Hanmaeum Clinic

Something I bought for myself sometimes feels like a present. The case in point is a book of poetry titled, “Can I Love Someone?” by poet Son Mi. When I first saw the title from a pile of new books, I paused for a minute as if I fell in love with it. It was when I got tired of asking myself if I could love this world. It was when I found it so hard to love someone, let alone this world. I rarely realize this but poetry is like a mirror. If you look into it, you see yourself in it. That day, I returned home with a mirror-like book of poetry in my arms.

Today, I want to introduce a poem from the book titled, “Hanmaeum Clinic.” The poem makes me feel like I was comforted by someone. There is someone going through a pain like ourselves. From the title, we can assume that the patient is lying on a hospital bed at the Hanmaeum Clinic. The patient has a headache but it might be the heart that actually hurts.

We are living in an era of extinction, where we lose each other as well as love. Since we are not living in harmony, there is no way to get better even after being treated at the Hanmaeum Clinic (meaning “in harmony” in Korean). Is it okay to live in such a dry and precarious way? Will we be able to survive? It makes me sad to read the monologue in the poem. At the same time, it makes me relieved to know that I am not the only one who feels like the narrator in the poem.