Poetry by Woo Ae Yi (Winter 2021 issue)
Feelings have no rhyme.
Reason is always one thing.
Fueled by human need,
Ingrained in blood and memory,
You know of what I speak.
More than six or seven senses,
Beyond intergalactic battles
of the depths of reason versus…what else? Stretches past stretch marks,
Forgives past unforgivable,
Denies flaws in common
or not so common inadequacies,
Becomes…no, always is our substance,
our necessary needs.
It beckons to mind
complex abstractions of birth, death, afterlife.
What is this power?
Life…You…Love.
내 영혼에게 to my soul
감정에는 기복이 없어요
생각은 오직 하나
인간의 기본적 욕망이
우리 둘 혈액과 기억 속에 들어 있어요.
당신은 내가 말하는 것이 무엇인지 알지요
오감이던 육감이던
생각의 깊이 넘어
은하계 간 전쟁을 넘어,
뭐 다른 것이 있나요
조금 더 뻥어서
용서할수 없는 것들을 용서하면서
공통적인 결함을 거부하면서
아니 공통적인 것이 아니야
부적합한 것들이야
아니여 그것들이 우리둘의 실체였어
우리 둘의 필요한 욕망이었어
출생과 죽음, 내세의 삶이 추상적으로 복잡하게 얽여
마음에 와 닿았지만.
무엇이 우디 둘의 힘이었나?
삶, 당신, 사랑
Woo Ae Yi, formerly Ame Ai, is a screenwriter, playwright, author, poet, lyricist, and unofficial anthropologist. Both “Woo Ae” and “Ame Ai” translates to “rain love,” and Yi believes that, just as rain falls on everyone, that everyone deserves to be loved. With a prolific created library of thirteen books, Yi has written on the topic of adoption, race, culture, romance and sex, spirituality, and prison since 2008 through various mediums. Yi has been publishing creative and nonfiction works only somewhat longer than she has enjoyed being in Toastmasters International. In the future, Yi plans to write more about Korean (and/or Asian) adoptees, prison, the LGBTQ community from the perspective of a member, and paranormal topics. Yi has been happily married for two years and enjoys watching animé and musicals and listening to K-pop and The Beatles. To learn more about Woo Ae Yi, visit www.yiwooae.com.
