Monday, May 23, 2011
dare...
i watched
as wind flew out from your center
a crash of wings
a crash of claw and beaks
(i have seen crows mourn their brethren)
(what this thing is now
i do not dare to
name it
i cast my eyes down to the earth
where my hand rests trembling)
half of my self
is still over on the other side
of all the unknown waves that sing out from the depths
where mermaids swoon
and the leviathan still roam
my body sits here planted
before a metal rectangle with plastic
and wires
for guts
my feet one footed on a metal bar
and the other resting 'hind it
legs crossed
i do not dare to call out into
what should not yet be
uncrossed
a black fly stealths its way in
taunting
"i know
i know
do you?"
and these birds are
gossiping about what it is
im
thinking
there is sunlight in the alley
and invisible utterances of
flutters through the
"interweb(s)"
"yes you must"
i mouth to j.alfred prufrock
but he just rolls his trousers
eats a peach
picks up his coffee spoons
and
flies
out the
room
kim thompson 23 may 2011 seoul s.korea 14.19
Saturday, May 21, 2011
random thoughts on reunion
"some things
cannot be
are not meant to be
reconciled"
those were her words
and i took them as mine
to sum up everything with
her and her and also with her
adoption and its disorders
which lead to relationships with disorders
adoptees are a form of oh so most "disorderly"
cannot attach
but always prone to cling
cannot let in
but always looking out
and those who can
i pray to meet
because some days being the ones to create the model
is too exhausting
she makes my heart a whirl
she makes my brain collapse
she takes the breath from my lungs
and slams it on the city pavements
and leaves me gasping
there is nothing simple about our love
she took my language
she took my understanding
she took my trust
she took the beat from my heart
and drowned it in the pacific
our love was birthed complex
everyone wants to know
how things are with her
these days all i can say is
"its so damn complicated"
you have this moment
where all the light shines in
when the moon is magical
and time stands still
and it moves
and youre back in real time
and the light begins to burn
and the moon looks bored
and time is poking you in the arm
our finding was beauty turned upheaving
and so then theres the drinking
and the over sexing
others find their other ways of coping
and youve just been spun in circles
and life's saying "hey walk straight"
and the ground waves up and down
and people say "whats wrong with you?"
as youre reeling from the booze and the goddamn so drunk sex
and you cant even pull the line back in
because how do you unravel and repiece a ball of yarn like this?
and some days you hate her
and other days you love her
and then at times you just choose to forget
and sometimes its the whole damn country
and sometimes its every woman whose ever done like her
and then theres this quiet calm
and other days theres grief deeper than any child who has a mother could ever know
and inbetween it all theres the knowing
and theres the guilt
cuz youre 2% of 200,000 who are without all you have
so the 1% that you know of the 2%
sit together huddled over dinner
saying things that only the two of you can understand
and what this new lonely feels like
there is no happy ending
you knew that
and yet you didnt
shes got a world of guilt to pay
shes got a lifetime of trying to forget her own flesh and blood
thats out there somewhere wandering...
so you drink
and you fuck
and you dont sleep
and you say crazy shit
because youre drunk
and screwing anything that shows up
and then sleep deprived from not being able to walk in a straight line
and then one day
youre with your friends
youre with a lover
youre with 1% of that 2%
and you realize
how youre no longer drinking to forget
how sex has regained its status and youve said no 9 out of 10 times
and youre sleeping
and even though youre not walking a straight line
at least its a slow "s" shape that youre treading and the floor's stopped moving everytime you lift your foot.
and everything that was beating up your heart and brain
is punching so much softer
and the 15,000 emotions that you were living with all at once
are now down to maybe 150 all at once and those 150 have been stabilized by
realizing you are living in her words
that
some things
cannot
are not
meant to be
reconciled.
kim thompson. seoul. s.korea sunday 22 may 2011 11.00
Friday, May 20, 2011
mpls
when lilacs breathe through open windows
i finally know the song in full
when i mistake the moon for a street lamp
and utter a sound of awe...
all the shattered pieces meld together
and the broken becomes whole
to form a perfect window door that swings wide
open
(its always been how the light gets in...)
and the laughter inbetween our teary tasting drinks
revives each part that was
forgotten
put in boxes
put away on shelves
not for shame but for
... wishing for a better day
that never gets
any better...
and in the wishing
forgetting spilled over
and when we sat repeatedly
in front of the red and yellow bricks
staring into the park
through sweaty owled glasses
dogs digging earth
your son looking 15 frantic childhood times before crossing the street
the forgotten crossed back over and into
the again of "now"
and when you popped the flower between your fingers
i was for the first time
awakened by the memory of a scent
that we'd inhaled moments before
the opening of flowers
and when you slapped me on the back with a guffaw
and high fiving cuz that's just what we do when we're saying
"i love you"
breath re-entered to my desperate lungs
when i saw each face
heard each voice
consumed each bite of tenderloin
and breakfasts in the afternoon
all so present in the moment
every bit that i didnt know id lost
came back full fledged
in a newer brighter
yet
familiar way
leaning in
has allowed for
all the joys of
leaning out into open hearted ways of
light
and
of
love
and
of
ee cummings wings
and all (of) that returned me
back to
here
the place that being "i" first
began.
kim thompson seoul. s.korea friday 20 may 2011 14.03
Sunday, May 8, 2011
for (my) 엄마
it is not a string that can be
unknotted ...
nor unwound
and yet (i) have stood before you
unraveling since the moment that
you let me
(halfway) in
and the half of me thats still outside
and the half of me thats been let inside
are divided into broken splinters
my heart a human form of flowering
but i love you
and have done so
since you carried me sight unseen
back when your flesh was my shield
back when we stirred each other into waking
i have loved you always
even in the midst of every righteous tantrum fit of anger/pain for all you did
and did not
do
and our past is the world's largest ball of seemingly unworkable yarn
but the train keeps speeding forward
and the solitary street lamps
are shining down on this
slowly knitted path
so today
just like back in the beginning
and all throughout the middle...
i love you with the heart
that you and he
made for me.
