I A machine enters the forest. The trees, the endorphined air as well as the birds’ circumspection play dead. Until they start intuiting the machine’s curiosity, its authentic verisimilitude, its making note, they will not dare resume as usual. Resigned to it being, in their midst. They reorient, relate-to the [...]
Tag: creative writing
A little bit about Yoon Yong
It has taken me longer to get this done than I promised. I started writing it just before I was due to move to Exeter. I am beginning to settle in here. But Jeju & Korea are never far from my thoughts. Genesis Yoon Yong as both hero & poem germinated together. I had read [...]
The weather keeps her
This is the final Yoon Yong poem. I am in the process of writing a proper analysis/epilogue about the poem, as requested by a couple of loyal readers. I hope to have it done by next week. Thank you for reading these poems. If anyone who would like these poems sent to them as a [...]
Considering a line by Kim Seung-hee
It is worth remarking that "mense" is a shortening of menstruation, which I have heard Korean women, my ex-wife especially, say; however, I cannot further elucidate the reason, but can only speculate, if this is because menstruation is a difficult word, or if the shortening has become shorthand Konglish, thus the source becoming lost the [...]
Napping on a sea wall after midnight
Yoon Yong dreams. Napping on a sea wall after midnight …She steals a trampoline from a trim backyard —carries it on her back | over the spinal cord of the Taebaek mountain range to the edge of the world (all signposted) —looks out on a sea of shadows teasing her vulnerabilities into [...]
Onanism
A poem from Yoon Yong. I had a debate in the pub the other week about onanism. I have a theory that the violence of men, may have its root in onanism: in one onanistic act, a man lays waste on a rag, to an entire population. Dylan Thomas was concerned with this. So is [...]
Library by the sea—Geumneung Village
As promised, more from Yoon Yong. Library by the Sea— Geumneung Village …An outdoor library with little wooden cubes painted in shades of the sea & glass doors that hold 2 or 3 books —sand | pomegranate red & grass | the glass doors with smooth wooden knobs & little bronze hasps [...]
Appearances
There will be a Yoon Yong poem today & tomorrow. I promise. Appearances …My cheekbones are fine | my chin if a little chiseled. I don’t agree with where my hair parts the same as my father’s | not symmetrical like my mother. Glad I got mother’s long legs but my father’s [...]
Nostalgia
Yoon Yong. Nostalgia …The morning news buzzing in the background... —Her father stopped reading the newspaper when his sight grew dim. She liked to see him read: she felt in good hands | that her father could guide her. She tried to replicate the paper’s cackle with other materials—my own onomatopoeia [...]
It must be the final day
Yoon Yong wakes into her final day on Jeju Island. This isn't the last of the series, but it's coming. It must be the final day …At dawn | the magpie matinee | oriole | finch | white eye | starling | wren & sparrow shaking the air | the thick brush & [...]
