In the old days a poet once said our nation is destroyed yet the mountains and rivers survive Today's poet says the mountains and rivers are destroyed yet our nation survives Tomorrow's poet will say the mountains and rivers are destroyed our nation is destroyed and Alas! you and I are completely destroyed

From Flowers of a Moment by Ko Un. English language translation copyright © 2006 by Brother Anthony, Young-moo Kim, and Gary Gach. Used by permission of BOA Editions, Ltd.

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Poems by This Author

Majung Village by Ko Un Over the steep, panting hills where

Further Reading

Related Poems The Teller by David Mason Without Discussion by Samuel Amadon More Like This On Poetry and Craft [excerpt] by Theodore Roethke All She Wrote by Harryette Mullen Anybody Can Write a Poem by Bradley Paul Dawn by James Laughlin Dear J. by Kazim Ali In Portraits in Seasons by Danielle Pafunda Inert Perfection by Edna St. Vincent Millay Language by W. S. Merwin Leo Said by Eileen Myles Night School by Micah Ballard Poetry by Marianne Moore Poetry by Alfred Kreymborg Poetry is by Emilio Villa Potentially Interesting & Secretly Devastating by Tina Brown Celona Q & A by Terence Winch Render, Render by Thomas Lux so you want to be a writer? by Charles Bukowski Te Deum by Charles Reznikoff The Bear by Galway Kinnell The Gift by Chard deNiord The Language of Love by Rodney Jones The Novel as Manuscript by Norman Dubie The Politics of Narrative: Why I Am A Poet by Lynn Emanuel To a Young Poet by Edna St. Vincent Millay What He Thought by Heather McHugh what it means to be avant-garde [excerpt] by David Antin While Writing by Noelle Kocot