Speakers 1

Morning news

floats in the air like breath,

obscuring each other's faces.

People

believe their words are warm,

but on the streets,

only the ashes of uncooled words pile up.

At the end of the market,

sitting on a dented chair,

I pick up and wipe

a persimmon that fell yesterday.

The persimmon is silent.

Yet, it holds the winter sunlight for a long time.

Someone speaks of justice in a loud voice,

and someone else sells anger in an even louder voice.

There are more words, but human breaths

grow shorter and shorter.

Today too,

I crumple a sentence lingering on my tongue

and put it in my pocket.

Rather than this,

it would be better to save my words

and plant a tree.

The breath disappears,

and the tree endures the winter.

In a world full of words,

I feign ignorance and plant roots of silence.

Quietly,

I wait to become shade.

◆ Poet Na Ho-yeol

Poet, Doctor of Philosophy, harmonica player, former professor at Kyung Hee University. Born in Busan, a refugee area, he settled in Jeongneung, Seoul at the age of six. Orphaned at a young age, he went through a melancholic youth and was fascinated by existentialist philosophy, which he pursued as his major. He has published 14 poetry collections, including "A House Without a Fence" (2023), "How Are You" (2021), "Goodbye, Baby Box" (2019), "Sad Because Beautiful" (2019), "I Know the Saddest Song in the World" (2017), and "What Tears Commanded" (2011).