캐나다 문사모에서

[홍애니]

REPRINTED FROM THE KOREA TIMES

Korean-Canadian poet portrays hometown

Cover of Lee Sang-mook's poetical works "Lincoln's Log Cabin" and "Wild Blue Berry Bush of Mt. Baekdu"

By Choi Yearn-hong 

"Lincoln's Log Cabin" and "Wild Blue Berry Bush of Mt. Baekdu" were the first poetry books I encountered by a Korean-Canadian poet, although there may be some books before these.

I happened to meet Lee when we were ROTC-commissioned second-lieutenants at

Youngchon, North Kyungsang Province, in 1963. He was a graduate of Seoul National

University College of Engineering, and I don't recollect our conversations on poetry and l

iterature then. In the mid-1990s, I came to know him as a young poet with "Lincoln's Log

Cabin." Later, I met him in Seoul at a literary conference for overseas Korean poets and

writers. I admired him for his mature late start.

Most recently, we met on Facebook. I was delighted to learn of his forthcoming poetry book

containing all his poems, including those from "Lincoln's Log Cabin" and "Wild Blue Berry

Bush of Mt. Baekdu," as well as others from his worldwide travels. The most significant

poetry must be his poems on North Korea from the summer of 1995. I did not know of his

North Korean visit until I read this book. He was genuinely interested in the unification of

our homeland, and seemed to be more of an optimist on this than I was. I was somewhat

negative toward the so-called sunshine policy, because it was wishful thinking, not a solid

policy -- the North Korean regime could not change, despite all kinds of southern effort and

goodwill. More generous help and aid just helped a regime that should not exist continue.

His life after retirement involved traveling around the world. His travels expressed poetically

to Egypt, Greece, Italy and Turkey and other European nations, in addition to North and

South America are quite impressive. All his travel poems are easy to read, but readers require

a certain level of knowledge on early human civilizations. As a matter of fact, I have expanded my knowledge on early civilizations because of his travels. Poetry can expand our intellectual horizons.

However, his poetry starts from his hometown, Mokpo, South Jeolla Province, where it also

ends.

His debut poem is from his childhood memories of his mother working on a wooden mortar

to grind barley in his hometown. This is the beginning of his poetry. He can never leave his

hometown or home country. His poetry may never leave his mother. I post here his debut

poem "Thinking of a Wooden Mortar."


Thinking of a Wooden Mortar

Can I get back to that big wooden mortar?
Can I ever get back into it?
Mother told me to stir the barley
While she pounded it with a pestle in the mortar
The faster she pounded,
The more barley would fly out of the mortar
Eventually I too was thrown out like the outcast barley
Ah, how many decades have passed since then
That mother would scold me for the precious grain lost
That I was cast away to this foreign land
Now I do realize
Mother,
That barley must be pounded to become grain and
That barley must bump against each other to shed its husk
And
I can never go back into the mortar
As I was mixed with dirt.

The poem reflects on his childhood life with his mother moving on to an adult immigrant's life. Emily Quail, a Canadian literary critic from the University of Toronto, commented that

the poem attempts to find the line between being Korean and being Canadian.

"The mother grinds the barley in her mortar providing an apt metaphor for the Korean

immigrant's identity."

Lee explored his immigrant's life in poetry, not from his engineering profession. Conflicts

between two cultures led and pushed him to glorify poetry and literature.

His socio-political sense appeared in "At Lincoln's Log Cabin," in which he commented on

President Abraham Lincoln's liberation of black slaves in the midst of the American Civil War, and still struggling black people under social and racial discrimination.

However, Lincoln's famous Gettysburg speech on democracy: "Of the people, by the people

and for the people" was changed to: "Of the capitalism, by the capitalism and for the

capitalism." Money has dictated the way of American society. It is interesting to see Bernie

Sanders, a U.S. presidential candidate this year, attacking Wall Street.

At Lincoln's Log Cabin

Lincoln's soul might have gone to the other world
But part of it is coming back to this world
Birds flock together over the Kentucky corn fields
Where blacks are no longer anywhere to be seen
It is downtown Detroit where a white man
Hiding in a booth of pane glass and iron bars
Collects money from the blacks by selling gasoline

Look at the Lincoln's portrait in the penny
Look at the black man who is confident momentarily
Showing off pink gums like the corn flower bud
As he fills the volatile freedom into his gas tank
This is the world of the capital, by the capital, for the capital
Unknown to the man, how much profit was taken from him
A penny in his palm shows only the engraved word ‘Liberty'.

His second poetry book, "Wild Blue Berry Bush of Mt.Baekdu," contains poems on the way

to Pyeongyang from Beijing to Mt. Geumkang, and to the North Korean side of the DMZ.

I cite one short poem from his arrival at the North Korean airport, where an innocent poet

and his group from Canada were welcomed.


A little farther and further

My group walked to the limousine a bus from the airplane at Samjiyon Airport
We were greeted by a large crowd.
Then, one young woman suddenly dashed to me out of the crowd,
Holding my hand, and walked hand in hand to the bus.
It was a surprise.
She handed me a bouquet of wild flowers
And calmed down my high excitement
With cool wind from the peak of Mt. Baekdu.
Our walk was too short;
I wished to keep going farther and further together
To the nation's reunification.
Yes, I wanted to go all the way to the unification.

I can see one Korean-Canadian poet's life with his mother in their hometown to his old age in his mid-seventies in Toronto. He posted pictures and photos accompanying his poems, so they are poetry art books.

Life is vain, but we seek poetry in such a life in two countries, in two cultures.

Life is meaningful, with nostalgia, yearning, pain, sorrow and laughter. I can see his dream

to celebrate the homeland's unification. I hope and wish to see it suddenly come as that young attractive North Korean woman dashed to him from the crowd.

Idealistically, I hope unification comes like a "thief in the night," while we sleep.

Lee's poetry book is a landmark for Korean cultural history in Canada, and will remain so.

Dr. Choi is poet and writer based in Washington D.C.

[석천]

애니님, 감사합니다. 최연홍시인님이 제 시전집을 보고 쓴 영문서평은 금년 3월 18일 서울에서 발간되는
The Korea Times 에 게재됐지요. 부족한 제 책에 관심을 가지시고 여기에 재수록해주시니 감사할 뿐입니다.
지금은 밴쿠버에 돌아오셨나요? 많은 발전을 기원합니다.

[홍애니]

허락없이 올려서 죄송합니다
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[바람 그리고 별]

저희 토론토의 자랑인 석천 이상묵 선생님의 시를 이곳에서 만나니 반갑네요.
수고하신 홍애니님의 손길에 감사드립니다. 저희 캐나다 문사모 카페에도 가끔 마실 오세요.
제가 9월 9일에 서울에 갈 예정입니다. 뱅기표를 사놨어요. ^^
90번째 생신을 보내신 친정 어머님 뵈러 가는 길이니 어머님 곁에서 많은 시간을 보내려고 합니다.
건강한 모습으로 밴에 돌아오시길 빌면서...

[홍애니]

서울에 오시면 바쁘시겠지만 연락주세요
전번은 010-7285-2271 입니다
저도 서울에 주로있으니 통화라도 하길 원해요~

[바람 그리고 별]

네.
그러지요.
서울에서 뵐 수 있음 좋겠지만, 사정이 여의치 않으면 통화라도 해야지요.
그럼...

[홍애니]

^^*