Long Finger Poem
by Jin Eun-Young

I'm working on my poems and working with
my fingers not my head. Because my fingers

are the farthest stretching things from me.
Look at the tree. Like its longest branch

I touch the evening's quiet breathing. Sounds
of rain. The crackling heat from other trees.

The tree points everywhere. The branches can't
reach to their roots though. Growing longer they

grow weaker also. Can't make use of water.
Rain falls. But I'm working with these farthest stretching

things from me. Along my fingertips bare shoots
of days then years unfurl in the cold air.
Translated by Translated from the Korean by Peter Campion

From Volume 190, Number 1, April 2007

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