'If I were a poet, I would kidnap you with poetry.
I will captivate you with poetry and rhyme, sing you songs with violets, comfort your feelings with snow melting from your brow, and leave you standing alone on the windswept beach to complete my poem.
Every time I write your name in a poem, I will change my mind…'

The moment you open this collection of poems and read it, you must be careful.
From Nobel Prize-winning poets to unknown French poets, Irish bards, Norwegian peasant poets, and Japanese children's authors, you will be seduced.
Then you will have to stand alone on the beach in the rain, and wander between the lines of poetry, tossed by waves of emotion.
And we must answer the poets' questions.
Because life is lived only as long as you ask questions.
Poets tell us:
'If you can't be a poet, live like poetry.'

Poems rewritten countless times by poets around the world to express the patterns of the heart.
No matter how many times you reread it, it is a feast of poems that come to you in a new way.
This is a collection of good poems filled with transparent emotions and a warm perspective on humanity.
A new collection of poetry prescriptions for life, following 『If I Knew Then What I Know Now』 and 『Love as If You've Never Been Hurt Before』.
With commentary by poet Ryu Si-hwa, we have collected poems that have woken up many readers in the morning for five years on Facebook and Twitter under the title “Morning Poems.”

two people

Two people row.
A ship.
One person
Know the stars
One person
I know the storm.

One person passes through the stars
Guide the ship
One person passes through the storm
Guide the ship.
When we finally reached the end
The sea in my memory
It will always be blue.

- Rainer Kunze


This is one of the representative poems of Rainer Kunze (1933~), the greatest living German lyric poet, and is often recited as a wedding poem.
Three ordinary words—ship, star, storm—convey a profound message as they expand their meaning across the vast ocean of life.
Being on the same boat means being a community of shared destiny.
The star is the destination, and the storm is the unexpected encounter on the journey there.

The two people could be a couple, lovers, colleagues, or even the two selves within me.
It could be God or man.
One person knows 'where' to go, and one person knows 'how' to do it.
One person has wisdom, the other has a strong spirit.
And at the foundation of it all is trust in each other.
Then the two of them can overcome any difficulties.
That's why the word 'together' is good.

The restraint of language actually gives language more weight and suggestion.
Kunze's poetry, which contains deep insight in warm language, is characterized by compression and brevity.
There are many proverb-like poems that stimulate the reader's imagination because they have a small number of words.
Born the son of a miner in Saxony, then a socialist state in East Germany, Kunze studied philosophy and journalism at university, but was expelled for writing love poetry and became an assistant mechanic in a factory.

At the age of 28, Kunze met Elizabeth Litonerova, a young doctor living in Prague, Czech Republic, and the two began to talk to each other through letters.
One day, while enduring the dark times and exchanging over 400 letters, when Kunze proposed to her, Elizabeth came to East Germany without hesitation.
Kunze, who was expelled from the Writers' Union for his unyielding resistance to the dictatorship, went into exile in West Germany with Elisabeth.
That's how the two of them weathered the storms of life.

The wisdom of life is not in stopping the waves, but in learning to surf them.
We can't stop the waves.
The pinnacle of a relationship is working together to overcome the waves.
The original German title of this poem is "Two Men Rowing".
One person (der eine) and another person (der andre), a star (Sterne) and a storm (Stuerme) are repeated and sound like one song.

Yes, when two people row together in unison, life becomes a song.
The two overcome hardships (storms) while experiencing the beauty (stars) that life presents.
So, even though they pass through the night sea with countless waves and reefs, the sea in their memories will always be blue and sunny.
Even the difficult times will be remembered with a smile.
We may not know where life's journey will take us, but in the end, we will look back and remember the blue sea.

--- pp.10~13


That might not be possible

I woke up with healthy legs.
It might not have been possible.
Cereal and sweet milk
I ate a perfectly ripe peach without any blemishes.
It might not have been possible.
I took my dog ​​for a walk in the birch forest on the hill.
I spend the whole morning doing what I love.
In the afternoon, I lay down with my lover.
It might not have been possible.
We sat at a table with silver candlesticks
We had dinner together.
It might not have been possible.
Sleeping in a room with paintings on the walls
I hoped for a tomorrow like today.
But I know, one day
That it wouldn't work out that way.

