Category: Featured Poem

Azaleas by Kim So-wŏl     See information on the translation of this poem here.   When seeing me sickens you and you walk out I’ll send you off without a word, no fuss. Yongbyon’s...

Vespers by Louise Glück   In your extended absence, you permit me use of earth, anticipating some return on investment. I must report failure in my assignment, principally regarding the tomato plants. I think I...

Beside a chrysanthemum  by Midang For one chrysanthemum to bloom a nightingale has sobbed since spring, perhaps. For one chrysanthemum to bloom thunder has pealed in dark clouds, perhaps. Flower! Like my sister standing at her...

A Koan for the Left Hand by Mike Arnautov   The Sun immersed its golden arm Up to the elbow into water, And sorts through pebbles at the bottom. What more to say about this...

I Will Pronounce Your Name by Leopold Sedar Senghor   I will pronounce your name, Naett, I will declaim you, Naett! Naett, your name is mild like cinnamon, it is the fragrance in which...

Intoxication at dusk by  K Balachandran   Three drunken kites, swim up competing with each other, evading the algae of cityscape, to drink the wine setting sun spills.

Mokkye Market by Shin Kyŏng-Nim The sky urges me to turn into a cloud, the earth urges me to turn into a breeze, a little breeze waking weeds on the ferry landing once storm clouds...

from Dictee – Theresa Hak Kyung Cha   Dead words. Dead tongue. From disuse. Buried in Time’s memory. Unemployed. Unspoken. History. Past. Let the one who is diseuse, one who is mother who waits...