Myung Mi Kim Poetry Reading

I loved Myung Mi Kim's introduction to her poetry... to her past and to herself... to language. She told us how she first came to Oklahoma from Korea when she was nine years old. This is where she learned English. Thrust into a new culture, she had no choice but to learn the new language - listening, writing, speaking... understanding. Using all her senses to change the way she had once processed information and communicated to something brand new. She spoke of the terror and the pleasure of that experience. Of how she began to connect and link aspects of the language, but still she could not speak it. I can't imagine, especially at such a young age, how difficult that must have been for her, and how rewarding it must have felt to finally break through the barrier. She remembers very clearly the big dictionary that Ms. Beasley gave her to learn from. And now, her Korean is still at a 3rd grade level, as she never had to speak it again. And the thought of "learning Korean" seems weird and almost like a foreign concept to her because in her mind she already knows it, she is Korean, but she never expanded on her own language. Her perspective on language is different than mine. I have never had to master a new language in such a way. When I think about language, I think about words, meanings, symbols, what I can readily grasp and move forward with. I don't think about culture, where the word comes from... I do not think about social or political contexts, but rather stay inside of what those words mean to me personally. I'm sure if I were to really think on and understand these personal connections, I would start seeing outside of myself and link the words to a grander meaning, which would even still relate to myself.

Myung Mi Kim read poems from most or all of her books to show us the differences in progression, exploration and understanding at those specific times in her life. Her books serve as a collective outlet to allow discoveries and a deeper mastery of her consciousness and of her concept of language to flow through.

I do think poetry should be performed and spoken/read aloud by the poet, but I also think it is so important to see the poems on the page and see the space, the breaks, the text. Her poetry did seem very fragmented, and I suppose this was to mimic language and the processes of comprehending it.

"Myung Mi Kim explores issues of dislocation, colonization, immigration, loss of her first language, and the fallout of history in her work. Eric Weinstein, poetry editor for Prick of the Spindle, commented in a review: 'Penury instantiates exactly that: a poetics of extreme and devastating lack, an inadequacy and insufficiency of language designed to mirror the extraordinary poverty of its subject(s).' " (The Poetry Foundation)

We all enjoyed Myung Mi Kim's reading very much. I think this interview http://epc.buffalo.edu/authors/kim/generosity.html will really help you understand her foundation and her poetics. Also, buy her books! Also, a video of her reading will soon be posted on the Mark Allen Everett Poetry Series Website.

- Morgen Moxley