Author's Note

Part 1: The Nine-Year-Old Poet's Declaration
Shadow Promise | Poetry Writing Time | Spider | Cabbage to Cabbage Bug | Butterfly | Flowers and Spider | Declaration of a Nine-Year-Old Poet | Power Blanket | Dew Meets Only Me | Secret of Joy | Hyunho-saek's Answer | Crow | Dokkomari Speaks Like Her Father | Shadow Hat

Part 2: Sunflower Painting on a Strange Day
Shadow Poem｜Sunflower Painting on a Strange Day｜The Flower Language｜Run, Lion｜I Didn't Mean to Do This｜Somehow｜Write, Write, Write, Write｜Flower Tree｜In Front of a Stone｜A Believing Axe Wanting to Be a Corner｜What the Korean Dictionary Did for a Year｜Entrance Ceremony in the Kingdom of God｜Doesn't Know Apple Blossoms or Quince Blossoms｜Tip to Toenails｜Eucalyptus Waiting for a Flock of Storks

Part 3 Every morning, Mom creates a pattern that doesn't exist in the world.
Shadow Bird｜Helicopter, Magpie, and Day Moon｜Let's Believe What the Earthworm Says｜Let's Open the Refrigerator Door Right Now and Take Out the Elephant｜The Pumpkin Vine Said, Then Let's Do It｜Because a Half-Cut Potato Looks Like a Smiling Face｜The Story of the Slowest Talker in the World｜The Story of the Fastest Talker in the World｜The Story of the Chick Who Turned into a Bird and Flew Away｜The Story of the Doraji Flower｜Even if They Are Clouds｜Highway｜Every Morning Mom Creates a Pattern That Never Existed in the World｜Every Morning Mom Creates a Pattern That Never Existed in the World 2

Part 4 Where did all the acorns go?
Shadow Dance | Forget-me-nots | Wildflowers | Sunflower Canes | Moonflowers | Marigolds | Autumn, Mirror | Where Have All the Acorns Gone? | Hats | Not Just a Lito, But an Acorn | Where Have All the Acorns Gone? 2 | Always, Oh! | This Black Flower Seed | Chair | Mysterious Person | Shadow Snowman

Commentary│Bang Joo-hyun

The taste of words that are examined from all sides and examined from all sides

Inside the word "gaebo"/ there's "ippe"/ look carefully/ hold "gi" with your left hand and "ppe" with your right hand/ and stretch it out/ like a rubber band/ it's pretty/ how is it, is it real?
- "Secret of Joy" section

The title piece, "The Secret of Joy," contains a secret that can never be found if you think that each word has only one meaning.
If you take a word and stretch it out letter by letter, unexpected letters will appear.
The poem "Dew only meets me" (page 23) contains words that have the same meaning whether read from front to back.
Surprisingly, if you just read the title from the back, it becomes 'The Dew That Only I Meet'.
If you read it backwards, now it's time to 'see' it backwards.


The teacher wrote this on the blackboard
Waist pain
We laughed, it was childish
It sounds like North Korean

The teacher wrote again like this
Grandma boils her thesis in a large pot.
We laughed again
My grandmother looks like a witch
- "Poetry Writing Time" section

Every child knows that flipping the letter 'bear' over makes 'door'.
That's the hint.
Even if you look at it like that, ‘standing on your head’, ‘Heori Pirai’ still looks like ‘Heori Pirai’.
To truly enjoy this collection of poems, you must change the way you have been dealing with 'words' and 'letters'.
Following the clues hidden by the poet and discovering the unfamiliar face of words we have always taken for granted feels like a fun game in itself, and at the same time, it stimulates our thoughts and imagination.

Eyes that see the world we see every day anew

If you move the consonant 'ㄴ' of the first letter of 'granddaughter' to the second letter, 'granddaughter' becomes 'boy' (「Poetry Writing Time」, p. 12).
Just by moving one consonant, the meaning becomes completely opposite.
Changing 'I' to 'you' and 'ant' to 'spider' are all due to very small triggers.
This kind of thinking goes beyond wordplay; it changes our perspective and attitude toward existence and the world.
Once you realize that the 'word' that calls something is not just a sound but a meaning, you can come to think that it is pitiful for the plant called 'Kkotdang-gang-namu' because 'when you break it, it makes a 'dang-gang' sound' (Kkotdang-gang-namu, p. 44).


Potato
You are dark inside
You're smiling even as you rot?
When I asked,

I sprout as I rot
So I'm rotting while laughing
I was surprised by the answer
-「Because the halved potato looks like a smiling face」

Just as something 'rotten' contains 'sprouts', we should not think that 'words' are 'all' of existence.
That being can become another being at any time, and the meaning that is not discovered today may become apparent tomorrow or in the distant future.
Poet Ian subtly conveys this precious truth with simple verse and sparkling imagery.
So, don't think you know everything you see, and don't think that something doesn't exist just because you don't see it.
A humble attitude towards the world is evident everywhere.

A world where every being blossoms with its own meaning

'Shadow', which is often used as the opposite of light, is a close friend who will always be with me in 'The Secret of Joy' ('Shadow Promise'), proof of my existence ('Shadow Poem'), and at some point, it becomes impossible to tell who is the 'shadow' between me and the shadow ('Shadow Bird').
The ‘shadow’, which was treated as an ‘accessory’ of ‘me’, looks different depending on how you look at it.
When you learn that the flower language of the 'flower of the daisy', which is so small that you have to kneel down to see it, is 'don't forget me', the presence of that small flower feels as big as filling the world.
It depends on how much we listen to the story and look at it with an open mind.

The chrysanthemum blooms early
The chrysanthemum blooms late
yellow flowers
Sobok put it up

Early and late
That's not it

Both of them are trying hard
That we've come this far

Yellow autumn in the saddle
Sobok
That I uploaded it
-「Eungdal Flower Yangdal Flower」

Every being blooms at its own pace, at its own pace.
It doesn't matter whether it's early or late.
Not everyone has to bloom.
No one knows what the black seed will bloom into except the seed itself.
All we can do is wait until the seed has the will to sprout on its own.
Nothing will change if I place a plant, an animal, myself, another person, or a child in the place of that seed.
We have already realized that tender truth through this collection of poems.