Syncopation

Like cloud like wall
Things hard to tell apart in the dark
No
It was burdensome trying to become myself
A certain nuance
The red behind my eyelids
Silence
Matter and memory
The bottle of the bright hill
Same bone different sea
The boundary as an aesthetic choice
A weak unsettled life
A soft greeting
Coming before going
A bit of the forest
No subtitles
Syncopation
Like beauty without content
Walkology
Formless gift exchange party
When I’m writing like this

Poet’s Note
Poet’s Essay
Commentary
Praise for Kim Sono

Writing these poems, I had to forget my questions. To forget, I imagined a humming sound. Rhythmic humming, wrinkled humming, shattered humming. Humming in an empty house where no one is listening. Sound carried over into simultaneous activities like cleaning or walking. Sound without destination. Sound resisting domination or reduction. Leaking from a dark mouth as the outside world rumbles and tumbles on. Containing just enough willpower for a lullaby that puts a loved one to sleep. Lacking any composition, form, or meaning. Barely hitting the right notes. Holding almost nothing. Without lyrics, without a score. But musical, for a brief moment on a sunny day.

.From “Poet’s Note”

Syncopation is a kind of variation that breaks the basic rules of rhythm. A deviation that brings surprise and energy. And so this collection, seen from afar, might be a “syncopation” among other collections that have been or will be written by Kim Sono.

.Song Seung eon (Poet)