A bit of Seo Jeong-ju for Poetry Friday

Today I am offering a bit of the poetry of the great 20th century Korean poet, Seo Jeong-ju, which I found here.

Here's a poem for all of us who have ever swung and swung and swung as children (or grown ups, some of us), or watched the toes of our children reach for the sky as we pushed them away from ourselves and well past our comfort zones...

Complaint from a swing

- Chun-hyang's first monologue

Push hard on the cords of the swing, Hyang-dan,
as if you were launching a boat
out toward distant seas,
Hyang-dan!

as if you were pushing me off for ever
away from this gently rocking willow tree,
these wild flowers like those embroidered on my pillow,
away from these tiny butterflies, these warblers,
Hyang-dan!

For the rest, you'll have to go to the website, where it is a few poems down....

And for more poems, the Poetry Friday Roundup is at Becky's Book Reviews today!