly

25.  At the Park in Fall

26.  At Dusk

27.  In a Way

28.  The Role

29.  Eclipse

30.  Sun

31.  Early Autumn

32.  Palm Tree

33.  The Beast Story

34.  Ebb Tide

35.  Yellowstone 1

36.  Yellowstone 2

37.  Penalties

38.  Whale

39.  Rabbit

40.  Autumn

41.  Phone

42.  The Siren

43.  At San Pedro Hill

44.  Maze

45.  The Doves in the City

46.  Fig

47.  A Scene of Stillness

III.  The Myth of Chong Kye Ree

1.  The House of the Morning Calm

2.  Thatched-Roof Home

3.  An Encounter

4.  A Myth in Chong Kye Ree

5.  On the Day of an Athletic Meet

6.  Barley Hill

7.  In This Way Jesus Began to Talk to Me

8.  My First Movie

9.  My First Fishing Trip

10.  Tightening My Belt

11.  Flavoring Rice

12.  Blazing Star

13.  A Dog’s Bark

IV.  Sijo

1.  Summertime

2.  Marathoners

3.  Memories of Stealing

4.  Terror in New York

5.  A Year

6.  A String

7.  Mango

8.  A Little Bird

9.  Black Pepper

For my sons,

Zane and Paul

When I get up in the morning

And buckle up the belt,

I am ready.

Sung Yol Yi, The Belt

PREFACE

I have been writing poetry for decades.

Since my youth, I’ve had a special attraction to both poetry and literature. For me, they explore the wonder of the most mundane objects and powerfully express the deepest longings and thoughts of the human experience.

Ever since my college years, I have been struggling to write poetry. Looking back, I have not achieved in writing poems as much as I have in my enjoyment of reading them. However, over the years, I have written quite a few of them. Collected here are more than a hundred of my poems. Many of them were originally penned in Korean, and I have attempted to render them into English. Some of them translate well; others I wish could be better. Even so, I am reluctant to exclude any of them because of a lack of aesthetic completion or linguistic expression. Like one’s own children, each poem has a special attachment to its author. So I have tried to include as many of them as possible in this volume.

Since I have lived through two centuries, and since all poetry is related to its times, I have attempted to divide my works by centuries, poems written in the twentieth century and poems written in the twenty-first century. Also included are some poems from memory I remember reciting as a child in Korea.

I would like to express my deep gratitude to Suzanne Lummis, a poet in Los Angeles, who has greatly