Reactions to AA poems

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 by Suji Kwock Kim. Each of these poems is outstanding in its own special way and conveys a message that represents the author’s experience as a Korean American along the journey from Korea to America.

“Flight” talks about the author’s perception of the journey from Korea to America. The author talks about the moment of leaving Korea and describes the environment of the surrounding people and setting. A message is addressed to a future family member about the situation that is going on at the end of the poem. After I read this poem, I was immediately reminded of the similar journey that my parents took when they came to America. They underwent the same circumstances. My mom told me about the experiences that she went through and the aspects of the environment she lived in while she made the dangerous and frightening journey. She mentioned that she saw lots of sick people dying and the whole entire experience was somber for everyone onboard. Although she did not tell me more about her experience beyond these details, I could imagine that what she saw was so dreadful that she didn’t want to talk any more about it. The author paints a vivid portrait of the experience with descriptions like “Our son burned into a wing of smoke” and “A girl with her eyes blown away.” I felt sad for my parents and immigrants who come to America after reading this poem because they went through such harsh circumstances but I also appreciate how strong they were to be able pull through from their experience and not let it greatly affect them. I was surprised at the way the poem was presented on the page in the book. The poem is presented in a unique way where each short line of the poem alternates back and forth between the left and right sides of the page. The structure of the poem stands out because usually poems are presented as stanzas but here the poem takes on a different approach, and that makes the poem stand out.

“Nocturne” depicts a nighttime scene at the beach in order to dedicate the poem to someone that the author loves. The author describes the scenery of the beach with the waves, sand, wind, and sounds and yearns for her love through touching metaphors and descriptive, expressive phrases and words. After I read this poem, I could imagine the entire scene in my head where the author sits on the sand at the beach and looks off into the distance, thinking about her true love. It looks like the romantic scene in some movies where the girl is alone while her love is off somewhere in another location such as another country fighting a war. I felt sad after reading this poem because the author must be going through turmoil of emotion just to have her true love with her at the moment. She feels really lonely and needs someone to support and care for her. The descriptions of the beach also help portray the feelings and emotions that the reader has for her love. “In your shirt’s rustling, I hear sailcloth in the wind, ropes lashed and pulling against the mast” tells the reader that the author’s love can be compared to the aspects of the beach. “I cannot see what you see, but I will paint you a world in green, the color you most love” expresses the author’s feelings towards her love, saying that she will do anything for him to especially make him happy. The author gives the most vibrant descriptions to tell the readers what she wants them to know.

“The Korean Community Garden in Queens” concludes the author’s journey from Korea to America with a description of the garden she lives close to and mentioning the immigrants who come to America to seek a better life. The author gives the readers a sense of the aspects of the garden including the grass and the flowers and personifies them in order to relate them to the immigrants who come to America and have the drive to succeed and live more comfortably. At the end of the poem, the author concludes that those who come to America have finally achieved the life and dream that they sought for. After reading this poem, I thought about what my parents saw when they arrived in America. They were unfamiliar with the scenery and way of life that they were so scared. However, they dealt with the situation by slowly assimilating themselves into American society by getting jobs and learning English. Soon they knew how the system in America worked and eventually became experts at it. Also, unlike the other poems that I have read from this poetry book, this poem made me feel happy. The theme of the poem of a brighter future in relation to the beautiful scenery of the garden in Queens is something worth feeling good about. One of the numerous descriptions of the garden is “…syringes and dead weed-husks, tire-shreds and smashed beer bottles, the first green shoots of spring spike through-…” which gives a visual image of the garden. One of the main connections between the garden and humans (immigrants) is made in the line “All things lit by what they neighbor but are not, each tint flaring without a human soul, without human rage at its passing.”