Part 1
I love you
The person I love
Namhan River
The evening when the flowers fall
Stone lotus
training
footprint
Yun Dong-ju's preface
Jeongdongjin
For the whales
rigid pine
you
First heart
bouquet
Suddenly
The scenery is sweet
own eyes
The place where the first snow falls
sitting on the railroad tracks
You don't answer the phone
Entering the mountain
regret
shooting star
dream
To Narcissus
Some advice on cliffs
About the beach
The Wedding of the Trees
About marriage
The meaning of the ring

Part 2
hailstone
snail
snail
butterfly
dragonfly
ant
ant
night bug
Wipe the leaves
Letter from Sorok Island
sleet
Odongdo Island
jealousy
autumn
desert
Between the leaves
dawn
beggar doll
The voice I miss
A Short Letter from a Cricket
Shit of the mind
Poem of Dawn
Birds don't build roofs
Fingerwriting
bird droppings
About suicide
knell
Baby's Breath
spring rain

Part 3
Sehando Island
well
Holy robe
black dandelion
My niece Adada
Hallasan Mountain in winter
The Boy on the Road
night snow
Like a trash can
street
Dawn Kimbap
my tongue
For live octopus
Winter sleep
Autumn Falls
The magnolia is blooming
fathers
Yakhyeon Cathedral
Five loaves and two fish
Mother Teresa's smile
The Saint of Seoul

Part 4
Bulguksa Temple
First letter
In Bogildo
At dawn
When you fall in love
I feel lonely
Father's letter
Oppa
A little prayer before going to bed
I wish for your window
First snow
postcard
Love letter
unwritten diary
road
To a friend
Let's meet on the first snow day
Even blades of grass have wounds.
The sound of grass leaves
Fallen leaves
swallow
Spring Train
Sanjeong Lake
Bul-il Falls
full moon

Commentary│Yoo Seong-ho
Poet's words

Poet's words

The revised and expanded edition of the poetry collection 『I am Human Because I am Lonely』, published in 1998, has been published by Changbi after 23 years.
Even marriage has its own destiny, and that is why I have to follow that destiny.
This collection of poems is one that readers love more than I, the poet, do.
In a sense, it could be said to be the reader's poetry collection rather than my own.
A poet's masterpiece is not deliberately decided by the poet or anyone else.
It is naturally determined as a result of sufficient maturation through various complex mutual causes over a long period of time.
This collection of poems contains poems that represent me, such as “To Daffodils,” “The Person I Love,” and “The Landscape is Sweet.”
A poet is happy with just one masterpiece, but I am always grateful to have several masterpieces through this collection of poems.
When I first published this collection of poems, I was a 'young poet', but now I have become an 'old poet'.
But even though poets grow old, their poems and poetry collections do not.
I hope that this collection of poems, unlike my own life, will always live a young life.
So, when I first published this collection of poems, I included about twenty more poems that I had written but never got around to publishing.
This is because the poems I wrote when I was a young poet, to which I cannot return now, are considered more precious than they are now.
Everyone is a poet.
There is no one in this world who is not a poet.
Everyone's heart is full of poetry.
I took the initiative and compiled the poem into a new book.
May the poems in this collection flow forever like clear waves into your poor heart… …

Fall 2021
Jeong Ho-seung


Tears and Loneliness: The Longing for Love
Jeong Ho-seung's warm poetry that embraces this era

When reading Jeong Ho-seung's poetry, the first thing that comes to mind is sadness and longing.
But the sadness is not tragic or sentimental; rather, it leads the reader to calm self-reflection.
Even when he makes a social statement honoring “friends who fell like sheaves of rice to create a world without tears,” his voice is warm, as if he wishes to become “the morning star of those who wait” and “the quiet gaze of dawn” (“Father’s Letter”).
This is because the poet himself has compassion for other beings and endless love for others.

I don't love a person who doesn't cry
I don't love anyone who doesn't love tears.
I love the person who became a single teardrop
Joy is not joy without tears.
Where is love without tears?
sitting in the shade of a tree
The sight of someone wiping away another person's tears
What a tranquil beauty

As revealed in the passage from his representative work, “The Person I Love,” included in this collection of poems, “tears” is a poetic word that symbolizes Jeong Ho-seung’s compassion and love.
“Even a rock is a tear” (“Stone Lotus”), and when looking at a shooting star glittering in the sky, it is said, “I will fall as your tear” (“Shooting Star”).
Tears, the crystallization of transparent emotions, become a medium that brings about another kind of love, and “through this chain of ‘tears,’ Jeong Ho-seung’s poetry allows the energy of sadness to bloom like a lotus flower” (commentary).

‘Loneliness’ is also transformed into a higher level of emotion through Jeong Ho-seung’s poetry.
In “To the Daffodils,” another representative work of his and the title of this collection of poems, it is written, “The reason birds sit on tree branches is because of loneliness/And the reason you sit by the water’s edge is because of loneliness.”
For Jeong Ho-seung, loneliness is a fateful feeling inherent in existence.
So, when reading this collection of poems, rather than struggling to escape loneliness, one is left with the image of accepting it and embracing other lonely beings.



“To the lonely hearts of today’s times”
A warm voice that will be read forever

This poetry collection is not only beautiful.
"Because I'm Lonely, I'm Human" contains a fundamental reflection on the emptiness of the heart brought about by modernity, and this too becomes a tremendous energy that moves the reader's body and mind.
It is not easy to simply pass over the question, “If a person dies without even wiping the dust off a leaf/How lonely would that person be?” (“Wiping Leaves”).
In a world where human destruction is returning in the form of climate crisis and pandemics, the poetic heart that embraces nature, symbolized by "leaves," becomes a force that moves us straight toward the future.
In addition, throughout this collection of poems, interest in ecology and an attitude toward living in harmony with nature stand out.
This is well illustrated by the realization that “Birds do not build roofs/To face the snow while sleeping/To look at the stars even after falling asleep” (Birds Do Not Build Roofs).
Rather than viewing the shape of a birdhouse as simply a bird's habit, it is viewed from a reciprocal perspective of harmony between birds and nature.
This sharp capture is the nutrient that makes the leaves and branches of this poetry collection greener and more abundant even today.


“This collection of poems contains poems that represent me,” said Jeong Ho-seung, expressing his affection for “I am human because I am lonely” through his “Poet’s Note.”
This collection of poems has contributed greatly to expanding the readership of Korean poetry thanks to its universally beloved sentences, and with many of its poems being included in textbooks, it can truly be said to be the face of Korean lyric poetry.
The author added psalms and meticulously refined previously published works to compile this revised and expanded edition. He said in presenting it to the world, “Poets may age, but poetry and poetry collections do not.”
The fact that this collection of poems evokes tears and love no matter when you read it is probably thanks to its unwavering youthfulness.