I am today / pot / other / ah, and / absorbed / don't spill / my color / future hope / rainy season / one / once in a while / possibility / first love / graduation / happy ending / words that are good to hear a lot / the word "cheer up" / maybe / it was drawn because I didn't draw it / growing pains / feeling of becoming an adult / snow falling in the classroom / look at the moon / it's good because I don't know / anyone's business / any other day / you leave / growing up story / discovery of taste / insomnia / such and such a day / the night is long and deep / morning mind / carefree mind / underlining mind / tomorrow is Wednesday / between sadness and sadness / swallowed words / times / I am today

Preface: "The Heart of a Friend of All People" (Lee Seul-ah)
Poet's words

“The future is still far away, but I think there is hope somewhere.”
The 'heart' of that era as measured by poet Oh Eun

Poet Oh Eun, who debuted in 2002 through 『Modern Poetry』 and has since developed a unique world of poetry through her unique wordplay, has published her youth poetry collection 『Mind Affairs』 as the 30th volume of the Changbi Youth Poetry Series.
Oh Eun's poetry, which stands out for its fresh ideas that transcend stereotypes and its outstanding linguistic sense, is evaluated as having created another 'style' in Korean poetry.
The poet, who is known for his eloquence as much as his playfulness with words in poetry, is also familiar to the public as he hosts the 'Oh Eun's Onggi Jonggi' corner on the podcast 'Yes Bookstore Book Read Out' in addition to his creative activities, and is also called 'the poet loved by poets'.

『Mind Work』 is poet Oh Eun's first poetry collection for young people, containing a total of 40 poems.
The poems, which delicately and meticulously capture the sensitive sensibilities and complex psychology of teenagers, evoke empathy from anyone who reads them, bringing back memories of my own time.
So, 『Work of the Heart』 is a poetry collection that I would like to recommend not only to teenagers, but also to all of us who are still growing.


A vague intuition about what youth is.
I had the anxiety of someone whose time was just around the corner during my youth.
"Affairs of the Heart" reminds me of my feelings back then as if it were yesterday.
It makes me want to ask after a friend I met a long time ago.
It makes me want to talk with him about the passage of time and the things that come and go in our lives.
―Isul-ah (author)

Meanwhile, 『Mind Work』 is scheduled to be published as 『Mind Work - Oh Eun & Jaesu's Picture Book of Poetry』 in early November of this year.
This illustrated poetry collection is a collaborative work created by Oh Eun-i and her friend, the cartoonist Jae-su, who are the same age as her, while writing her poetry collection, “Things of the Heart.” You can experience “reading comics through poetry, reading poetry through comics” in this collection.


“I have tomatoes today.
“Whether I walk forward or backward, it’s me.”
Wit sparkles in vibrant wordplay

Oh Eun's poetry stands out for its lively wordplay.
The wit with which he chooses his words shines in his vivid sentences.
As he himself said, “Better poetry comes from loving words,” and as you read his poetry, where words call out to one another like a tail biting its own, you will be amazed by his ingenious skill in using language.
For example, “I am a tomato today / I am the same whether I walk forward / I am the same whether I walk backward” (“I am today,” p. 8).
This can be done by using homonyms, repeating similar phrases, or placing the same word or syllable at the beginning of each line.
This innocent wordplay, which is said to “take the aesthetics of wordplay, which has been neglected in Korean poetry, to the extreme,” is a unique charm of Oh Eun’s poetry.
However, it does not end as a simple play on words.
It also coldly observes the precarious reality of teenagers who “have been having nightmares for days” and “barely hold on / by climbing on a single leaf” (“Rainy Season,” p. 30).

Nothing happened
I started crying even though nothing happened.
I cried because nothing happened.

Say something!

It was of no use
It didn't help at all
―The "Rainy Season" section

“Maybe we can be friends”
A heart that understands and becomes friends with one mind

In the poetry collection, poet Oh Eun and his young friends cry together, laugh together, love together, and grow up together.
The poet is not an adult, but a friend of the same age, and he becomes one with them, who are also “trees” that “grow up and sideways / in all directions,” “clouds” that “float intoxicated by my mood,” “paper” that “cannot decide what to write,” and “shadows” that “tenaciously follow me” (“I am today,” p. 8), and exchanges “stories of becoming one with each other” (“Growing Stories,” p. 74).
Approach children who desperately need someone to comfort them, children who have many worries but none of them have been resolved, children who cannot sleep on long, deep nights, and children who walk with their shadows with their shoulders slumped, and share your heart by listening to what they want to say, what they want to do, and what they want to contain inside themselves.

