[Afternoon Poem] Jeongneung / Shin Dong-ok

Under the fence where red bean flowers curl, a spider crawls by. Every pattern woven with newly spun thread captures a trapped movement, as if flicking flower stamens. Rays of light slicing through clouds beneath the eaves after sunset. A flower stalk growing alone in the empty sky. Light and scent reflect and intertwine with each other. After the birds return home, rice is cooked; after the butterflies leave the flowers, people reluctantly rise. In the evening, a glow appeared. Beyond the fence, in that fishy wind revealing the flesh-colored inside, dreams washed away their own bloodiness. It was the word "gajeong" (family). If you listen closely, the clamoring of insects crawling. Each hanging dewdrop carries a whole forest. Under the roof sinking clearly, through the side window, sleep and dreams salted with salt. With the light bubbling up like crab foam, barely, it was the word "saram" (person).

■ Why is it so quietly poignant? Why is it so deeply piercing? And why is it so fishy? Yet in the end, why is it so clear? The word "gajeong" (family). The word "saram" (person). The word "barely, saram," salted and salted, "washed of bloodiness." I remember Jeongneung from nearly forty years ago. Just as it was written in the poem. Because it is just as written in the poem, it seems it would still be the same, and so it is only distant?there, Jeongneung, the people who lived in Jeongneung. The people like snails who "cooked rice after the birds returned home and reluctantly rose after the butterflies left the flowers," friends who "grew alone in the empty sky," not flowers but just "flower stalks." I wonder if they are all well now, or at least safe. Perhaps today, too, they are carrying "a whole forest" and climbing again some "sunset" alley. Life is all a "clamor." Life is all dizzying. But still, why does it so uncontrollably flood and seep? Living, being alive, "barely," that is all. ? Poet Chaesangwoo

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