Your Sentimental Stranger New York

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

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Publications

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

https://blog.naver.com/daewonsabook/
222726050031

("Radiance Silent" and "Autumn Light")

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Therese Young Kim YouTube Channel

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

"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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"천송이 목련화, A Thousand Magnolias"

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

Therese Young Kim Seven Poem YouTube Video

YouTube Video

Dear my cherished visitors around the world:

Dream, and dream yet again,in all seasons of this one life we have…..

Hello, it is my delight to introduce one of the three poems written in English from my book in Korean published this May, “천송이 목련화 (A Thousand Magnolias),” which appears in the Poetry Page on this website. Wishing you a splendid summer!

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Bodhisattva the Snow-Dancer

In the hush of the arena in Vancouver Winter Olympics
Yuna slides across the ice like a snow-heron about to fly.

As she glides in Chopin,morning dawn breaks
into her timid eyes over turning shoulders.

Worlds away in Kyung-Ju Buddhist temple sits a lone
Bodhisattva etched in stone,cradling her forbidden
desire to be born a snow-dancer.

It is snowing in the silent garden of the temple.

As if in apparition, before the forlorn gaze
of Bodhisattva manifests an exquisite form of a young
woman dancing in the flurry of motion,

mirroring the dream she has dreamt for a thousand
years today. A teardrop rolls down her chiseled cheek.

In the arena, wrapped in Piano Concerto, Yuna floats
and floats in midair before landing like a snowflake
into a lotus corolla.

A million petals shower down in ovation, coronation.

Bodhisattva, bathed in karmic ecstasy on lotus
pedestal, slowly folds her crescent eyes smiling
like rippling silk—

Yuna: Korean figure-skating gold medalist in 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
Bodhisattva: A lady deity with a mission to save others before entering Nirvana
in Buddhism. (The poem from my book “천송이목련화 (A Thousand Magnolias)”
Published by Daewonsa Publishing Co, Seoul, Korea.)

©Therese Young Kim, July 8, 2022

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Image provided by Daewonsa,
publisher of
"쳔송이 목련화, A Thousand Magnolias"

Photo credit: Gloria R.

Dear my distinguished visitors:

With my warmest wishes to you, I’d like to present a poem remembering the forgotten in the season of celebration.

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The Halo

In the lobby of a Midtown hotel the morning starts with fragrances of hair spray and Eau-de-Cologne,

a potful of forget-me-nots and narcissus behind a picture window elbowing for attention from passersby.

Outside in the pink morning hue people stream down the sidewalk alongside the rush-hour traffic.

A homeless man weaves through the crowd dragging a rickety old cart heaped with possessions hollow, wheels rolling astray.

Midway through,he peers into the window of the hotel looking for someone he used to know behind his beards

only to turn away to a destination long forgotten.

The sun throws an angel’s halo over his golden mane he cannot see,nor does he know how glorious he looked in the window he just left.

(My utmost gratitude to Angelica Schlieff, Editor of Soundings East, Salem State University, USA, for publishing the above poem, Spring 2020.)

A bouquet of roses to you for glorious holidays and happy and healthy 2022!!

The poem and photos by © Therese Young Kim December 2021

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Sentimental Stranger

We must have met
before we met —
Under a bo tree shading a monk
napping in Nirvana

In the red rose garden I stumbled
under a full moon night

In the candle light glowing
in my old stone lamp

In Myungdong streets where I roamed
with erratic dreams

In the Mozart sonata playing
in a foreign café

In the summer light laying
on my shoulder

In your gaze that stilled me
on a bow bridge in Venice

We must have met
before we met —

By Therese Young Kim
New York, NY
Copyright © 2014

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Waiting for Monet

This freedom of loving you when

dawn sprinkle cherry-blossom wine,

letting me drink the memory bitter-sweetened.

This freedom of lying by your side
in winter’s solstice and listen
to the silent snow fall,
the first sigh of love.

This freedom to leave our nest
to a mourning dove lost in the elm
soon to see her nest with a lovebird.

This freedom of abandoning you
in the remains of summer light
and wait for Monet on the bow bridge
over the lotus pond.

By Therese Young Kim
New York, NY
Copyright © 2014

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The Sun Kiss

Oh toasty sun
lingering on my doorstep
of mid-summer days.

Come,
hold me in your fiery arms
whole and complete—

Kiss my straw hat,
worn-out purse, shoes, and my hand
humbled through the seasons
of my broken vanity.

Run your silken rays
over this flimsy dress and erase
my wanton dreams I still dream.

Shine on me,
let me drink you from the pores
of my skin and devour the yolk
of your ecstasy

with your sun kiss no one know.

Written by
© Therese Young Kim
Summer 2022

Click to edit

A Tale of Stone Lamps

The stone lamps (or lanterns) are part of the ancient Buddhist and cultural relics existing to this day in Korea. They were lit with candle light during the religious rituals of spiritual enlightenment for centuries in Korea. These stone lamps are protected as part of national treasures, together with bronze bells, religious statues, and stone pagodas adorning Buddhist temples, gardens, and royal tumuli throughout Korea.

The oldest stone lamps that were excavated are known to be from the Baekje Kingdom (18 B.C. – 660 A.D.) of the ancient Three Kingdom period. But it was during the golden era of the Silla Dynasty (57 B.C. – 935 A.D.) that the craftsmanship of stone lamp artisans had flourished most, reaching the pinnacle in the number and variety of styles.

Although they look weather-beaten and sun-browned, enduring the test of time and history for well over a thousand years (some more tragic than others), a surprising number of ancient stone lamps were found in remarkable conditions in Korea. According to the book, Stone Lamps, published by Daewonsa Publishing Company, Seoul, Korea, a total number of those now remaining in various historic sites are around 280, of which 60 are in perfect shape, and there may be 10 more in North Korea.

The images shown below are the three stone lamps, selected from the book, Stone lamps.

빛깔있는 책들 『석등』, 정명호, 대원사
(Books in Color, "Stone Lamps", Jung, Myung Ho, Daewonsa)

Written and Compiled by Therese Young Kim

Your Sentimental Stranger

February 2015

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Dear my cherished visitors around the world:

Bodhisattva the Snow-Dancer

The Halo

Sentimental Stranger

Waiting for Monet

The Sun Kiss

A Tale of Stone Lamps