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Poem of rock bottom

Posted October. 01, 2022 07:24,   

Updated October. 01, 2022 07:24

한국어

I want to apologize to our readers and the poet for introducing only a small part of the poem that takes up as many as four pages in the compilation. The poem is filled with the anxiety of a person who has a long way to go in life, and one can never be able to understand the message if not read through from the beginning to the end. Or worse, even if one reads the whole work, it would still be challenging to understand the poet's mind or feelings fully. Yet, I chose this poem for the last read for this September because the time we are living in is indeed full of anxiety. One cannot but think the title "Poem of Rock Bottom" itself seems to encapsulate the era we are living in.

A long time ago, when humans hunted and gathered food, humanity roamed from place to place. The poet says that now the fear of humanity is roaming around the world instead. It seems pretty accurate. We now live settled at a house in a particular region of a country, but mentally our minds travel all around the world gripped by fear. There is horrifying news everywhere: a hurricane somewhere is presently sweeping everything around it, a financial crisis triggered elsewhere is going to hit Korea, or the repercussions can shake our daily lives. Our bodies may stand on a concrete surface hard as a rock, but our minds feel sunken in sands. Buildings erected in front of us look sturdy and firm, but the plastic trash bag filled with house garbage gets ripped open every time. One cannot help but think everything seems ironic and unsuitable and doesn't make sense. What we feel at such moments is usually described as anxious and insecure. The poet describes it as collapsing.

What would happen to the war, climate change, human minds, societies, and our safety? Our anxiety and fear keep wandering off, going further into the deep. Hopefully, rock bottom and up is the only way there is.