Poet's words

Part 1 I bring good luck in its entirety

New Year's Horoscope
Lucky Super
I like the word height better than swamp
Bare feet are cold but kind of cute
Congratulations, congratulations
Inside a Ferris wheel with acid rain falling
The new year begins without heavy snowfall
That's when I couldn't say I was beautiful
George who lives in Kichijoji
SF
I can't tell if it's an old memory or a dream I had a long time ago.
Hanyang Apartment
On foggy winter mornings, you must go to the bathhouse.

Part 2: I Want to Be a Promising Player Even After I Die

emergency stairs
cur
Purple Fog White Deer
holography
When the world tries to steal the feeling of being robbed
Steel, steel, steel
I think a Dior exclusive designer should make my clothes.
The Black Cat and the Assassin
Why can't this spring night be my spring night?
Before saying congratulations
Just die

Part 3: Things that were necessary for the future to be born

One soap bubble
light knock
Namyoung
Knitted clock
Pink Muhly
A faith that is incredibly close
A mind that does not scatter
Fairy's Parasol
Confession even though it's not snowing
Before everything begins
Cinema and Movies
Things out of the water
Other things
No one will be submerged in the rain that falls in the future

Part 4 I'm Your Fan

aluminum raindrops
Cherry's Pledge
Jinhee and Heejin
Challenge! Sales King
Strawberries and Pandas
You said goodbye like you were running out of hand cream
game or game
For those who love sunsets and can sometimes tolerate the scent of lemons
Happy Destroyer
Cappuccino feelings
Bang Show Love
Grapefruit and Aurora
Fan letter? December 31st

commentary
Crochet Memory | So Yoo-jeong (literary critic)

Poetry-LIM Poet Selection

The webzine LIM aims to convey the world of a poet's poetry in depth by serializing the poems of one poet for about a month.
After serialization, these poems will be published in the Poetry-LIM Poet Selection, presenting them in a new and richer form.

The Poetry-LIM Poet Selection carefully considered both content and form to introduce only original poems.
The colors of the front and back covers are extended and gradated across the spine, visualizing the continuity between the series through color.
Additionally, the first edition features stickers featuring objects reminiscent of the poem, allowing readers to decorate the cover themselves for added fun.

“Still looking forward to it
The long-awaited New Year and I am your

I'm a fan"

The power to change a 'life that is about to end' into a 'life that ends'
“The beauty we share while living”

“The future of Korean poetry that readers have seen first” “A leader in text heap” Poet Ko Seon-gyeong’s “A Tomato Stronger Than the Heart” has been published as the first poetry collection in the Yeollimwon Poet Selection Series “Poetry-LIM Poet Selection.”
When poet Go Seon-gyeong debuted in the 2022 [Chosun Ilbo] New Year’s Literary Contest, poets Lee Moon-jae and Jeong Gyeot-byeol praised her, saying, “We look forward to the power of poetry she will write with overflowing poetic passion.” Through her first poetry collection, “Shower Gel and Soda Water,” she received support and love from many readers for her courage and cheerfulness in “standing up against today, which is like a crumpled heel, and finally keeping the promise of tomorrow.”
Amidst the enthusiastic responses of readers such as “It’s playful and lovely,” “I realized for the first time that poetry collections can be fun,” and “The word ‘MZ’ is too narrow to describe author Go Seon-gyeong,” the poet, who displayed her comedic instincts as a ‘street literature fighter,’ returned as the ‘Challenge! Sales King.’

“My poetry collection’s strength lies in turning my dropped head around as if I were stretching.” Poet Go Seon-gyeong, who once expressed her desire to write literature full of playfulness so that everyone can enjoy it without being left out, conveys her feelings that have deepened even further in her new poetry collection, “A Tomato Stronger Than the Heart,” while still preserving her sincerity, courage, and love that shine through humor, fun, and honest confessions.
The poet, who realized from a single tomato glowing red in the time we spent together that “what we say we know when we don’t” is actually a “heart” that is “stronger than the heart,” affirms both the joy and sorrow that we were able to share because we lived together.
In the process of meeting and parting in life, I hope that we can welcome the new year in a clean place without tears or sadness, so that we do not have to endure too much sadness. With this hope, I put “the beauty we have shared while living” into “a tomato that is stronger than the heart.”

The belief and memory that you are alive (or were) somewhere in this city,
Let's create our story with you by my side, even though you're far away.

If you read this collection of poems while recalling Go Seon-gyeong's first collection of poems, you will notice a change in the atmosphere.
Of course, the reality faced by the youth of this city remains the same: a company that doesn't even pay wages, a middle school classmate who works at a large corporation, a goshiwon room you don't want your lover to see, a villain on Subway Line 1, a jeonse scam... The courage and humor of the poetic subject who confronts it remain the same.
For example, he scolds Demise, saying, “I have nothing to give to you, a robber who just dies” (“Die”), or he reminds himself, “Even if misfortunes strike from both sides/ There is a number I can dial by taking out my phone from anywhere/ There is someone who will cry at the same time as birds/ I have the heart to pour so that a transparent glass becomes even more transparent” (“Confession Even When It Doesn’t Snow”).
However, if the representative image of 『Shower Gel and Soda Water』 was a refreshing and cool feeling like soda water with endless bubbles, in 『A Tomato Harder Than the Heart』, the image of a type with a high temperature and a lingering taste in the mouth stands out, like coffee with a “bitter cinnamon scent” (“Cappuccino Feeling”) or a “dark drink” that has been brewed for a long time (“Bang Show Love”).
Rather than a refreshing, non-sticky, volatile taste, the lingering flavor and aroma evoke something that remains in the poetic subject.
For example, memories of someone who is no longer around but was ‘there’.


The possibility of a future where anything can happen

The 'disappearance' that what remains inevitably brings up raises the question, "Why do we have to meet and then part?" ("New Year Without Even a Heavy Snowfall").
The poetic subject, who has collapsed in the face of loss or misfortune, ponders this question, but continues to resolve to “get back up again and again every time I fall down” (“Challenge! Sales King”).
I will continue to call out my friends' names and not keep to myself what I see, hear, and feel.
Let us grieve this sadness as well as the joy we shared when we met.
If the sadness is something that can't be overcome no matter what, then I've decided to look forward to more possibilities in the future and make more resolutions.

Therefore, we come to realize that there were countless 'you's' and 'us' by 'me' until the saying, "There is a life left to finish" changed to "There is a life left to finish" ("New Year's Fortune").
To all the typists who helped me endure those times, the words, “I” am also “your fan.”
This collection of poems is a confession, a congratulation, and a lucky charm that the poet gives to the reader.


A word from Go Seon-gyeong (author)

It will be crunchy
Because it's a heart that has endured winter

January 2025
Go Seon-gyeong