- Jane Kenyon


This is a poem written by poet and translator Jane Kenyon (1947-1995) a year before she passed away from leukemia.
During her college years, Jane met and married poet Donald Hall, who was 19 years her senior and was teaching literature. They lived on a farm in New Hampshire for 20 years.
Jane and Donald's lives were made into the Emmy Award-winning documentary A Life Together.
Donald Hall is an American poet laureate who expressed his wonder at nature and life through poetry and prose.
He recounted his experience caring for his dying wife:
'My wife's death was the worst thing that ever happened to me, and caring for her was the best thing I ever did.'

We don't really realize how much of a blessing we are in the things we enjoy—a leisurely walk, a shared meal, admiring a painting, a loving hug, falling asleep with the promise of tomorrow.
They are just everyday things.
But how many accidents, sudden illnesses and disasters interrupt that daily life?

A few years ago, I suddenly collapsed and was unable to move.
He was completely paralyzed from the neck down, except for the ability to speak and blink.
Even though the puppy licked my face, I couldn't pet it.
The cause of the paralysis was unknown, but after three days, his body returned to normal.
I still vividly remember the feeling of waking up on my own at dawn and walking out into the yard.
It wasn't just my recovery from sudden paralysis that was a miracle, but every activity of my daily life became a miracle.
Now I wake up with healthy legs and take my dog ​​for a walk.
Travel to India and go trekking in the Himalayas.
Laugh, joke, be moved, and write with a pencil in your hand.
“At the end of your life, don’t pray to see the sea, the sky, the stars, and your loved ones one last time.
“Go see them now,” says Elisabeth Kübler-Ross in Life Lessons.

Isn't that surprising?
Instead of despairing or feeling pessimistic about the end of his life at age 48, the poet, who had just been named New Hampshire's Poet Laureate that year, is making the small acts of life special.
Walking on two legs, eating cereal with milk, and even biting into the round flavor of a peach.
Because they know that it will soon become impossible.

Yes, how blessed are our little daily moments.
Being alive is a great opportunity.
Because the day will soon come when those 'special' daily lives will disappear.
Walking on water is not a miracle, but walking on land with both feet is a miracle.
Life is a series of thousands of little miracles.
The poet says we must not just pass them by.
Although it is not written in the poem, the words 'realize before it is too late' are hidden between the lines.
--- pp.24~27


Greener grass

The reason the grass on the other side is greener
Because it always rains there,

The person who always shares
In fact, if you are a person who has little,

The person with the brightest smile
I have a tear-soaked pillow

The bravest person you know
In fact, if you are a person paralyzed by fear,

The world is full of lonely people
If you are together and cannot see,

Even though he himself has no true resting place,
If it makes you comfortable,

Maybe their grass looks greener
If only because they painted it that color.

Just remember, on the other side
That your grass looks greener.

- Erin Hanson


Don't think that just because someone is always smiling, they never cry.
There would have been no reason to shed tears in his life.
Don't assume that someone who lives courageously is fearless.
That he would never be tied down by the ropes of despair.
Just because someone always seems to be around people and having fun doesn't mean they won't be lonely.
That sleepless nights would pass him by.
And don't mistake him for giving you so much, thinking he has everything in abundance.
Because it might mean giving up your share for me.

Erin Hanson (born 1995) is from Brisbane, Australia. She began writing at a young age and became known when she published her poetry online at the age of nineteen.
He published three poetry collections, including 『The Poetic Underground』.
I approach readers by writing poetry that uses ordinary words to create poetic rhythm.
In another poem, “Every heart's a hurricane,” Hanson writes:

There is a typhoon in every heart
There is a starry sea in every soul
In every heart there is a shooting star freed from gravity.
Every life has its share of lightning.
But everyone says no.

We expect things from life, but we overlook what life expects of us.
Life does not expect us to be heroes or immortal.
Even if you are paralyzed by fear, take one step at a time, and even if you are lonely, be with people.
Sharing even when you don't have anything.

Just because someone's grass is green doesn't mean their garden will always be sunny or never cloudy.
Don't you often find yourself smiling brighter than anyone else, even as your pillow is soaked with tears? Even when you feel, deep down, that your life is no longer in your own hands, don't you find the courage to reach out to the world? When you're feeling despair or "down," even if it means painting yourself bright...
So don't people believe that your days are always sunny and that your grass is greener than theirs?

--- pp.32~35