Phantom Pain Wings - Kim Hyesoon

Phantom Pain Wings by Kim Hyesoon, translated by Don Mee Choi / ISBN 9780811231718 / 182-page paperback published in 2023 by New Directions *** Winged ventriloquy―a powerful new poetry collection channeling the language of birds by South Korea’s most innovative contemporary writer An iconic figure in the emergence of feminist poetry in South Korea and now internationally renowned, Kim Hyesoon pushes the poetic envelope into the farthest reaches of the lyric universe. In her new collection, Kim depicts the memory of war trauma and the collective grief of parting through what she calls an “I-do-bird-sequence,” where “Bird-human is the ‘I.’” Her remarkable essay “Bird Rider” explains: “I came to write Phantom Pain Wings after Daddy passed away. I called out for birds endlessly. I wanted to become a translator of bird language. Bird language that flies to places I’ve never been.” What unfolds is an epic sequence of bird ventriloquy exploring the relentless physical and existential struggle