\u201cI seem to hear them cry, \u201cWe will not leave our trees.\u201d
\n\u2014from Falling Leaves, a poem by Kong Shao-an, (577 – ?), a 7th\u00a0century A.D. Chinese Tang Dynasty poet<\/p>\n
Along the CNMI\u2019s streets and every coral road
\nare seen multitudes of bright and beautiful bowers
\nas our prized trunkon atbot flame trees explode
\nwith thousands and thousands of flame tree flowers.<\/p>\n
In Southeastern skies a tropical depression cowers
\nperhaps the beginnings of a destructive typhoon
\nits winds and rains containing damaging powers
\nwe know that it will be coming up our way soon.<\/p>\n
Beaches and buildings it scours, vegetation it devours
\nstrong winds howl driving down rains which pound
\nit does its serious damage in a matter of a few hours
\nflame tree blossoms by the millions cover the ground.<\/p>\n
Next year we\u2019ll see our green and orange tree towers
\npaint the sky dropping flame tree blossom showers.<\/p>\n
Tinian Trade Wind Tales<\/strong><\/p>\n The trade winds blow, coconut trees sway 15 Degrees N Latitude Philippine Sea<\/strong><\/p>\n I drive south on Tinian along the Pacific ocean On the eastern fringes of the Philippine Sea Frequent hot sun by day cool trade winds at night How happy I am in my old age to be at this sight \u201cI seem to hear them cry, \u201cWe will not leave our trees.\u201d \u2014from Falling Leaves,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-304677","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-opinion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/304677","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=304677"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/304677\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=304677"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=304677"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=304677"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nback on island, I\u2019ve been too long away
\nwhere are all the chung\u00e9 birds today?
\nthe trade winds rise, chung\u00e9 in pairs fly
\nplumeria fragrance lingers in the air
\nstorm clouds threaten in the eastern sky
\nI can\u2019t forget students for whom I still care
\na flight to Saipan, it won\u2019t take too lon\u00e9
\nthe sea is calm, few waves cresting white
\nI remember an old \u2018Kunados Tinian\u2019 song
\nshopping today, San Jose Fiesta tomorrow night
\nroast pig, cow feet soup, bifstek, and red rice
\nSan Isidro Fiesta will be here before too long
\nhaving a drink, seeing old friends will be nice.<\/p>\n
\nfrom high cliffs facing it on the southeastern side
\nits water rolls back and forth in rhythmic motion
\nTinian welcomes the waters with a bay open wide.<\/p>\n
\nTinian has World War II monuments to the US
\nKorea and Japan in memory and for our liberty
\nand Atomic Bomb Pits where we say God Bless.<\/p>\n
\noff the coast the Mariana Trench way down deep
\nthe Milky Way galaxy and Fishhook stars bright
\nfresh oxygen from the East puts you right to sleep.<\/p>\n
\nI write this sonnet quickly and with true delight.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"