Neolitsea (White Bolly Gum Tree) & Nyssa (Black Gum Tree)

“My immortal life is on the point of beginning.”
– last words of St. Andrew Kim Taegon (1821-1846) patron saint of Korea,
martyr and first native born Roman Catholic priest in Korea.
He was tortured and beheaded near Seoul on the Han River.




And he digged again other wells
which the servants of his father Abraham had digged…

Neolitsea, the Hermit Kingdom's
Evangelist, your trinitarian
Overtures are Godhead’s triumph: each leaf’s vein
Leaving wholly holy white bolly gums.

Insular peninsula, Korea
Tortures itself with the blood of martyrs:
Seven years within its silent borders –
Every bit a sign as neolitsea -

Andrew Kim and friends found there world without end.
Nyssa, too, roots destiny to origins;
Yellow and negligible, its bloom begins
Small, but with room to let its limbs expand –

So Isaac resurrected Abram's wadi
And there grew the names on God’s family tree.