Theory about Poetry

Mr. Poet Euisu Byeon(卞義洙) is a Korean poet. He published his first poetry book, "The Distant City of Memories," in 1991. In February 1996, he began his official career as a poet with the publication of his works in "Modern Poetry Studies." Since then, he has been a leading figure in unconscious symbolism, with his second poetry book, "When the Moon Rises, Trees Have an Arched Chest," published in 2002, and his subsequent work on unconscious symbolism. He published his third book of poetry, a collection of long poems titled "The Symbolism of the Unconscious: Nature, Spirits, and Symbols," in 2008, followed by his fourth poetry book, "The Parrot in the Black Sun," as well as his first book of literary criticism, "Waiting for a Flock of Fantasies: The Symbolism of the Unconscious." He has also written a collection of essays on symbolism and symbols, titled "Symbols and Symbols, Invasion and Resistance." Since then, he has focused on "meta-semiotics," an extension of unconscious symbolism. He published his second and third books of literary criticism, "Artists Called by God" and "Schizophrenia and Poets," in 2009, as well as a book on art criticism titled "Understanding Seo Sang-hwan and Contemporary Art" in 2010. In 2013, he published "Seo Sang-hwan's Art Symbols: Meeting Park Sang-ryong's Novels and Byun Yi-soo's Poems," a book of art criticism. He also published "Convergence Studies: Symbolism" in two volumes in 2015, in which he presents "symbolism" as an independent emerging academic field. He led a joint poetry creation project in 2019 with Ju Won-ik, Kang Seo-yeon, Park Yi-young, Seo Sang-hwan, and Lee Chae-hyun, among others. In 2021, he founded and served as editor for the poetry magazine "Symbolism Research Institute."

Theory about Poetry

Ⅰ.

Poetry is something that happens as soon as you wake up from your sleep. It's like opening your eyes, walking on water, and throwing yourself into something.

Ⅱ.

Objects are round. Rocks are only folded. Poetry uses the front and back sides of the universe. Poetry conceals objects, but it also reveals them.

Lips are symbols of clouds. Objects that make up the shape of clouds are not hard. Rocks, like cats, are friendly. What is solemn is the lips.

Books are palaces of the lips. Lips decorate them with walls and ceilings adorned with elaborate patterns. They adorn the sanctuary with symbols of solemn characters.

Poetry is the act of reading silence. It is the act of seeing objects beyond the sacred lips. Like a scientist measuring the weight of an apple on the moon, poetry reads the form of substance from the substance of things.

To a grapevine, poetry is the sun.

Poetry is light. Poetry is also a cloud. Poetry is I and you. Poetry is both one and whole.

It is the tongue of the heavens that makes everything exist and disappear.

Ⅲ.

The moon exists within poetry. Poetry makes the moon ripple. It drenches the moon with rain. Poetry summons the howls of foxes and wolves to the moon.

Poetry is both magnetic force and gravity. Poetry is the product of mass and the square of the speed of light. Poetry transforms time into space and expands space into nothingness

So, poetry is also nothingness. Just because it is nothingness does not mean it lacks meaning. It simply cannot be touched or seen. Poetry is an endless universe, an invisible space and time.

A poet uses poetry as a lever. They condense and release all the mass and energy of the universe. Poetry is an equation and a wave. It is the source of universal gravitation, the force that keeps stars suspended in space.

Ⅳ.

Poetry possesses its own force, bringing together stars at great distances and keeping them in harmony. This is why every metaphor in poetry works, and why we are able to become mythical beings as we read it. Poetry is a branch and a dream, a stormy sea, and the reason why the poet must handle their soul with care.

Poetry is like droplets, here and there. It is not two separate things, but one physical space and entity. Kant made this point clear in his immortal work. There is no gap between two phenomena, in other words, there is no place to divide them (B 281). Oneness, truth, and goodness are the criteria and foundation of general knowledge of things (B 113).

Poetry is the space of the universe, an aggregation of indivisible substance and difficult forces. It is an invisible order and a world of fluctuating powers. Poetry exists here and there, occupying both this place and that place, because it is both physics and metaphysics. Therefore, the principle of 'identification,' which unites everything into one, is the fundamental principle and general rule of poetry. - "Symbolism of Convergence Studies," pp. 150 and below.

Poetry is both closed and open like the universe, and this is the reason for its existence.