Goodbye Korea for now....

From Seoul’s bright streets to Busan’s shore,

We wandered paths unknown before.

Beneath the sky of tender spring,

Korea seemed to wake and sing.

In Seoul we stood where kings once trod,

Past ancient gates and courtyards broad.

The imperial palace, still and grand,

Held the living memory of the land.

In Busan by the shining sea,

The harbor wind moved fresh and free.

The city rose with strength and grace,

With light and life in every place.

We climbed to temples, calm and high,

Where quiet bells met earth and sky.

Among old Buddhist halls we found

A peace that seemed to bless the ground.

We tasted foods both bold and sweet,

At every table, every street.

Each dish a welcome, rich and true,

A way a country spoke anew.

And spring was waiting everywhere—

Plum blossoms stirring in the air,

Cherry branches, softly dressed,

In budding beauty at their best.

We traveled too where silence stays,

Along the DMZ’s divided ways,

And felt the weight of history near,

Of sorrow, courage, loss, and fear.

At the UN cemetery, still and wide,

We stood with humbled hearts beside

The graves of those who gave their years

To war, to hope, to grief, to tears.

And yet through all we saw most clear

The warmth of people living here—

A warmth not born of easy days,

But shaped through fire, through loss, through pain.

A kindness deep, a steady light,

A grace made strong by years of fight.

A people who have borne so much,

And still can greet the world with such

Open hearts and gentle hands—

The truest beauty of these lands.

So now this journey stays with me,

A song of blossom, temple, sea,

Of Seoul and Busan, past and present,

Of wounds remembered, lives still radiant.

And in that springtime, bright and far,

We saw Korea as you are:

A land of memory, strength, and grace,

With courage shining in its face.