Dear my visitors: Subliminally, I’ve been chasing the illusions of peace and beauty in all seasons of my life. Miraculously, I’m given a bouquet of poems, prose, a novel (Nayoung’s Journey), images and poem videos. The following are the links to the literary magazines that have published some of my works, as well as my YouTube videos. As a bilingual writer, my book in Korean, "천송이 목련화 (A Thousand Magnolias)," which is a collection of poems, stories, and images, has been published as of May 25, 2022. Thank you so much and the very best to you all! Therese

A story, "The Mystic Dog" has been published in October Hill Magazine, Fall 2022, Volume 6

A poem, "The Halo," has been published in Soundings East, Volume 42, Spring 2020.

A poem, "David pour Homme," has been published in October Hill Magazine, Spring 2020 Issue.

A poem "Arirang Lament" published in The Journal of Baha'i Studies, Spring-Summer 2018

http://tuckmagazine.com/2017/12/06/poetry-1158/

http://tuckmagazine.com/2017/07/14/fiction-forgotten-story-war/

http://tuckmagazine.com/2017/01/26/poetry-700/

http://tuckmagazine.com/2017/04/05/fiction-8/

poetrypacific.blogspot.com/2017/05/3-poems-by-therese-young-kim.html

http://www.linkedin.com/in/therese-young-kim-43a906114

https://youtu.be/0SzT1OaG3vY

"One of the first conditions of happiness is that the link between Man and Nature shall not be broken."

~Leo Tolstoy

"You are not too old and it is not too late to dive into your increasing depths where life calmly gives out its own secret."

~Rainer Maria Rilke

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Therese Young Kim YouTube Channel

My Tree Yoga (In Search of a Sense of Peace)

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Photo Credit: © Therese Young Kim
Please, visit the Prose page for the introduction of

"천송이 목련화, A Thousand Magnolias"

("Radiance Silent" and "Autumn Light")

Click to edit

("A Rendezvous")

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(A Poetic Memoir, "Arirang Lament" and "A Rendezvous")

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(“A Rendezvous” - with Baudelaire)

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(A Poetic Memoir, "Arirang Lament" and "A Rendezvous")

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(“A Rendezvous” - with Baudelaire)

Poetry

Poem

Cartoon ship, cut pearl chip

Majestic, and in flight

Like some slow-thrown handkerchief

Tossed from Juno’s hand

Before she took the step

from life to stone

The Moon.

Poem by Thomas Holahan, who lives in New York City and works
there under a vault of painted stars.

Moon photos by © Therese Young Kim

To my great honor, The Journal of Baha'i Studies has published my poem, "Arirang Lament," in Volume 28, number 1-2 - Spring-Summer 2018.

Following is a quotation from the brief review given by John S. Hatcher in The Editor's Desk:

"We also are pleased to have the first contribution to the journal by Korean poet Therese Young Kim. 'Arirang Lament' is inspired by a Korean folksong, 'Arirang,' beloved in both North and the South Korea—the same song that was sung at the opening of the 2018 Winter Olympics. 'Arirang Lament' is sublimely touching and cryptic. In that sense, I find in its presentation a similar artistic effect as that of the cover art by Otto Donald Rogers.”

Thank you, Dr. John S. Hatcher, Editor, and Peter E. Murphy, Poetry Editor, for this privilege again. Therese Young Kim

Arirang Lament

Once I was born in the Land of Morning Calm
where, they say, tigers used to smoke.

Could I ever free myself from the laughable
state of living where one never utters
“I love you” even if dying of love,
which could also mean “I hate you”?

Laughable to say as it may, the story is sung
in one hundred versions in the folksong,
Arirang.

Arirang, arirang, ara~ri~yo~~

Trudging away you’re o’er the hills of Arirang~
If you so leave, leaving me forsaken, my love,
suffer you will from the pain in your legs
before you make the first li for your journey~

Arirang, arirang, ara~ri~yo~~

So goes the legend, undressing the hearts
and minds of lovers abandoned and abandoning
in the peaks and valleys of love ― of life.

(Published in The Journal of Baha’i Studies 28.1-2,
Spring-Summer 2018)

Copyright © Therese Young Kim

A Winter Kiss

Like a woman expecting her
lover’s returning

I wait for spring in my warm
fur collar.

Walking down the frozen asphalt
in brisk short steps

I hurry home to make hot tea.

First he’ll place a kiss on my
wintering lips

Then we’ll cuddle in the dim of
candlelight.

In the long short night of the
lover’s returning

In the long short night of the
winter’s solstice

I wait for spring in my warm
down covering.

By Therese Young Kim
New York, NY
Copyright © 2014

Forgiving at Summer’s End

Ever since you left
I’ve been learning
how to let you go,

like we let the summer go,
fall, winter, spring go―

Then summer will return
like rivers return to the sea―

Azaleas will blossom in symphonies
of pink, the nightingale will call
from a weeping cherry
in the midnight garden again—

But don’t let go of yourself,
for we need to be there
when life returns

in dawn glow
in forsythia yellow

to surprise us again in the beauty
of forgiving at summer’s end―

By Therese Young Kim
New York, NY
Copyright © 2014

(Above poem has been published in Poetry Pacific
http://poetrypacific.blogspot.com/2019/)

Photo credit: Gloria R.

