Poetry assignment- "most political form of art": Suji Kwock Kim

Suji Kwock Kim is a Korean American poet and was born in Milton, New York in 1969. She attended Yale University where she received her bachelor’s degree in 1995 and received her master’s degree in fine arts from the University of Iowa’s writing program in 1997. Kim was also educated at Seoul National University and Yonsei University as a Fullbright Scholar, and at Stanford University as a Wallace Stegner Fellow. When she was twenty-one years old, she began writing poetry after she attended a poetry writing workshop in college. She was motivated to write poetry because she was intrigued by its structure. The rhythm and music of inspires her and she loves to write poetry even though it may seem tough at times because she has a hard time containing all her intense feelings and emotions. She wanted to write about her Korean heritage, which is very important to her so she writes many poems based on aspects of Korean culture. Kim explains her roots online and not in her poems. In her poems she talks from her ancestor’s perspective and point of view.

I decided to choose Suji Kwock Kim and her poetry book “Notes from the Divided Country” for three main reasons. First of all, I wanted to choose an Asian American poet of who was not of Chinese descent. Being a Chinese American, I know Chinese culture very well with all of its aspects, traditions, values, etc. I wanted to learn about a different Asian American culture because I felt like I needed some change in my learning of Asian American culture. Seeing the perspectives of other Asian American cultures is important in order for me to understand what the big picture of Asian American culture is about. Secondly, I wanted to hear a woman’s voice instead of a man’s voice. No offence to men or anything but men have dominated and had advantage over women in the freedom of expression through poetry and other forms of art. We have seen throughout history that women were forbidden to express themselves in any way. When women were eventually allowed the freedom of expression, they poured their hearts and soul into their writing. The beauty in the poems is something that I wanted to read and be able to relate to because I am of the same gender as them. Third, I read the summary for the poetry book “Notes from the Divided Country” and I was interested in the plot and poetry presented in the poetry book. I knew that if I used this poetry book for class I would not be bored and that I would learn a lot about Korean culture.

The three poems that I chose to use for the poetry unit of this class are “Flight,” “Nocturne,” and “The Korean Community Garden in Queens” from the poetry book Notes from the Divided Country. These poems have themes and certain messages that the author wants the reader to know from reading the poems. In “Flight,” the author wants the reader to recognize the severity of the experience of the journey from a native country to America and realize how dreadful and emotionally painstaking the journey is for all immigrants. The major themes from this poem are oppression, fear, and helplessness because the scene is so sad and scary for those going to America. In “Nocturne,” the author advises the reader to spend as much time with his/her love as much as possible since time is short and there may be circumstances that occur that separate two lovers apart. The major themes from this poem are love and sadness because the lover is sad about wanting to see her love. In “The Korean Community Garden in Queens,” the author is telling the reader that through the tough obstacles and circumstances that occur during the journey to America, it is worth it at the end where the immigrants achieve the life that they longed for. The major themes from this poem are happiness and overcoming obstacles because the immigrants overcame several obstacles to achieve happiness in the end. All three poems connect in the way that they each take part in describing the journey from the native country to America and emphasize the feelings and emotions that go into it. “Flight” talks about the journey at the beginning, “Nocturne” talks about reminiscing love as the journey goes on, and “The Korean Community Garden in Queens” talks about end of the journey of happiness and success. At the beginning of the journey, it seems scary at sad at first and throughout the journey a person often thinks of family members and those who they care about. However, upon arriving in America, immigrants are happy that they finally made it and are able to start a new life.

My creative response is taking the line “Light a lighthouse over these broken spars” from the poem “Nocturne” and writing a poem based on that line. Here’s what I came up with:


A Burning Flame at the Beach

Waves tumbling, crashing into millions of glass shards,
Winds whistling the notes of a flute, as
Clouds rumble and gather together, crying in agony.

Off in the distance a moldy, wooden ship bobbles up and down
Fighting against the evil forces of Mother Nature.
The ship stretches out its hand, ready to grasp the shore
When suddenly BOOM!
A thunder strike sent down from the heavens above
Cuts the hand and sends the ship blundering viciously in circles
Until it is torn and breaks into smithereens
Upon smashing against the rocks near the shoreline.
The fragile pieces of wood and spars land helplessly on the shore of the sandy beach,
Wiped out from their treacherous adventure.
This incident occurs over and over again
For all of eternity.

Not far in the distance stands an abandoned lighthouse,
Perched upon a cliff of moist, eroded rock.
With broken windows and peeling paint,
The lighthouse faithfully sits and stares at the ocean,
Not knowing if its internal flame will ever burn again.
The debris of remains from ships who met their terrible fate,
Spars snapped into jigsaw pieces,
Makes up the gloomy environment that the lighthouse lives in.

This night however, an old man with a shaggy beard appears out of the nighttime fog,
Gruffly walks into the lighthouse, and
Climbs the spiraling stairway to the top.
He lights the Olympic torch and
Sets the night ablaze.
With the lighthouse burning bright and filled with joy,
It turns the whole entire world of sadness and misery upside down,
Shining a ray of hope to people close and afar, while
Overlooking the broken, remaining remnants of the awful past.