Friends talk when things are tough
cheer up
And pat me on the shoulder
And sometimes I pat my back

When you have even a little bit of strength
It's getting a little bit
It's getting a little bit better
A surprising word that becomes a little bit

(syncopation)

It takes strength to be strong
Even though it's hard
You have to work hard and muster up strength
―The part about "Cheer up"

“I want to be happy even along the way.”
Finding happiness today through other thoughts and feelings

“Thoughts fall and pile up in the classroom every day.” (Snow Falling in the Classroom, p. 60) Nevertheless, the youth in the classroom always sit in one place in one space and go through a set routine according to the bell that rings to start class.
However, they are “irreplaceable by anyone” and “like sand and sand / they seem similar, but are completely different” (“The Underlining Heart,” p. 90).
I want to live as myself with a name rather than being called a 'number'.
Days pass similarly, but in fact, “not a single day is the same” (“Same Day,” p. 81).
So the poet says he is happiest when he is lost in thought and distracted.
I believe that only then will something new emerge and life be added to the otherwise monotonous “so-so” life.
A different mind, a different thought, a different heart.
Dreaming of that very 'other' is not a distant future, but today, the way to be happy "once in the morning, once at noon, and twice in the evening," and it is the way for me, who "has never been the main character until now" (Happy End, p. 46), to become the main character.


I don't know what will happen in the future.
What will happen tomorrow?
I can't imagine what the next chapter will bring.
Now we are in one place
You can't just look at one place

You shouldn't be a scapegoat
You must not have other thoughts
Adults say,

In other words
Others make us dream
It makes us different people
―The "other" part

“I bloom today, I am me today.”
A story of growing up and becoming who I am, found with my heart

Adolescents change little by little without anyone noticing, their facial expressions changing from moment to moment, or they become blank.
Sometimes, the horrifying fact that “a child who lies every day grows up / becomes an adult who lies every day” makes “growing up as an adult suddenly feel like a distant dream” (“Sometime,” p. 36).
So, someday, you will become an adult and think about your future in your own way.
The poet earnestly hopes that young people will not lose their dreams during this turbulent period.
For them, “the future is still far away,” but “hope is somewhere out there” (“Hope for the Future,” p. 28).
Anything can be contained, and everyone is good at at least one thing, and “that is very important” (One, p. 33).


The future was approaching slowly and steadily
It came out of the blue
Not yet
So far away that it's opaque
It was promised or expected because it was far away

Hope was something that was visible
In an instant, there was nothing left
But if you hold it again
It swells up like a balloon
It was like a wave breaking into pieces
―The “Future Hope” section

However, the poet subtly reminds us that hope for the future does not simply refer to a ‘job.’
The poet, who will be an adult in his 40s next year, says that “I still think about my hopes for the future,” and that “reading a book a month or taking a walk for 30 minutes a day is also hope” (the poet’s words).
Thanks to the poet's heart that still thinks about the future, while reading "Things of the Heart," we will want to "ask after the well-being of a friend we met a long time ago" and "talk with a friend about the passing of time and the things that have come and gone in our lives" (Lee Seul-ah, Preface).
I hope that everyone who reads this collection of poems will cultivate “the time that burns within” (“Pot”) and become a “free self” (“Graduation”) to the fullest, and find “the story of growing up and becoming myself.”



[Poet's Note]

When I was young, I was often asked about my hopes for the future.
I could give different answers to the same question several times a day.
A grown man who was a detective, an inventor, an astronaut, a teacher, a table tennis player, and then a child again.
There was no retirement.
There was only transformation.
Looking back, I don't think it was because I believed I could become anything.
It was a possible imagination because becoming an adult felt so far away.
It was a time when there were six or seven kids in each class who wanted to become president.
There were some children who wanted to be novelists, but no one wanted to be a poet.
I was no exception.

What are those kids doing now?
I wonder if I lost my dreams during my teenage years.
Have you found the right career for you among countless future aspirations?
Why did I think at the time that future hopes only referred to occupations?
Traveling around the world in 80 days, reading a book a month, or taking a 30-minute walk a day are all things to dream about.
So I still think about my hopes for the future.