That Summer's End
Poems
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That Summer's End
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Narrated by:
That summer I stood in the centers of storms That summer my despair burst out into crimson but still I weathered the wind and rain
Mountains, rivers, trees, flowers, the dark, a cat, a train. In the elemental forms and figures of our world, Lee Seong-bok finds repositories for thought, sounding boards against which he can test his reflections. Again and again, in sequences, he probes his subjects—five “Mountain Path” poems, three “River” poems, three commentaries on the I Ching— not to solicit answers, like Moses impatiently striking the rock for water, but to savor the muted tones that echo in response.
After one ruckus / begins another / The silent forest vibrates // Suffering was always / new suffering
The poems of That Summer’s End, though acutely conscious of the self, are free of an inhibiting self-consciousness, speaking directly of youth, love, fear, family, grief, old age, impermanence, and all that’s central to life. As enticing as they are profound, Lee Seong-bok’s poems have made him not only a poet’s poet but a favorite of RM, leader of K-pop superstars BTS, whose support of his work on social media has brought him international attention.
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Critics' reviews
“Nature, loss, and longing inspire these quiet verses, which conjure a sense of the immense mysteries governing the observable world. . . . Lee’s lines have the intimacy and metaphysical heft of prayer; their elegant recursions and repetitions call to mind the cycles of life, death, and rebirth. . . . Throughout, Lee’s invocations imbue his subjects with an air of divinity.” —The New Yorker
“Lee Seong-bok’s extraordinary poems feel etched in stone but gorgeously diaphanous, light as air. Contemplative, romantic, wise, he traces mountain trails and the contours of a mind. ‘All day I am filled to the brim with thoughts of you,’ he writes, ‘Is there an end to this path[?]’ I savored every page of this first encounter, in Anton Hur’s brilliant translation, of this poet’s restless and reverberating music. I was filled with longing for the next poem.” —Richie Hofmann, author of The Bronze Arms
"Can wind go to sleep? Can forests stand on top of each other? Can islands have babies? In the brilliant, gnomic poems of Lee Seong-bok, all manner of naturalistic miracles and interpersonal slippages are conceivable, and human consciousness itself is enlarged. Haunted by loss yet brightened by a sense of play and possibility, That Summer’s End is a significant collection by one of the leading philosopher-poets alive today." —Maggie Millner, author of Couplets
“Lee Seong-bok’s extraordinary poems feel etched in stone but gorgeously diaphanous, light as air. Contemplative, romantic, wise, he traces mountain trails and the contours of a mind. ‘All day I am filled to the brim with thoughts of you,’ he writes, ‘Is there an end to this path[?]’ I savored every page of this first encounter, in Anton Hur’s brilliant translation, of this poet’s restless and reverberating music. I was filled with longing for the next poem.” —Richie Hofmann, author of The Bronze Arms
"Can wind go to sleep? Can forests stand on top of each other? Can islands have babies? In the brilliant, gnomic poems of Lee Seong-bok, all manner of naturalistic miracles and interpersonal slippages are conceivable, and human consciousness itself is enlarged. Haunted by loss yet brightened by a sense of play and possibility, That Summer’s End is a significant collection by one of the leading philosopher-poets alive today." —Maggie Millner, author of Couplets
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