Source of book: I own this
It isn’t that often that I blog about a local author that isn’t that well known outside of my part of California. A few years back, I talked about Ardis Walker, a local poet, teacher, and environmental advocate. (I think we should rename a local mountain currently named for a Confederate traitor after Walker, because of Walker’s association with that area.)
This book is by another local writer, one who is still living, and was recently named as the honorary Poet Laureate of our county. For years, she has been active in the local poetry scene, a board member of Kern Poets, in addition to her decades as a public health doctor.
When our local paper did an article about her recently, I decided to get her poetry collection from our local independent bookstore, and check her out.
Sungsook is mostly about Choi’s experience as a young girl during the Korean War, which erupted while her father was working in the United States. Her family was displaced, separated, and eventually reunited in the United States when she was age 8. The name itself is her original Korean name, before it was changed by her parents to something easier to say in English. More mainstream, although the Shakespeare reference isn’t as familiar as it should be.
Over the last few years, I have ended up reading a number of books about the trauma and displacement of that civil war, triggered by the end of Japanese colonial occupation, and unfortunately fueled by interference from communist China and imperialist America. I’ll link to those at the end of the post.
For Choi, the trauma was real and personal. Since she was very young, the perspective is that of a small child who doesn’t always understand what is happening or its significance. The book is a poignant view from inside the mind of that child.
It’s a very short book - only 37 pages, of which 25 are the actual poems. I selected two of them to feature.
Heartbeats
Up and down
up and down
rocked on back of mama.
My arms grasp her,
my legs dangle
my bottom and back
tied to mama
with strips of cloth.
(Before, before
inside mama’s water-warmth
her heartbeats muffled.)
Mama’s arms support
my bottom, her heartbeats
through her blouse like
on slow walks from church,
rocked to sleep, home.
Shouts, awake,
rush, frenzy;
a grandma
falling down.
Mama’s heartbeats.
I am on her back,
protected
in the sweat-blood rush
of refugees.
Spring Treats
In the hush of early spring,
sun’s brightness awakened tender sprigs beneath
the melting snow.
Squeals of other children entice
me outside. I speed into the
marketplace.
A tan tube of billowing cloth undulates
from pop-popping rice--
Roasty aroma fills my nose.
A man takes huge scissors, snips the candy brick
lying on his cart.
With red-puffy fingers, he picks up the candy,
reaches to us crowded
‘round his cart.
Ah-ah, yuh-yum. Sweetness melting
all around--
taste safety.
If you are interested in obtaining this book, you can order it from Russo’s Books here in Bakersfield - they will ship anywhere in the US, I believe. If you live elsewhere, I would give them a call, as they usually find ways of making it happen.
***
The Korean history list:
Shoko's Smile by Choi Eunyoung
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