The flower’s color, its smell,
and the neck of birds
open at the hungriest moment,
it is to earn a living.
If you drink
the color, the smell,
and the bird’s song that begins to spread in the air.
you get irresistibly hungry.
It is the spooning
of the soul.
Park Ra Youn (b. 1951) was born in Bosung, South Jeolla Province. She studied Korean Literature at Korea National Open University and got Ph. D at Wonkwang University. She made her literary debut in 1990. Her poetry collections include Pyunggang Princess Living in Seoul (1991), A Man Peeling off Raw Chestnuts (1993), While I Live Renting You (1996), My Garden in the Air (2000), The Cosmos Passed Away (2006) and Light’s P.O Box (2009). Her poetry continually reflects and finds the meaning of life even in the most desolate world. Her delicate words appealing to the sentiments of the public have been woven into beautiful lyric lines where sadness and happiness, pain and delight of life mix altogether.
