The Day I Turned Away from the Heron by Dr. Kang Byeong-Cheol

She gazed at glass in the morning light.

What did she see in that silver space?

A lonely ghost in her own embrace.

She longed to be like the crane so bright,

with feathers pure as drifting white.

Yet in the stream where shadows play,

her form was cast in quiet gray.

Who would cherish one unseen?

One who scorns where they have been

can never know a world serene.

The crane looked on with patient eyes,

as still as time, beneath the skies.

The heron stood where waters gleam,

a fading shape within a dream.

I turned away from the heron, left nothing there,

just silence hanging in the air.

Poet Dr. Kang, Byeong-Cheol is a Korean author and poet, born in Jeju City, South Korea, in 1964. He began writing in 1993, publishing his first short story, “Song of Shuba,” at the age of twenty-nine. He released a collection of short stories in 2005 and has since won eight literature awards and published more than twelve books. From 2009 to 2014, he served as a member of The Writers in Prison Committee (WiPC) of PEN International. Additionally, he worked as an editorial writer for JeminIlbo, a newspaper in Jeju City, Korea. He holds a PhD in Political Science and currently serves as the Vice President of The Korean Institute for Peace and Cooperation and vice president of Jeju PEN. Moreover, he holds the position of founding President of the Korean Association of World Literature.