LEFT TO SPUR by Rebecca "oh gentle jesus in the garden, how did i end up here at all? just how did i end up here? i could blame it all on the taxi driver as he was the one who dropped me off right on the step of the whore bar. "

AND ALL THE STRANGE ROCK AND ROLLERS by Scott Liam Soper "YOU KNOW YOU’RE DOING ALL RIGHT / SO HOLD ON TO EACH OTHER / YOU GOTTA HOLD ON TONIGHT... '

WRITER'S BLOCK by Joanne Elliott " Steam meanders wearily before my glazed eyes / My rapidly cooling coffee lying derelict.."

CHINESE MOMENTS by Thor May ".. And yet, and yet, from this mountain of human rubble and stained concrete, the hands of children are reaching out to the sky.."

LETTER TO A LOST CHINESE LOVE by Laowai "..You must think I’m crazy with so many letters, I am. If it bothers you please let me know, and I’ll not send as many.."

YEN-LESS IN JAPAN by Elizabeth Briel ".."Oh, I''ll be fine," I reassured both of us blithely. "My visa check card''s from one of the biggest banks in America..."

JENKINS by L.F. Beaucher of the Busanists "Well, he’s Jenkins, after all, so who knows how it’ll all play out.."

DOG DAYS by Thor May "..Me? Personally I'm barking mad with the whole crazed place... '

The Effort Tower - (on hagwon dreams), Amid 's(t)aram' , Om poems by naman

MR. GORILLA by Michael Blakely "..Usually Mr. Gary thinks his students get a little bigger every time he sees them, but looking around the room he's reminded they don't grow all that fast..."

ENTER THE EMART Or YOU DON'T RESPECT MY GRILLED CHEESE!? by A.D. Pearson (of the Busanists) "Tonight," he said bubbling with enthusiasm. "Tonight I'm going to make us grilled cheese sandwi…". Before he could even finish Dan-poon held up her hand to dismiss the idea..

Seasons of a Fisherman - (for Yun Son Do) , Busan Station Square, Gwanghalli Beach, She Has Returned, The Rock of Falling Petals, Train from Daegu, North of Tumen River - Poems by Vernon Mooers

DANCE INTO THE FIRE by Mike Denver
(A Cycle of Poems Inspired by the Andong Mask Festival)
"Once upon a weekend, words like experience, culture and understanding, land us on a 7 am bus to Andong, to see the famous mask dance festival..."

THE NORAE UNDERGROUND by Trokkon Sundagger Nagbe (of the BusanIsts) "From a white plastic bag clutched between her legs she begins handing out bottles of soju with her right hand, and using her left hand and her teeth to rip open a vacuum sealed packet of smoked squid..."

THE RONG AND WINDING LOAD by John Bocskay - How two foreigners boarded an express sightseeing bus and were transformed into stammering degenerates.

CALL IT A HEART by Youngeun Yoo "Call it a heart, A heart filled with your love, Your love has moved me, A patient love that waited by me all these years..."

WITH MY SONS IN KIMHAE CITY by Ian Haight "At the streambed, we take our shoes off, and slowly sink in the mud..."

NEAR GUPO STATION by Ian Haight "Up at 3 a.m. for an early train drive down a road of young women sitting in pink-lit windows..."

CLIMBING KUM JUNG MOUNTAIN ON SUL NAL, 2002 by Ian Haight "We walk the park's promenade,my wife's sun-browned hand..."

DAEJEON ASHRAM by Ian Haight "From the train station
cross the asphalt square, the half-tended circle of tulips and pigeon flocks to taxis..."

A FAMILY OF THREE by Ian Haight "He is the man / sitting / at the bus stop / blowing smoke rings.."

MACKEREL LADY A poem by Ju Hee Kwon "Her salient nose/ Saturated / with blackheads / Like millions of tiny oil reservoirs..."

DOG DAYS by Thor May "..Me? Personally I'm barking mad with the whole crazed place..."

TURNING OFF THE LIGHT by Jameson "I come up the stairs, tired from teaching. As soon as my key is in the lock I can hear him scurrying at his door, ready to come out."

TEACHING IN KOREA: OH MY!! by LouLou Lawless "On June 14th, 2003 my partner Marty and I said good-bye to our friends and family and boarded a plane headed to Ulsan..."

COLOURS by Yoo Young-eun "..Sensuousness / A drop of rain / A scenic view of mountain ranges.."

WHITE RED BLUE BLACK (ON A KOREAN FLAG) by Yoo Young-eun .."But one thing / We know for sure / That we should keep moving on.."