Ode to the Oak

In the season under the sun
you didn’t need me to tell you

how glorious you looked in your
voluptuous green, in golden crown.

Now, in another kind of the season
that seems to have arrived all too
soon, your bird nest empty,

you stand ever tall in your
naked stance, albeit gently slanted

as if Buddha has turned into an oak.

With no bark to spare for petty regrets
over your twisted limbs, scarred tissues,
punctured wounds, yet

determined to shelter a family of
young raccoons wintering
in your nook,

you’re standing ever bold and bare
in winter’s stare.

By Therese Young Kim
New York, NY
Copyright © 2014

("Ode to the oak" and other poems)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ANk-qcDrXz0

https://youtu.be/6k3PMTFwV38

A Thousand Magnolias

Palms gathered onto my chest
I listen to the whisper in my heart.

When I was a baby Mama held me
onto her bosom.

When I was a child Papa carried me
on piggyback rides.

Now grown into a life of my own
in a place too far to turn back in time

I’m cradling a thousand magnolias
never sent.

By Therese Young Kim
New York, NY
Copyright © 2014

Ode to the Oak

River of Time

Your Sentimental Stranger

http://tuckmagazine.com/2017/01/26/poetry-700/

천송이 목련화

(A Thousand Magnolias)

지금 내 두 손 가슴에 언고
어머님 젖가슴에 나 품어 안아 주시던
그때를 기억하네

나 좀더 자란 아기었을때
아빠 등에 말태워 주시곤 하던

이제 내 생활터전 잡아 놓고
다시 돌아 가기에는 너무나 멀어진
이 싯점 한 외지에서

아직도 보내드리지 못한 천송이
목련화를 부등켜 안고 서 있는 나.

(Translation into Korean by ©Therese Young Kim)

Scent of Beauty

A young golden Retriever walks in the park
trailing a long leash —

As he wanders into a smoky aroma of the
autumn foliage, upon seeing a young squirrel

tiara’d under her sensuous tail twirling madly
up a honey locust in her flight from the

rustling shadow of the Retriever,

he draws himself into a hushed halt, ears
pricking, golden tail hanging aloft, and gazes

upon the little squirrel with his smoky eyes,

as if he just ran into the loveliest creature in
his whole-wide world.

Time in Monsoon Rain
(River of Time)

Time rushes by like a river rushing
down in monsoon rain.

In time we’ve come, round about
one-half the globe, mending

torn-away buttons and worn-out hems
of once our fashion-inspired robes.

Treading the path untrodden in the past,
in love falling, out of love tumbling,

healing the wounds and remembering
to forget, here we’ve come with stories to tell,

but time rushes on like a river rushing
down in monsoon rain.

Katrina’s Child

You came with your hair down, pounding down,
tearing down the Gulf of Mexico in your savage
ecstasy, Katrina.

When morning came without dawn, some hung
onto the bridge like scarecrows, some onto higher
ground, into the shops of the French Quarter.

Zooming onto the TV screen is a little boy tiptoeing
to a scanty grocery shelf who plucks down two
bottles of Coca-Cola and a loaf of Wonder Bread.

Dimples dipping to a smile he plops his catch
into a pale plastic bag and pirouettes to the broken
door, when a reporter in his crisp white shirt

turns his black microphone in his way and asks,
albeit gently, if he knows he’s looting.

The question unfamiliar to his ear, the boy peers
into his plastic bag looking for an answer,
into sea-blue eyes of the reporter, only to freeze
before a tall black eye of the camera peering …

The answer dawns onto his delicate brow, tear rising
into plum-dark eyes like Lake Ponchartrain breaking
into levees, tearing down the innocence of your child,
Katrina.

Photo Credit: Nadine Matthews

A title poem for the website http://yoursentimentalstranger.com,
written and read by Therese Young Kim.
Venue: The Poetry Project c/o St. Mark's Church open reading,
New York City, 10/06/2014
Audio provided by Laura Henriksen
Images from Therese Young Kim's photo album.
Copyrigt © Therese Young Kim

Black Labrador

With your heart d’or
and eyes of a humble philosopher
you slow-dance around in your dark
silken silhouette.

Content with silent discourse
with your keeper and a few biscuits
from him, you turn doughy-nimble
with fleeting caress from strangers.

Young like a teenager, you wag your tail
with full abandon when a white poodle
struts by stirring up your heart d’or
Black Labrador.

By Therese Young Kim
New York, NY
Copyright © 2016

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Black Labrador

Unless I Lose My head

Color of America

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All the photos that don't contain the images of the poet were taken by the poet.

Dear Readers, your questions or comments posted here will be kindly honored.

Thank you.

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Poetry

Poem

Arirang Lament

A Winter Kiss

Forgiving at Summer’s End

Ode to the Oak

("Ode to the oak" and other poems)