A BILINGUAL ONLINE LITERARY MAGAZINE

Love That Keeps the Ember Alive

Summary:

South Korea Wansoo Kim is a South Korean poet, author, and literary scholar with a Ph.D. in English Literature from the Graduate School of Hankuk University of Foreign Studies. A prolific poet, he has published eight volumes of poetry, several of which have received international recognition. His poetry collection Duel

The word love

Wears all kinds of shining clothes

And dances on the screen,

But by a dark window at the street’s end,

Empty eyes endure the day.


On the land of Africa,

Children clutching their bellies cry,

And under the skies of Israel and Palestine,

Red smoke and gunfire

Drive people into darkness.


Is love sitting beside the sick,

A hand wiping sweat from their brow?

Or a heart that quietly,

Without words, soaks in their tears?


Beside the lost,

Lighting a small lamp,

In the trembling glow,

Feeling out the path of hope,

And standing against the cold wind—


When we hand over a warm bowl of soup,

Gently hold a dry hand,

Listen to the lonely one’s story,

Love quietly takes root

And will become someone's ember.

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