“This poem began and ended in a block, fitting the story into a serious, but no-nonsense, shape. The subject’s woes melt off him as he climbs, while the movement is downward for the reader. We go in and deep in order to make sense of pain, searching for rebirth. We seek out words that traverse time, beyond mortal boundaries. If the only answer to suffering is to begin again, let a simple man coin a new word. Let a simple poem try again: to be a story, a tower to climb. In the generative possibility of new experience, forgiveness feels closer.”
—Mihee Kim