The Interrogation by Spook Larsen ".. What’s up, boss?" I asked in measured tones, one part mild interest and another severe apprehension.

May 18 Ethan Hawley ..“Gone? What do you mean? Where did they take him?”

 

Death, where is your sting? by modern_day_holocaust "we have battled for years now, you and i, / from the time i knew what you meant. knew what you did to people."

ADORATION OF THE KOREAN - Expatriate Tales Made in Korea by Andy Crown - an anthology of stories

SENATE INQUIRY INTO THE STATUS OF AUSTRALIAN EXPATRIATES by Thor May "..A nation state in its modern incarnation is essentially a fortress surrounded by a wall....."

PROFESSIONAL LAPSE by E. Mel Bloughs "..After several minutes, tears began to slip from behind my smiling eyes.."

HAPPY HOLIDAYS by Scott Soper "....I’m on the way back out of Japan to Korea on the last flight before Christmas and the irreclining stewardess is staring and smiling.."

AWAY FROM HOME by Thor May '.."FACE!!" yelled the tourist. The passengers stopped that noisy way passengers have of saying nothing, and became very still. The driver stood on his brakes and looked back in fear..."

Pusan by Johnny Ioannidis "..In this town of broken glass and broken souls / Of rusty halos and rusty nails.."

Tour of the DMZ , Why ? , Canada day in Korea from a British perspective poems by Wesley Meller

STRANGE STAR NIGHT by Will Lingle "..Because this was a night of strange stars, we knew all these lives as though reading a newspaper.. "

BLACK KIMCHI by M.R. Bradie (of the Busanists)
"..she shot him a look of absolute disgust. Eldon was that man. The disposeable trash-man..."

TRAVELOGUE: BOGYEONG-SA by Nick Gallagher ."..I decided I was well enough equipped to handle the trail; so, puffing up my chest and dodging through the human rainbow of ponchos, with Gandalf-staff in hand, I set off up the valley..."

LOVE STORY OF MINA AND HER ETERNAL LOVE GEORGE by Albert Pulido "On her deathbed, in a hospital in Arizona, Rosa forgot to tell her only son George what happened, but in her youth she swore, on the grave of Admiral Yi Sun-Shin, she would spill the beans... "

MELON MAN by Fin Madden "Melon man, melon man, i hate the fucking melon man..."

IT WAS SO NICE (Or, The Day After the Domestication Binge, or, The Stinky Bachelor Enjoys a Morning Identity Crisis) by John Bosckay "It was so nice, when I went to the kitchen, to start the coffee..."

THE MOON by David Hilton "Call the police call the fire brigade the moon's on fire. Like a lover's pyre, like a burning lyre, like an ancient reality-denier..."

DAMAGE by David Hilton "The wehrmacht of her personality, races across the plains, the luftwaffe of her mind, soars through all her pains..."

SUNGMYO FOR OUR DEAD FATHER-IN-LAW by Ian Haight " By the doors of houses, fish heads lie on newspapers..."

THE NEIGHBOR'S SON by Ian Haight "I don't miss the day, he cursed our children. He liked parking in our spot, though the lot was empty of cars..."

MOONS SO FAR AWAY by Ian Haight "When I looked over the empty playground standing alone you asked my name..."

THE NORTHERN STATES by Matt Ng "At the front of the Department store, I bought a copy of The New York Times, basically a pitiful rundown of Kim Jung Il’s achievements..."

TRANSLATIONS by Jack Pogue "You speak English very well." / I wanted to tell you that your hair / glowed auburn and nutmeg / in the light of the candle on my balcony,

MY BENINIAN WIFE by Geoffrey Miller "...but nevertheless reality has a funny way sometimes of making you face it.” Something that I am sure our embassy friend here has had his own personal run in with."

COVERGIRL by Corporal .."... and then she realizes / the tears are her own"

TIME TO FLY by Lucy Dreamer .."You Go Girl !" I muttered heartlessly as I shuffled along in the sand, feeling as springy as lead and as enthusiastic as a bowl of soggy bread.

IN THE BEGINNING by Corporal ".. It was just after 10 p.m, local time. Her internal clock was miserably confused, however, and her head whirled with facts, questions, and numbers, but most of all with fears and doubts..."

A Korean Alphabet by Corporal "..A is for ajumas, the old women who sit or crouch perpetually by the side of the road, their sun-darkened faces revealing a life of hard work and little hope."

In This Cold Today Chris Weagle "..As I exit, I smell recognition / in the cooking yams and woodsmoke floating / in the chill of late today"

They Paved The Rave And Put Up A Nursing Home Johnny Ioannidis "..the best DJs in the world use anything and everything to make it happen".

 

 

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