I'm working on my poems and working with
my fingers not my head. Because my fingers
are the farthest stretching things from me.
Look at the tree. Like its longest branch
I touch the evening's quiet breathing. Sounds
of rain. The crackling heat from other trees.
The tree points everywhere. The branches can't
reach to their roots though. Growing longer they
grow weaker also. Can't make use of water.
Rain falls. But I'm working with these farthest stretching
things from me. Along my fingertips bare shoots
of days then years unfurl in the cold air.
Source: Poetry (April 2007).
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This poem originally appeared in the April 2007 issue of Poetry magazine
Jin Eun-Young was born in Daejong, South Korea in 1970. She is the author of a book of poems, A Dictionary Composed of Seven Words (2003), as well as a study on Kant entitled Critique of Pure Reason Puts Reason in Court, both from Moonji.
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