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