Part 1: Until a Sad Heart Becomes a Not-So-Sad Heart
island
speed of light
Guilt
vaudeville
waiter
breath
Someday we will leave this studio apartment
Croquis
Summer 1995
dummy
Problems and problems of problems
At the end of the world
chorus
The Tales of the Maccabees

Part 2: Can This Be Love?
This summer's work
conveyor
To the 2010s
Some requests
Post-post punk
Contemporary literature
life
blood type
Swamp Dogs
flesh and bones
True North
Love in a Mist
Ten ears

Part 3: Let's not die, please stay alive
In the middle of the city
narrative
wave number
Living properly
Love and Future
pray
The lowest poem
An inch behind
As expected
End Note
Citizen's Forest
Winter Love
Until the end of the world
If this was a story of hardship, or rather, a noble story,

Commentary | Lee Gyeong-su
Poet's words

A sharp blow thrown into the vast world,
And yet we will live

The current generation of young people, driven to a corner in life, live with anger and sadness toward the world.
The world is a suffocating place.
A terrible reality is unfolding, with outrageous remarks like “Those who live in extreme poverty/and have not learned anything/do not even know what freedom is” (“Breath”) pouring out, and hatred and discrimination being incited.
Even in the face of this violent reality, where people are driven into inhumanity “because they are useless” (from “Flesh and Bone”) despite working “with all their might,” the poet does not despair.
“I can’t change the world, but I dream” (Lee Seung-yoon, recommendation) and “Until my sad heart becomes a heart that isn’t sad” (from “Summer 1995”).
I also have my grandmother's words engraved on my body: "Despair often, but never lose hope" (from "Until the End of the World").
And the poet asks questions to the world.
In a dark and hopeless world, after sending many away, the poet's cry is venomous but touches with hope.
It is a resistance to reality that tells us to give up our dreams, and an encouragement to live together.
This is probably why the poet says, “What we need/is human body heat, not to be alone, not to be useless” (“Post-Post Punk”), and why he urges, “Let’s not die, please/let’s stay alive” (“Living Properly”).
So, how can we not call this “love”? (Lee Gyeong-su, commentary)


Today too, I work hard, love, and hope
The new realist of this era

Unlike many young poets today, Choi Ji-in is closely connected to reality and renews the spirit of realism in her poetry using the language of her generation.
The reason why many young readers sympathize with Choi Ji-in's poetry and laugh with her is because she is grounded in reality.
His poetry touches the heart with its exceptionally clear and lucid voice, and not only young people but also readers who have already passed that time will hold onto this collection of poems for a long time as they reflect on their past.
That is the power of this collection of poems, and the beautiful, poignant landscape of life that Choi Ji-in portrays as a realist.

Ji-in Choi will continue to write poetry with the firm determination to “survive until the very end” and the power of passionate love that “screams out poetry in the face of death” (“At the End of the World”).
Step by step, we will work hard, love, and hope (the poet's words) today as well, navigating the darkness of the world that is “faint/dreamlike” and “where nothing/is visible” (“A Few Demands”).
That is why this collection of poems will resonate with each reader's worries, love, and loneliness.


Poet's words

There is something that nothing can destroy.
I will work, love and hope.

March 2022
Choi Ji-in