Poems from my first book manuscript, More Snow than Rice
I’m working on my first book of poetry, More Snow than Rice. It’s a lyric narrative of a heroine’s journey through an imaginary country scarred by war.
The original form of the book was a long poem following the heroine through villages, forests, and mountains as she invented an identity apart from a dutiful daughter. Now the book is a collection of poems: a depiction of a lonely girlhood preceding an adventure through a snowy landscape. The search for a whole self and a home poses a greater challenge than survival. The roles of women, especially as mothers and daughters, are sometimes a greater challenge than the brutality of war. While drafting and revising poems, I wonder how women shape and embody spaces—interior selves, familial roles, kitchens, trees, and on the page. I explore how a woman is defined through a lens influenced by Korean folktales, for these tales preserve and convey cultural values.
I began this project when I was living in Seoul as a Fulbright fellow. However, I stopped writing for several years to focus on teaching high school students and caring for my parents, who struggle with medical and financial issues. I started to write again by attending the June 2019 Kundiman Retreat, an intensive five-day writing workshop. Now I'm determined to complete this book.