[Part 1] The Me Who No One Knows

Me in My Imagination / Kim Gaemi
Why do you graduate from elementary school?
Not receiving a Children's Day gift? / Kim Seung-il
I'll do whatever I want / Seong Hwan-hee
From Kim to Rice / Kim Jun-hyun
Song of the Mustard Seed / Kang Eun-kyo
Girls? Puberty 5 / Kim Haeng-sook
Speaking backwards / Jang Cheol-moon
The First Day I Shaving / Yang Young-gil
A Puppet on a String / Kim Kyung-gu
Tag / Lee Jun-kwan
Even the dark clouds are bright / Park Seon-mi

[Part 2] Sometimes adults too

How to Become a Fierce Sister / Kim Eung
Snowman / Kim Won-seok
Adults too sometimes / Kim Ja-mi
In a Dream / Seo Jeong-hong
Pinocchio / Park Jae-young
Lipstick / Gong Gwang-gyu
Bathhouse / Oh Jang-hwan
Uncle / Kim Young-rong
Bakery / Lee Myeon-woo
Mother's Cry / Im Gil-taek
Seongseonseol / Ham Minbok
For the Last Place / Lee Bong-jik

[Part 3] We're just getting along

Delivery / Kim Yu-ho
The Law of Fighting / Lee Byeong-seung
Bungeoppang / Song Hyeon
Forgiveness / Park Sung-woo
My Good Partner Because He's Different / Shin Kyeong-rim
My Boyfriend Youngho / Kim Seonwoo
Reflections on Humanity 2 / Kwon Jeong-saeng
Like the Moon / Yun Dong-ju
Unrequited Love / Yang Jeong-ja
That Brass Spoon / Choi Du-seok
I fought with a tree until my eyes were swollen / Kim Ryong
Like One - Dong-ju and Mong-gyu / Nam Ho-seop
Come slowly / Jeong Yun-cheon
Makdong-ri Sketch 172 / Na Tae-ju

[Part 4] The Words of the Waves

A Day of Worries / Hwang In-sook
Damian / Go Young-min
Stepping Stones / Won Mu-hyeon
The Setting Sun / Jung Yu-kyung
Words of the Waves / Lee Hae-in
Nail / Kim Sook-bun
Sunflower Seeds / Jeong Ji-yong
Soil / Moon Jeong-hee
Chicken Coop Syndrome / Lee Hee-joong
Syntax / Park Sang-cheon
Salt / Ryu Si-hwa
When I was a child like you? To my son / Minyoung
If I Were a Painter / Kim Nam-joo
Young Tree / Yoo Hyeong-jin

Editor's Note
Source of the work
Teachers who helped compile this book

Editor's Note

All poets write poetry with a strong longing for a lost world and an awareness of negative reality.
That is why poetry cannot help but be an autobiography, and is often a drama of growth centered around confession and reflection.
Yet, there is no ‘growth poetry’ in our literature.
Isn't it strange? When we examine poetry through the lens of "growth poetry," we might be able to explore our inner selves more emotionally and colorfully through encounters with poetic growing pains.
Perhaps it was after the Sewol tragedy that I thought of grouping poems that were not so obviously called “growth poems” under the theme of “growing pains.”
That's when I made a promise.
He said he would collect poems by poets who were once teenagers and describe how the pain they experienced as they went through the rite of passage to become adults blossomed into flowers and give them to young people.
Poet Son Taek-su

Discover shining moments of growth through the ‘Youth Growth Perspective’,
Seeking Healthy Relationships Through a "Youth Perspective"

Since teenagers are standing somewhere in between being neither children nor adults, facing the strong winds of change as they grow into adults, 'growth' is an important keyword that cannot be separated from the lives of teenagers.
Accordingly, we wanted to present to young people poems that depict how the pain experienced by poets who were once teenagers while going through the rite of passage to become adults blossomed into flowers.
Meanwhile, because everything exists through relationships, many teenagers are struggling and having a hard time due to problems in their relationships with friends, family, and society.
Accordingly, we have collected poems that sing of various relationships and tried to present a prescription for poetry that can restore warm relationships and help young people form healthy relationships.

“All poetry is inevitably autobiographical, and is often a drama of growth centered around confession and reflection.
Yet, there is no ‘growth poetry’ in our literature.
Isn't that strange? When we examine poetry through the lens of 'growth poetry,' we can explore our inner selves more emotionally and colorfully through encounters with poetic growing pains." _Poet Son Taek-su

“The most beautiful law in the world, poetry equipped with metaphor, is the root of relationship.
In an era of one-sided relationships where resentment outweighs empathy, how about accepting a poetic prescription for moving toward empathy?
“I sincerely hope that this will be of some help in restoring warm relationships, especially for the youth, who live lonely and desolate lives in modern times.” _Poet Ham Min-bok

All the youth who are growing in their own ways even at this moment, while stumbling and colliding with various obstacles in the world, the boys and girls of Korea who cry and laugh because of the various relationships surrounding 'me', will be able to find comfort in their weary hearts through 'Youth Growth Perspective' and 'Youth Relationship Perspective' and gain the strength to move forward toward a more mature me, you, and us.

A Look at Youth Growth: Poems That Raise Me 1, 2
A cheering song for young people who are breaking out of their shells and beginning to spread their wings of growth.

Changbi Youth Poetry Series Volume 19, “Poetry that Raises Me 1 - The Moment of Breaking an Egg,” and Volume 20, “Poetry that Raises Me 2 - The Moment of Sprouting Wings,” are “Youth Growth Poetry Series” that select and compile the works of established poets with the keyword “growth.”
Poet Son Taek-su, who is familiar to young people through the poem “Thoughts of a Whitey” included in the textbook, and middle and high school teachers Kim Tae-hyeon and Han Myeong-sook participated as editors.
『Poems that Raise Me 1, 2』 contains works by various authors without overlapping works or authors, but volumes 1 and 2 are structured with the same flow.
Starting from the idea that growth fundamentally occurs within one's inner self and body as a whole, Part 1 contains poems about 'oneself' contemplating one's career path or identity or experiencing secondary sexual characteristics.
Parts 2 to 4 are organized around the medium that helps 'me' grow. Part 2 contains poems about family, home, and hometown, Part 3 contains poems about school, friends, the opposite sex, school life, and teachers, and Part 4 contains poems about nature and society.


Growth is not something that happens in a flash during adolescence and then disappears; it is something that continues to happen throughout our lives.
That is why this collection of poems contains the colorful growth of various characters.
When you open the collection of poems, you will find a child crying over the fact that he will no longer receive Children's Day presents once he enters elementary school (Kim Seung-il, "Why Can't I Receive Children's Day Presents After I Graduate Elementary School?"), a middle school student feeling proud of himself for shaving for the first time and looking like a college student (Yang Yeong-gil, "The Day I Shaving for the First Time"), a young man sighing while writing a resume to make a living (Oh Eun, "Resume"), and someone who misses something from his childhood as he gets older (Yeong Jin Yoo, "Young Tree"). Throughout the collection of poems, you will find characters who are constantly exploring themselves.
Because we all grow in some way, these two poetry collections are filled with aspects of growth that we can all relate to.


Youth Growth Perspective is a collection of poems that nurtures you, me, and us, and is a song of encouragement to youth who are going through a moment of growth.
Whether a caterpillar hatches from an egg and becomes a colorful butterfly or a black cicada, everything that grows is beautiful and every moment of growth is worthy of cheer.
Through this collection of poems, young people will be able to gain the courage to break out of their hard shells and spread their wings powerfully.