Part 1

About defeat
About sincerity
On foolishness
crash
Put the glass in front of you
empty bottle
A person who sweeps fallen leaves
Sharpening a pencil
A moment at the convenience store
While eating sundae soup
poor
A woman cleaning a men's bathroom
A person like a river
lightning
waterfall
cigarette butts
courtship
Mongdol
cherry blossoms
A man weaving a coffin
Thoughts on weight
trash
trash
front door
Fall

Part 2

I made up my mind
Master of the mind
To become poor in spirit
poor in spirit
The path to the heart
Lunch
Buddha's heart
sad and beautiful
How to pray
lanterns
bamboo rain
Ara lotus flower
Anonymous grass
sense of time
stone tower
In search of conscience
Declaration of Conscience
Dinner time
snowman
Looking at the snowy mountains
Sword and blade of grass
spider caught in a spider web
Absolute stop
Fool's Inn
heart attack

Part 3

Who is there?
earthquake
Please select
Holy place of the heart
winter bird
Seating stones
Prayer for Forgiveness
a glass of water
Where are you going
In one small bowl
Questions about angels
Crosswalk
With this handkerchief
If not you
Your glass
Under your feet
Seoul Station Pigeon
See you next time
Even though it's sad, it's beautiful
Shadow of Sorrow
snowman
Homeless Person Report Form
Waiting for the saint again
retreat
rainy season

Part 4

scourge
discouragement
To love
anchor and sail
crutch
The time we love
Baduk
Without an umbrella
columnar jointing
Folding paper cranes
Before I met you
Why so?
The train has left
As you wish
Moon in the Water
Letter received from yesterday
Letter received from Tomorrow
lighthouse
My mind has wandered
A stolen heart
Every time the first snow falls
When love is over
confession
in the end
Prayer of Parting

Part 5

If you are human
Follow the waterfowl and drink water
Spilled milk
Waiting for the day
Ask the bird
cold rice
public phone booth
Think of a spoon
Towing
pedestal
Downhill
To my collar
begging
How to Cross the Desert
Camel of the Day
errand
In the spider's web
mouse
Tears of the Wind
Future projections for vegetative state
nursing hospital
Last hope
leaf of grass
At Hadong Port
bird of paradise

Commentary | Oh Yeon-kyung
Poet's words

Defeat and divine punishment, the truth of life discovered on the downhill slope
The power of intense paradox that transcends everyday common sense

The essence of Jeong Ho-seung's poetry lies in the power of paradox that penetrates the other side of life.
As poet Seunghee Kim exclaimed in her recommendation, “The power of paradox that far surpasses the everyday is still strong,” the poet in this collection of poems also leads us into a new world of thought by breaking down the boundaries between defeat and success, happiness and unhappiness.
The poet finds the most important values ​​in life in what the world defines as failure.
Representatively, “On Defeat” begins with the declaration, “I am grateful for defeat,” and leads to the realization, “If I had not been defeated/I would not have been able to love you/Because I was defeated, you/were able to love me.”
This paradox, that survival and love were possible because of defeat, directly contradicts the world's winner-takes-all logic.

This subversive thinking appears throughout the poetry collection.
The poet says, “Foolishness makes me wise,” and sings, “Foolish wisdom is my only wealth” (“On Folly”), and asserts, “A bird that has not experienced a fall cannot fly” and “A person who has not experienced separation cannot love” (“The Fall”), suggesting separation as a necessary condition for love.
As critic Oh Yeon-kyung said, “Words that overturn the world’s order and logic and make us realize paradoxical value deliver a gift-like comfort to us who have fallen, been hurt, been ruined, and survived.” (Commentary) When the poet says, “People are most beautiful when they walk downhill” (from “Downhill”), we finally realize the beauty of life, where we take a break from the world that forces us to only walk breathlessly uphill, and walk slowly down while looking at the flowers on the roadside.

Comfort in the most honest language
The warm embrace of a master who embraces an unfinished life

What makes this collection of poems even more special is that it sparkles with moments of discovering the truth of life in the most ordinary of everyday spaces.
The poet captures the moment when “even the past of separation becomes beautiful” (“Eating Sundae Soup”) in a bowl of sundae soup, and leads the reader to a time of self-reflection where he “sharpenes the anger like a dead branch” (“Sharpening a Pencil”) through the act of sharpening a pencil at dawn.
In particular, the human honesty that reveals even the emotions that cannot be controlled without hiding them, rather than the voice of a wise man who has mastered everything, is the highlight of this poetry collection.
This collection of poems “coexists with poems that pledge love and forgiveness in beautiful and restrained language, as well as poems that confess, without hiding, negative emotions that cannot be controlled” (commentary).
The poet, who had been praying devoutly, “Please do not forget that love is completed through forgiveness” (“Prayer for Forgiveness”), suddenly confesses, “I will refuse your bloody cup” and “I am ultimately a man of hate rather than love” (“Your Cup”).
This resonates even more deeply as the honest voice of a human being who has no choice but to live imperfectly and contradictorily.
Instead of showing the teachings of a saint or the state of perfect enlightenment, the poet embraces the failed, wavering, and unfinished life with the warm hand of positivity.

The poet said, “He who has two pieces of bread, let him trade one for a daffodil.
Quoting Muhammad's words, "Bread is for the body, but daffodils are for the soul," he says, "May this collection of poems be the daffodils your soul needs" (the poet's words).
Even after more than 50 years since his debut, Jeong Ho-seung continues to approach us with the freshest and most urgent language.
His poetry, which blooms as “the most beautiful flower of existence” (“Ara Yeonkkot”), guides our souls living in “this age where love is lacking and hatred is rampant” (the poet’s words) to a place of peaceful rest, and will become a warm bowl of rice that will give us the strength to live tomorrow.
And the old yet new 'spring of Jeong Ho-seung's poetry' will never dry up.
The existence of masters is the pride of Korean literature and the joy of our times.

Poet's words

This is the fifteenth new poetry collection and the twelfth in the Changbi Poetry Collection.
For a poet, publishing a book of poetry is the most joyful thing of all.
I thank the Absolute Being for giving me fifteen great joys in my life.


The joy of publishing this poetry collection is especially great.
After the publication of “Sadness Came by Delivery,” I thought I would no longer be able to write poetry.
After writing poetry for over 50 years, I thought my fountain of poetry had dried up.
It was thought that the well had not been buried, but that the water source had been completely dried up.


So for a while I didn't go near the fountain of poetry.
However, just as people need to eat water and food to live without dying, poets also need to think and write poetry to avoid dying.


As I began to write poetry, water began to slowly fill the dried-up well of poetry.
As the water was steadily drawn out, the well seemed to dry up, but it did not.
The more I dug, the more the spring water accumulated, and this book of poems was published.
Now, as long as death does not come, the fountain of my poetry will not dry up.
The belief that poetry loves people has grown stronger than that people love poetry.


Poets try to tell the truth through poetry.
I, too, want to tell the truth about the secrets of life and the people living in this era through poetry.
But there are parts of silence that hide the truth in the forest of metaphors.


Muhammad said, “Whoever has two pieces of bread, let him exchange one for a daffodil.
“Bread is for the body, but daffodils are for the soul.”


I hope this collection of poems will be the daffodil your heart needs.
In this age of lack of love and rife with hatred, the maternal love of poetry warms the heart.


All of the one hundred and twenty-five poems included in this collection, except for twenty-five, are new, unpublished poems.
The publication of a poetry collection also has significance as a venue for presenting new poetry.


Waiting for the fall of 2025
Jeong Ho-seung