[News Wave] Poet Jung Myeong Seok. Meeting Woman of Poetry and Speaking through Poetry

Poet Jung Myeong Seok’s poetry books, Woman of Poetry and Speaking Through Poetry, are becoming hot issues as they are bestsellers in the Kyobo Book Center. These poetry books that were simultaneously released in July have been fighting between first and second place in the poetry category, and have captured the hearts of  readers. They were released as Poems of Inspiration series, [sequel] after the second volume of Poems of Inspiration, which was released in 1996, 17 years ago.
 
The path of life he has been walking on as he encountered unbearable suffering and polished his heart, the Divine Being and poems that he wrote on his path.
The third poetry book, Woman of Poetry, contains a life story of the poet who has been serving God of creation and the Holy Son of salvation as the Lord. He delivers that the core of a human being lies in ‘the heart, spirit, and soul,’ and the core of a life lies in ‘love.’ He received through inspiration as he deeply communicated in the world of the Divine Being, the origin of the core, and published the contents [he received] as a poetry book.
Difficulties and pain that a human being, who lives on earth, had to experience, after climbing up a steep cliff [of life] and reaching Heaven, makes us to think about [a human’s] lonely life. However, the poet who has clearly perceived the existence of God, who accompanies invisibly, is abundantly filled with longing, waiting, meeting, happiness, hope, and other emotion arising from a keen affection. Because of that, he confesses that he was able to meet ‘the woman of poetry’ and to write poems even in ‘desolate and lonely ravine of life.’

In the preface of the book, the poet says, “The secrets of Heaven are hidden with parables so that people of poems will unravel them and realize the time period of God.” If people cannot unravel the secret things even after reading the poems like the poet said, there is no gratification in reading the poems, and the poet would also feel frustrated. The poet is waiting for a wise person to appear, someone who will realize and know his deep heart through wisdom, discern the time period, follow the times, and resolve his grief.

Poem in another word is like a fruit that connotes life. It shows the poet’s ripened life as it is, the image of how he went through extreme suffering and polished his heart for a lifetime and completed his soul and spirit together with God by loving Him. The poems: “The Path of the Cross, “Poetry is Flowing,” “Love,” and “Being Harvested at the Hands of God” are composed of four segments. They enlighten the reasons of a valuable life: happiness amidst snowstorm, masterpiece after struggling, sweet taste after bitter taste, and resurrection after sacrifice. These poems also lead spirits and souls of those whose hearts resonate to this to be recreated beautifully, mysteriously, and majestically.
 
The fourth poetry book of the Poems of Inspiration series, Speaking Through Poetry, which was simultaneously released, intensively shows the poet’s years of religious experience and view on life as he studied the Bible for the past 50 years and spread [the teachings of the Bible]. He especially perceived the times of God’s providence and historical time period, and divided the art work he wrote in the year of 2012 into four segments of “Love Each Other,” “It is in Progress,” “My Love, Please Deliver,” and “The Eternal Path.”
 
The poet gives imagery through poems about the world of pain and happiness that he experienced to the extreme amidst his life, and images of Hell and Heaven that his spirit saw while coming and going to the world of the spirits. Through that, he delivers a message that, ‘If people live centering only on the body that is ever changing, [the result] is ultimately emptiness and death. People will only reach Heaven when they live loving the Almighty, who is the Eternal Being.’
  
Adding pictures that stand out with their sensible designs… increases the movement the poem gives.
Especially in Speaking Through Poetry, the poet, who is also an artist, personally drew pictures that correspond to each poem. Just as a person can know what kind of tree it is by seeing its fruit, the pictures are art work that show sensible designs as one can know what kind of poem it is by looking at the pictures. One piece of drawing becomes one piece of poem and increases the movement the poem gives and leads the readers to reach the stage of realization of a higher level.

Just as poems express secret things that cannot be measured in depth with simple words, drawings also, they are expressed with simple lines, yet they hold deep things of the poem as the core. The poet said, “If you put in drawings pertinent to the poem, it brings out flavors like putting spices on food, and gives harmony like a pine tree growing from a rock.” Like this, readers can appreciate two art works of different genre through one book, which creates synergy effect for the readers to receive double the movement and satisfaction.

Poet Jung Myeong Seok was born in Geumsan-gun, Chungnam in 1945. After starting his literary career with the monthly magazine, The Trend of Literature, in 1995, he released four books of Poems of Inspiration. Also, 10 of his poems were recorded in the Unabridged Korean Poetry Dictionary (2011), which includes 100 years of Korean poetry history. Other than writing poems, he has been studying the Bible for the past 50 years and wrote Word of Salvation; sermon book, Word of Life; proverb book, Heaven’s Words, My Words and other religious writings as the president of Christian Gospel Mission. Also, he has mastered various fields in art and exhibited drawings and calligraphy domestically and internationally (English, France, Germany, Argentina, etc.).

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