This is Li NeungNoo’s fourth collection of poems. Human questioning, exploration of common sense, continue following the last collection of poetry. It is a kind of treasonous inquiry, a beginning of a rebellion against usual A-lists, which assumes that there is an S-list above the best, so called, A-list. S-level above love, S-level above my dream, S-level above causality, S-level above symmetry and discernment, S-level above individuality, S-level above good things, S-level above winning, and S-level above hope. The author's echo of shouting out to the world is powerful and distinctive. Like the subtitle, The Another Dichotomy.

/ Publisher's Book Review /

The first three paragraphs of the author's epilogue, "The Dichotomy of Friends and Gifts," "The Dichotomy of Sister and Mother," and "The Another Dichotomy" talk about uncommon discernment; the discrimination that culminates in unity. For example, in the poem "Back and forth" , the heaven where you cannot visit hell whenever you want is only A-grade, and this world, where heaven and hell are co-existing, is S-grade.
The self in the poems is illustrated as divided selves that permeate everywhere, an integrated individual that is found everywhere; it asserts an identity that the universe can be contained, and it recites integration not within oneself (A-level), but with external oneself (S-level).

 /Representative Poems/

1. Friends or gifts 
 
 There is nothing that is not a gift
There is nothing that is not a friend
It's either one or the other
Captured by either
 
Nothing exists without progress
Nothing exists without completion
It's either one or the other
Captured by either
  
 
2. I'm not in this place
  
I'm not inside here 
I exist outside here
  
I searched within
Not there, I'm outside
I'm not the one confined inside
Myself dwells outside of me
 
Bigger than that ocean
Bigger than all the oceans
The one
I am that
 
This is how I'm concealed
Embracing all with open arms
  
 
3. Time
  
The cosmos contracts post the Big Bang
The universe’s final is a Big Bang
This Big Bang is the moment where destruction and birth meet
The universe will pass away and become the universe
Between this Big Bang and that Big Bang

  
4. Back and forth
 
There, I will go back and forth between heaven and hell
I'll leave like a nomad as soon as I'm sick of it 
 
Here, the experience of crossing heaven and hell
Was so good
 
I'm going to throw a tantrum against King Yama
For making me visit both realms
 
If you don't get a free pass
I'm going to end my life
 
Returning to Earth, I’ll take turns
Between heaven and hell, as usual
 
As a free man
As a nomad

 
5. The result has already become the cause
  
Success is not in the results, failure is not in the results
Both can be tasted in the process
 
Neither success nor failure is an outcome
Outcome transforms into causes and connects to what follows
Before you know it, causationing is happening over there 
No results can’t be found
 
Success transforms into a cause, failure transforms into a cause
Both have faded
As the causes are the same
The distinction between the two has disappeared
 
Leading to one cause
The two processes
Success and failure are the same process
 
 
6. A fortunate baby
  
In the midst of chaos, tears and sobs surround me
I can't talk yet, so it’s impossible to convey
So, I let my heart speak
 
Don't weep, instead, witness my joy
Defying the laws of nature
For a few days after birth
Meeting you was a marvel
Examining faces with delight
 
I should have perished in the womb
Because of someone who would see me
I was summoned successfully and viewed
Isn't that sheer fortune?
 
Originally deemed not feasible
I reveled in the external world for a brief span
I’m blessed to leave after completing all of my affairs; I'm a lucky baby
  
 
7. open bird cage
 
Captured within a cage where a door is open, with a useless door, with useless openness
A bird of the birds, a bluebird has hope
 
Yet, hope keeps it from noticing the open door
Yet, the bluebird let hope imprison itself
 
The bird lives in a cage, yet, hope also lives in a cage
Yet, the bluebird hesitates to venture beyond, tethered by hope
 
Yet, the bluebird entrusts the task of cage-keeping to hope
Unaware of how to unlatch the open door on its own
 
A glimpse of light leaking from the open door
But overshadowed by hope
 
 
8. Successful victim
  
Victim of ambition
Victim of set circumstance
Victim of queue line
 
I hoped to become a victim, and succeeded
Anxiety and worry were unavoidable, yet
I was glad to be in the front row, ha3
Between ha3 and ha3, anxiety abounds
  
 
9. Her sister, his mother
  
I know her
I don't know him
Sister of someone you know, mother of someone you don’t know
These two are identical
Separate, yet the same individual
Though I can't touch her and him
Sufficiently pulses are transmitted
Enabling me to play sister's role, mother's role
 
Even though she and he are very different
But it’s not like that from my sister's perspective and my mother's perspective
Whether you know it or not, it's not like that
 
Ultimately, just as sister and mother are one
He and she merge into one
Sister and mother orchestrated it this way
 
  
10. Gift
 
Should we just kill the time given anyway?
My illness and disability forbid me from doing what I desired the most
So, I began searching for an alternative
 
It turns out that it's more fascinating than what I want to do
There are so many options available; I’ve already made my pick
 
Thanks to the gift of pain and suffering
Doing what I like
I don't waste time anymore
 
Pain becomes inconsequential
Painkillers are no longer requisite
I’ll do something more fascinating that I got as a gift instead of what I want to do