I Am an American Condor  

I-Northbound

(Can be sung to the tune of  "El Condor Pasa")

Prologue

A "Rhapsody of the Seas" Cruise with Writers of the North American Chinese Writers Association

(Chun Mai Chao, Chia Wei Foo, Chien Foo, John Hsu, Kan Po, Jack Gao, Hong Yee Chiu, Mei Tchun Lin, Shiao Wei Lu, Jane Yeh, Grace Yeh, Yu Lin Chen Taylor, Shu Ching Silin, May Chen, Shui Yin Lo, Ping Xiao, Jean Hu, Nonny Hsueh, Veronica Liu, Min Wen Hsiung, Shiuan Gee, Chao-Chung Chen, Jean Sue, Chen Cheng Ching, Guo Yi Zhang, Zhong Chen, Alan Poon, Nan Lin Peng, Charles Fan, Sophie Grace Wang, Gene Grace, Jin Ping Duan, Wu Xing Zhang, Tommy Chan, Cathy Yung Yng Chan, Patrick Wang, Sara Du, Rong Shu, Hsu Ying Liu, Claire Wang-Lee)

August, 2014

I am an American condor

Flying up north

The morning sun bright

Hollywood sign on the hill showing off its magic

Oscar, Golden Globe

Whole World mesmerized

"The Wizard of Oz" as a classic

"Gone with the Wind" loved to this day.

Charlie Chaplin

Shirley Temple

Clark Gable

Marilyn Monroe

Disneyland

Hollywood Music Bowl

Griffith Planetarium

Santa Monica Beach

Napa Valley Vineyards

Hearst Castle

Big Sur, Seventeen Mile Drive

Monterey Peninsula

Steinbeck

Jack London

Stevenson

San Francisco's Seven Hills

Fisherman's Wharf

Golden Gate Bridge

Berkeley

Stanford

Google, Yahoo, Microsoft and Apple

Bill Gates, Jerry Yang, and Jobs

There is newcomer

Mark Zuckerberg

Facebook's seen around the world

Gold Beach Oregon

My poetry teacher Michelle Mitchell-Foust

Writes and teaches

Rocks, black berries, and deer

The great ocean's wind and rain

inspires her no end

She newly created the club "Poets by the Sea"

Waiting for friends and poets to visit

Seattle is a dreams-come-true city

Pike Place Market

Bill Gates' Island

Boeing, Amazon, and Starbucks

I landed on the cruise ship "Rhapsody of the Seas"

And joined all my North America Chinese writer friends

To travel north to be with whales and sea lions

Canada

Ample land and few people

Queen Victoria's name city

Butchard Gardens is privately owned

Thousands and ten thousands of year-round flowers

Klondike Gold Field as history

A million people gone crazy

The gold was gone

and people were gone

Thousands of horses perished along

Only the name of Dead Horse Pass remains

Alaska purchased from the Russians by the Americans

The Congress complained about the money spent

Now cruise ships come in fleets

Also natural gas and oil deposits

Capital Juneau held sled race

The huskies running wild on snow and ice

One hundred miles daily was no feat

The owners as wild as their dogs

The city of Skagway

Gold diggers once came and left

Money and time lost was no concern

Thousands went elsewhere looking for a second chance

The unknown cemetery for the less fortunate

Sickness and pistol shots claimed them

Tourists felt sorry for the ghosts

"Not being a fish doesn't know the fish's happiness." *

*A fable from Chuangzi

Northern lights at Fairbanks

Total darkness shown bright

It is a sight belonging to heaven

Not many seen on earth

Tracy Arm Glacier is grand

Except it's losing its shape fast

Sea lions frolic on pieces of broken ice

They don't know their children may not have a living place

I am an American condor

Flying high and free

I'm going south to Peru

To attend the XXXIV World Congress of Poets

Brothers and sisters in poetry will meet

We'll celebrate poetry but not forget world peace

A Greenpeace conference

Delegates from the world gathering

To discuss the peril of globe warming

They will project a rainbow

from Machu Picchu over to Huayna Picchu

To protest the mistreatment of nature

Global warming is serious peril

Everyone on earth should be aware

So I soar with my fellow poets

Into space and time

Where we find our place in the universe

Words is not the only tool

It can be colors and music

flowers, clouds, sun and rain

It's easier to view them from high

They can all be called poetry--

A thing of eternal love and beauty.