This poem was resulted from my travels to Banff and Jasper in Canada (July 2026)
The Beginning of a Beginning
–Yung Suk Kim
Being there with full presence in nature's vast diversity,
I feel like nothing but a part of its great mystery.
Suddenly, I realized the layers of upheavals of the first existence
as things in the earth began to form.
What I saw was a revolutionary scene:
the Rocky Mountains rose from the sea bottom.
Millions of years ago, there was no one who could predict such things.
Non-existence does not mean there is nothing to arise.
All things are a phenomenon.
The mystery of power is already everywhere.
While we don't grasp the beginning of a beginning,
we feel the unfathomable mystery of our being in nature.
The beauty of the Rocky Mountains and pristine lakes
not only dumbfounds me but makes me question their origin,
which comes from millions of previous upheavals and geological changes.
Seeing is not everything.
Asking questions with curiosity awakens our dormant spirit.
What we need is incessant investigation of who we are,
while acknowledging our fundamental weakness and accepting vulnerability,
yet believing in our meaningful life amid our transient nature.
I won't forget the realization that seeing is more than observing a phenomenon.
It is a gate through which we must ask about our fragile yet precious being.