The Three Way Tavern: Selected Poems

I met Ko On and heard his work at the 2006 Geraldine Dodge Poetry Festival. Despite the language difference, Ko On's wit, intelligence, life experience, and talent, came through very clearly and he held his audiences enthralled. It was a privilege to hear him. Don't miss this book; it's a pleasure to read, though this poet has lived through times too terrible for most of us to imagine. As a writer friend says, "Life is all material," and Ko On uses it all with a very skilled poet's hand indeed. Small wonder he is one of Korea's most respected (and prolific) poets. I look forward to reading more of his work.

The selection of Ko Un's Korean poetry in translation makes three things clear: (1) Korean poetry is not Chinese poetry although there are several similarities. (2) Korean poetry is not Japanese poetry although there are several similarities. (3) I am unfamiliar with Korean poetry. (Admittedly, this is only the 2nd volume of Korean poetry I have read.) Why is that important? Because many of the poems required me to try to understand the aesthetics beneath the poem - otherwise the poem was simply "average." However, as I stuck with the book I began to understand more and more how to read the poems - and to recognized the brilliance of many of them. Going back to the earlier poems, I discovered how much I had missed in my first readings. The poems that required the least of myself as reader were those poems closest to Chinese sensibilities. The poem that required the most, I suspect are Korean "free verse." The poems themselves are a wonderful breadth of life - monk, husband, political activist ... Ko Un is all and he brings his whole experience to his poetry. This creates poetry based usually in everyday life that contains an intense understanding of that life. An example: Byong'ogi Born a hick, he started working at the age of five, had to work alongside his dad. ... It was fun, half a day hunting snails, fun to get away from the drudgery. ... No graves for children, no services for children, just born and died.