Starting Notes

Immigration inspection
companion
refinement
Shall We Dance
rationing
The thing on the left
Reading deferral
Quote you
empty house
Get out of the scenery
Obituary
An unforgettable excess
hunting cap
Mad Hatter
select
Love calmly
stomachache
Memorial
My laughter
The first poet
Hidden Milky Way
A room where all sound disappears
breakfast
Say goodbye to liquids
single dining table
The present passes like this
walking trail
gaze
stone throwing
A child who doesn't want to wear clothes
Hand of the Future
Swap
Building
pond
A heart to protect
hi
Letter
Adequate fruit intake
My thing
Unrealized sadness
anniversary
count
Aloe paper cups
Noun death
Mourning for a mistake
isolation
race
When the cherries are ripening
A title that is relevant to the content and yet expandable
A young and arrogant god sitting alone in the playground
missing child
The place where the word disappeared
picnic
A difficult person to deal with
Perception and Eternity 2
Carved in stone
Short magic
A welcome thing
HOMELESS GO HOME
When the children playing on the hill realized that it was a grave
conversation
But the scenery is beautiful

Preface: No One Can Have It, by Kim Seung-il (poet)

“Please spread me out, I want to flow
“I want to be a river, I want to be a sea, I want to be magma.”

With limitless imagination, courage, and love
The poet's wholehearted embrace of every moment of life

Poet Cha Do-ha's "Hands of the Future" is published by Bomnalui Book.
This is the first poetry collection of the poet who began his career through the 2020 Hankook Ilbo New Year's Literary Contest, and is the posthumous poetry collection of the poet who passed away on October 22, 2023, at the age of 24.
The poet, who emerged with praise for “the courage to tackle difficult subjects” and “the fullness of individuality that no established poet could easily conjure up,” has since delivered the most passionate and truthful voice at every moment.
A collection of 62 of his poems, "Hands of the Future" passionately embraces every moment of life with boundless imagination, courage, and love, from suffocating realities to new worlds of unique character.

I am
I will go to heaven and this poem will go into the shredder.
But I will write poetry.
I will use it a lot.
_ At "Immigration Inspection"

The poems in 『Hands of the Future』 are arranged sequentially without any specific division.
This collection of poems is “a book that cannot be broken,” “longer than a snake,” and “longer than a tape measure.”
In order to “measure the circumference of the world with such a book,” the poet wrote and rewrote poetry while facing the harsh yet brilliant aspects of life.
The "entry inspection" that opens the door to the poetry collection takes us to a certain paradise.
It gives you wings to forget all the things you've said in life and fly in the direction you want to fly.
And in the final poem, “But the Scenery is Beautiful,” the wings disappear, leaving an unforgettable mark on us.
It has a long aftertaste.


To explain the bruises on my body with faith, God took my hand and walked along the riverside, not knowing that I hated the smell of water.

(……)

God speaks calmly about love, and I walk along the river without looking at God's face.
I see darkness descending on the river, the river turning into a heavy sheet.

It hurts when you wrap it around and get hit, but it doesn't bruise.

The voice of God stopped, as if it had never existed.
As the lovers' steps grew distant, he pulled his hand away and hit me hard.
_ From "Loving Calmly"

The poet first came to prominence in 2017 when he won the grand prize in the high school poetry category of the 25th Daesan Youth Literature Award.
While attending the Department of Creative Writing at the Korea National University of Arts, he was highly recognized for his outstanding skills when he won the 2020 Hankook Ilbo New Year's Literary Contest.
In his acceptance speech, the poet expressed his bold ambition and determination, saying, “I will diligently polish my sentences, turn them into spears, and steadily throw them somewhere.”
“When I was a young man dreaming of becoming a writer, people reported sexual violence within the literary world.
I wrote poetry while watching people who were born before me, fought, and wrote poetry.
I wrote this to hit the adults who were denying and affirming before I could even answer.
So I will write.”

That true voice continued to be a stepping stone after his debut.
The literary world refused to include the work in a poetry collection selected for the New Year's literary contest by a publisher associated with a sexual assault perpetrator, and declined a request from a literary magazine that did not disclose the fee.
The poet knew how precious the opportunity to publish his work was to a newcomer.
He created a new channel of connection with readers through the mailing service 'Voice', which contains recordings of his own poetry being read aloud.
He questioned the unfair treatment and absurdity of the established literary world and created cracks.
He faced it calmly and loved calmly.

But even in the dark, those who dance will dance
Even if the place to reach out is blocked and the place to step on is sunken

It's okay to imagine something like this
Like a softened wound
It hurts and it's not lovely

Let there be light, let there be light… …
Holding the hand of the muttering man
You don't need it
I started dancing

When someone seemed about to fall, I put strength into the hand I was holding.
_ From "Shall We Dance"

On April 4, 2023, the poet sent a collection of 61 poems to the publisher.
During his lifetime, the poet meticulously revised several poems for publication in a poetry collection, and even chose the picture to use as the cover while imagining the book's appearance.
The poet, who had spent such a hot season, suddenly fell into eternal sleep.
Afterwards, the publisher, along with poets Kang Seong-eun and Shin Hae-wook, carefully edited the manuscript he left behind.
To avoid damaging the meaning, we kept manuscript editing to a minimum, and carefully gathered opinions on essential elements for the book's format, such as the title, arrangement of poems, and cover art.
The blank space that poet Cha Do-ha was unable to fill in ('Poet's Note') was filled in with a paragraph from his prose collection.
The preface was given by poet Kim Seung-il, who remembers his voice.


Doha doesn't hide it.
Doha is always brave.
I have to let you know.
Dohan does not write poetry to deceive people or to tell them how pitiful he is.
Doha writes to imagine.
Poet Cha Do-ha imagines the imaginable while hoping to imagine the unimaginable.
To do that, you have to reveal what little you think you know, the little reality you have.
Doha's imagination always starts from there.
_ Poet Seung-il Kim, from the preface to “Nobody Can Have It”

Read Cha Do-ha.
Imagine Cha Do-ha.
Perhaps he was a man who looked into the river for a long time.
You may have seen the ice melting on the river's edge and ducks dipping their heads into the water to find food.
“He would have stared silently, as if he had something to say, or as if he had lost all words.”
A person who walks until he is tired, a person who goes home to sleep soundly so that he can walk the trail he has not walked yet again tomorrow.

Cha Do-ha's sentences are solid and deep without exception.
It is only natural that it was created by the hands of someone who “suddenly woke up in the dark of the night/ and searched for someone to touch the back of his empty head” or who “touched a white flower out of nowhere/ like a sudden burst of laughter/ and wondered why it was blooming here.”
If that hand exists in the distant future, if we believe it, we will take out Chadoha and read it at any time.
To hold that one and only hand again.

Starting Notes

I'm tired of trying to distinguish between what I can say and what I can't say.
I want to say everything, and I don't want to say anything.
But there are times when you try to say anything and then suddenly close your mouth, and times when you try not to say anything and then suddenly something comes out.
I feel like I'll have to say something somehow, and I feel like I'll have to say something somehow.
I feel lost.
I feel like I'm trying to organize too many things in a very small room.
Still, I want to move things around.
I want to find a layout that I like, even if it's just for a little while.
_ Poet Cha Do-ha, from the prose collection ‘A Person Who Lies Even in His Diary’ (Wisdom House, 2021)