Poetry by Joey Connolly
MAY is National Heritage Month, according to Presidential Proclamation No. 439 in PH.
The 2026 theme is “Roots and Horizons: Our Shared Heritage, Our Collective Future”
Here are extracts from “YOBO: Korean American Writing in Hawaii” pub. 2023, germane to
life in and on islands in the Pacific were selected. Authors are of Korean / Hawaiian heritage.
“Here where salt gathers between shell and moss stones
where birds rise off water like great winds in passing
where the sea tosses brilliance of cold stars was I born”
— from Makai First Light by Willyce Kim
“Over the years our beach has served as every possible body
of water necessary to life — embryonic sac, birth canal, baptistry,
bathtub, fishpond, septic tank, sensory deprivation tank.
The ebb and flow of our lives fill our wading pools with unwept
tears, tears that wash out to sea and return with every tide.”
— from Family Plot by Robert Pennybacker, whose mother’s
grandparents came to Hawaii from Korea to work and live on
the sugarcane and pineapple plantations around 1905.
It is my understanding that many families here in the CNMI
with names Kim, King, (my kumpaire Juanis King) and Cing
are of Okinawan/ Korean heritage who originally came here
to work the sugar cane fields of Saipan and Tinian. Any others
with ancestry related to that era please let the CNMI know.
“Up through the crust, hot rock flows from the mantle
We can’t say exactly how. Cold rock sinks. In the Pacific, my home
slides north over the hotspot, whose sister spots have birthed oil
and diamonds. From sea life, oil. It takes a diamond to cut a diamond
All life begins here.” — from Hot Rock Rising by Debra Kang Dean.
For PH National Heritage Day, a poem written in Tagalog by PH
National hero, José Rizal, whose writings influenced the rebellion
that won independence for the Philippine archipelago. The Spanish
government executed Dr. Rizal in Manila on Dec. 30,1896. This
despite the fact he never fought as a soldier. His words reflected his
optimism that PH would be freed from injustice.
KUNDIMAN by José Rizal
Translated into English by Nick Joaquin
Now mute indeed are tongue and heart
Love shies away, joy stands apart.
Neglected by its leaders and defeated,
The country was subdued and it submitted.
But, O, the sun will shine again!
Itself the land shall disenchain,
And once more round the world
With growing praise
Shall sound the name of the Tagalog race.
We shall pour out our blood in a great flood
To liberate the parent sod:
But until that day arrives for which we weep,
Love shall be mute, desire shall sleep.
(doesn’t that sound like positive psychology to you?)
Joey “Pepe Batbon” Connolly is a retired educator who taught in the CNMI, NOLA, and LVNV. He is the Poet Laureate of Tinian and enjoys stargazing.
