Best South Korean Poems
I believe
Because I don’t know
I know the sun rises in the east and sets in the west
I know spring follows summer
Summer follows autumn
Then winter
But do I know God exists?
No, I don’t
That's why I believe
Why do you believe?
Because it gives me hope
It gives me strength
To march on with my life
My mother believed
She lost first three babies
Even before they could walk and talk
During WWII
She lost her son when he was 15
He volunteered to join Japanese army
To save his father from prison
After the war he came home injured
And died a year later
After liberation from Japan
His oldest son was labelled a communist
In the democratic south
Police harrased her
Day and night
'Where is your son hiding?'
'I don't know, Sir'
Was her only reply
During the Korean War
She saw her husband walking away
Between two soldiers
Never to return
All through her married years
She was harassed by Japanese police
Harassed by North Korean soldiers
Harassed by South Korean police
But she marched on
With her head straight
Her heart in compassion
She prayed without ceasing
Asking God for strength
To march on with her travails
She lived to ninety two long years
And left this world
With smile on her face
Is it duende, if I say
the streets are empty,
the nameless streets,
empty, but watching,
hollow, but watching,
as if with soju eyes...
as if with eyes that see me
only as I seem, always as I seem,
but never as I am....
would you call it beautiful,
if pain is beautiful,
would you call it duende,
if there is art
even in solitude?
would you call it duende,
... or call it suffering?
*** The title of the poem 'dukkha'
is the Buddhist term commonly translated as "suffering".
Additionally, 'duende' , or tener duende ("having duende") loosely means having soul, a heightened state of emotion, expression and authenticity, often connected with flamenco and poetry (see Garcia Lorca). Lastly, 'soju' is a traditional South Korean alcoholic beverage (the location wherein this poem was concieved) ****
Ade is a 2.5 wheelchair basketball player,
Who was born in Lagos in Nigeria in 1978,
His home town is Liverpool, a Mersey sayer,
In Spain club BSR Amiab Albacete is a date.
He lives partly in London, joined the Bullets,
And he’s travelled with the sport worldwide,
German, Italian, Israeli and South Korean sets,
Sunshine is his normality to love and abide.
In 2003 at the Europeans in Sassari in Italy,
Ade and his basketball team won the bronze,
And in 2005 at more Europeans, Paris’s sway,
The GB squad came second with silver cons.
Then in 2007 at the World Champs, Germany,
A silver was wrought, and in Beijing in 2008,
TeamGB won a bronze to the podium occupy,
And in 2011 a gold fell, Isreali Euro freight.
2013 and TeamGB won the Euros, Frankfurt,
2015 they won another Euro gold, Worcester,
So in 2016 at Rio Ade contributed to support,
His team to add a bronze to this large cluster.
Ade was jailed by Liverpool Crown Court,
For claiming over £33000 of state benefits:
Housing, council tax benefit, income support,
In 2009 he spent six months with jail slits.
This is the man that I am
No need for a detective because I have few mysteries
Whatever you don’t find its trapped somewhere inside my mind
I put my life into words for the whole world to read
I hope you enjoy what you see
A South Korean English teacher by night
An avid writer by day
A helpless romantic somewhere in between
The smile and joy from my students is priceless
Seeing someone enjoy my writings is pretty rewarding as well
I feel that everything in my life is finally going well
From my writings you may find that hard to tell
Sorry I don’t write more fantasies or fables
To convey happy emotions and attract more followers
You are getting my life through my eyes
I don’t have a sweet tooth so I don’t sugarcoat things
I write what I have seen and how it has effected me
My adventures and journeys have been vast
Come with me on this ride
Together we can both be pleasantly surprised
With what I will write
This is the the man that I am
Find more of my writings and poems at jorgesouthkorea.com
I could watch you all day
Listen to your velvety voice
as I dream the hours away
I wonder, is that OK?
A waste of time
some might say
Granted...that may be true,
but what's more beautiful than you
They don't know the sublime
Needs adoration's attention
Unadulterated affection
The crave of connection
You're my fantasy incarnation
Infatuation's insanity
Delirium's dream
Passion's pledge
I can watch you all day
and into the stretches of the night
till the flooding of dawn's light
You're my delight,
my escape
from pain to pleasure
A dose without measure
of bliss
Imagining that kiss
Is sweet enough
Escapism's ecstasy
takes me
above and beyond
my mundane reality
I could watch you all day,
What's the harm?
Your brand of charm
makes me sway,
and there's simply no way
I'll give you up.
You'll never know
when loneliness lingers
and sorrow stifles
Your smile scintillates...
it invigorates
Motivates
to move on
from dreary night
to dauntless dawn
Thanks for the rush, Ji Chang Wook,
my celebrity crush.
