Temple of the Wind, Poetess - Ms. Park Soon (South Korea)

Poetess Ms. Park Soon

Poetess Park Soon was born in 1970 in Hongcheon, Gangwon Province, South Korea. She graduated from the Department of Korean Language and Literature at Korea National Open University. She made her literary debut in 2015 after winning the New Writers’ Literary Award from Siin Jeongsin (Poet’s Spirit).
Her honors include the Siin Jeongsin Excellent Work Award, the Grand Prize at the 2nd Seoul Citizens’ Literary Award, the 5th Hayu Literary Award, the Grand Prize in the Poetry Category of the Asia-Pacific Arts and Literature Awards, and the Korean Environmental Literature Grand Prize.
She has served as a Planning Committee Member for the literary magazine Munhakcheongchun, an Editorial Board Member of Hanmaek Literature, a Director of the Nowon Writers’ Association, Vice President of the Asia-Pacific Federation of Culture and Arts, Executive of Culture & People Newspaper, Secretary-General of Korean Literature Love Newspaper, Culture Desk Reporter for National Integrity Newspaper, a member of the Seoul Citizens’ Literary Award Committee, Standing Executive of the Dante Writers’ Association, Director of Public Relations for the Petra Korea Poetry & Music Association, and an instructor of creative writing at the Seoul Municipal Cerebral Palsy Welfare Center.
Her poetry collections include Fade in and Temple of the Wind.
 
 
 
 
 
Temple of the Wind
 
I did not know where I was going.
As I took the bent road, my body curved with it,
and where footprints trampled through,
the blood of flowers, grass, and birds flowed.
When the wind churned against my flank,
I could not hear the sound of stones cracking within,
many days I rolled about inside the ribs of the wind.
When the wind spurred my side and lashed me like a whip,
I had no choice but to run faster than the wind itself.
Those times when I drove myself on
by sheer instinct to charge forward—
the pain in my side long since forgotten.
Cold moonlight wrapped
the black body abandoned, unable to rise.
From that day on,
I called my body the Temple of the Wind.