Eileen Manassian
Dedicated to Ji Chang Wook, my favourite South Korean actor. He's phenomenal... and celebrity crush! ;) Come on, Soupers, a little levity is good for the soul. It's all in good fun.
because the music industry is
dead as a ****ing doornail,
they grip hold as long as possible
to whatever pop singer can pull
in the most idiots to sell whatever
can be marketed by these big useless
companies that used to feed us CD’s
& have a monopoly on the recording
process,
until
we discovered
how to do it on our
****ing
own---
and so we have
“psy,”
the male version of
gaga, after she got fat,
the male version of britney,
before she shaved her head,
the male version of
the next latest craze that seems to
be taking longer to
evaporate than most,
because, well,
nothing
else
is
happening---
so when it was revealed recently
that mr. park jae-sang
had “anti-american lyrics”
professing a hatred for us
“yanks” & shouting for the deaths of
all our kin
because of the war on Iraq
being committed then by our wonderful
big military dick, which goes pounding all
over the world,
it came as a shock to every dimwit,
who after like 3 ****ing months,
is still trying to mimic the man’s Korean,
in hopes of one day becoming
cool---
because of the manufactured dance song,
which has been played by youtubers
non-stop, for what seems like
ever,
the world has cringed, wondering if they
can continue to worship
a pop singer,
who has sung
one
song
that
has
got
their
attention
when
the
rest
of
music
is
dead &
it’s moral fiber is being questioned &
ooh, how it makes everyone tremble---
should they agree with him & hate the
empire that made him huge
by pushing his pop trash all over the
place, or should they denounce him &
embrace the killing machine that was
responsible for the death of
kim sun-il, the South Korean who lost
his head because he was a representative of
a country that is like a little toddler brother
to the US, who was obligated to send
troops in, so that the brilliant war effort could
go on raging?
keep your eyes peeled on your screens &
watch the US music industry mop up all the negative
vibes, so that mr. psy can be painted pretty
again---watch him perform for president hope &
change & watch everybody refuse to develop any
different view of the
good ol’ US of A---
for politics is for the thinkers & certainly not the pop
listeners,
right?
When a South Korean big boat
Was sinking with hundreds of passengers on board
Frigid water filling up its hold
The crews with captain in fear and cowardice bold
Fled betraying the hope of all the sea farers
There appeared a courageous woman head
With a sailor’s experience she was one of the co-passengers;
Rising to the occasion raring to go ahead
She took the lead in helping all the passengers half-dead
Supplying them life jackets, courage and burning hope
Keeping not a single jacket for her to elope
Promising not to leave till a single of them remained
She didn’t even think of her life, it was reported;
Many were saved but she was drowned
Among the dead her body was found
Buried in chill watery ground.
An savior of mankind with a heart sound
Igniter of the sacrificial fire
With the fire glowing within her
She was certainly inspired by the Divine bliss
Living still in human heart for her selfless sacrifice.
It’s like a bloody nightmare, a ‘dark turn’ in Virginia Tech University,
where thirty-two students and teachers got killed while classes were in progress;
people panicked and pandemonium broke loose around the campus,
police everywhere came to protect them and searched for the gunman.
This young fellow who’s identified as a South Korean student,
enrolled in his senior year with a special concentration in English;
shot those schoolmates including five teachers inside the classrooms,
killing them mercilessly with his gun and later, he killed himself.
What a tragedy! What a deadliest school shooting in U.S. history!
described as an alarming reality among students in today’s generation
this killing has become like a pattern now that makes global headlines,
a horrible scene, a picture of gory incidents, indeed, it’s a tragedy.
Expressions of condolences were read and conveyed to bereaved families,
the outpouring of grief did move everyone to share his sympathy and sorrow;
across the nation the depth and height it showed with certain questions
became a rising tide of human anger, sadness, and racial animosity.
That very moment of shooting many were gripped with fear and urgency,
they hid themselves against the gunman; others were injured and killed;
others were able to escape and relay their message of help in their midst,
oh, such an experience that shook the inner sanctuary of every person.
The local girls are Asian, South Korean, Japanese,
Chinese, Vietnamese.
A few runaway Muslim chicks.
War is a man-shaped demon.
War is booze and guns, fistfights,
Humvees and frying, flying limbs.
What's a young man to do?
He does it, then lives to die later.
Madam Butterfly has a missile launcher.
Flower-drum songs and whistling bombs,
'agent orange' sing-alongs.
It’s all an edge of the grave rave.
Rosie the riveter has got herself a flamethrower.
Napalm blooms in the garden of sin.
What's a young man to do
to save you?
If he makes it, if he comes through,
treat him gently
while he holds his head and screams
or more likely, he goes quiet
way too quiet.
then he just might be the next explosion
in your new foxhole.
Local girls go and come home also,
she that stayed,
her long tour of duty has just begun.
Have all you can eat.
Get it while it's hot
South Korean Dog meat.
With mustard sauce.
Some claim it's sweet.
Others say it's not
Slather on the cheese.
Before they're all gone.
Flowers poured as teardrops fell
The sorrow flowed out like well
On the streets where poor souls were slain
Bleeding hearts endure the pain
In commemoration of the South Korean stampede and the sympathy that gave birth to one of my greatest poems