-- kim thompson. mpls, mn the states. sunday 8 may 2011. 13.15
Friday, May 6, 2011
about being here...
and while shes crouching scattering life into
a corner patch of seeming dirt
i see the visual of whats been going on inside of me
and the purple blossoms reaching up from mossy greens
and suddenly i have something to write about
(cuz how do you write a poem 'bout eating
and drinking
and
eating more?)
but then she goes and sprinkles seeds into the ground
with the green hose resting obediently
like a long green dog
and i wish to "god" that id been born
"a dancer"
cuz they have these gestures for
seeds
and
joy
and
home
and planting things
and everything else it is
that ive been feeling these days
inbetween the
gorging
and there were rocket trails in the sky
and i dreamt with aerial zoom vision
only,
the world zooms out from me into the expansiveness of space
and i loved a dancer once
(i have loved too many for the count)
(i am guided by their choreography)
but my mouth could not move
(even though it knows the gestures for
desire)
and i awoke
my hands rotating to last night's
music
and
twisting feet
and i sat this afternoon
consuming food and buttered lemon sauce
my heart still gesturing long lines
with the seeds that
have been
sown
from these days and weeks of
being
here
knowing that
in (my) seoul
these things
will
blossom
beautifully
with
grace
-- kim thompson. mpls, mn, the states 13.36 friday 6 may
Thursday, April 28, 2011
done
Monday, April 25, 2011
WHAT I SHOULD'VE SAID
WHAT I SHOULD’VE SAID
for men that date single moms
Do you
think
I am the kind of woman
who lets love storm her judgment?
The kind of woman
who saves spaces in her sky for any
bird who kisses her?
Do you
think
I’m the kind of lover
who doesn’t respect men enough
to have favorites?
The kind of lover
who is so lonely
she’s forgetful?
What kind of mother do you think I am
that I would think
my son needs the kind of father
you think you are,
who considers this family a charity,
like we accept any donation?
Thursday, April 21, 2011
A NaPoWriMo poem: I Believe In Harry Holt Too

Monday, April 11, 2011
response to frank o'hara
프랭크 오 하라
한역 김 연복
어렸을 때에 난
학교 운동장 구석에서
혼자서만
놀았다.
인형도
게임도 시들했다
동물들은 나를 피했고
새들은 날아가 버렸다
누군가가 나를 찾으면
난 나무 뒤에 숨어서
" 난 고아다" 하고
소리쳤다
그러다, 보라, 오늘 !
난 모든 아름다움의 중심에 있다
이런 시들을 쓰면서...
상상이나 해보라.
Autobiographia Literaria
Frank O, Hara
When I was a child
I played by myself in a
corner of the schoolyard
all alone.
I hated dolls and I
hated games, animals were
not friendly and birds
flew away
If anyone was looking
for me I hid behind a
tree and cried out " I am
an orphan."
And here I am, the
center of all beauty !
writing these poems !
Imagine !
-------------
response to frank o'hara:
a little dude ranch
all alone
eating lunch
and for the first and only time
feeling peace
cuz the two boys whod mock were inside
(two boys whom i later learned to tame
through self deprecation ...
which became both my salvation and my jail cell)
i couldnt say the "r" in mark
i was (so) afraid to speak words like
"world"
"art"
"write"
"word"
and my very brother's name or who he was...
and yet all i wanted was to be
an "aw-tist" and a "ww-iter"
childhood was threatening
from an early age i mourned
how id never have sun bleached blonde hair
or eyes of blue
* such shortcomings were sure signs of ugliness
id never be...
maria von trapp in any school production
jesus and his dad were these nice but mean guys
who lived upstairs
always loving
but always threatening
with their thug named
"angel of death"
who usually liked to pass-over
just before easter
i had no choice but to
swear allegiance
if i wanted to make it to the 1st grade all intact
i'd lie on the wall to wall
carpeting
playing with words
drawing up blueprints for
a future house
and life
id tell her all the things id wonder about
HER
and she'd tell me
id see HER in heaven so not to worry
* this only made me worry more... as from what i knew of heaven... by the time i saw her there i wouldnt care id just be strolling streets of gold whilst stuck in a church service that was scheduled to run for an eternity...
id dream of london
and the world
id dream of women
and songs played out on the piano
id dream of tattoos and cigarettes
and sitting up in trees drawing it all out
id wake up thinking
how i never dreamed of HER
and yet... and yet...
when i was 9 and met poetry
thats when i suddenly knew that
all of it could come true...
so here i am
artist writer of words who has seen the world and who found HER (bringing my kind of heaven down to earth)
and so...
here i am...
this orphan turned woman
with jet black hair that gets more attention than a gangnam pampered poodle
here i am
this child who in hiding found respite
this tattood smoking kim hae kim
who has lived where maria von trapp once sang
this dreaming kid afraid of most but drawing up blueprints for the future
this who i was
and
who i am
this me
who no longer has to eat alone
no more afraid of things that involve the letter
"r"
... yes, frank o'hara this life i did
imagine!
-- kim thompson. tuesday 11.35 12 april 11. seoul. s. korea
Thursday, April 7, 2011
my heart
pink and bright
outside the dry cleaners
i live downwind from their scent
my heart is
the smell of bread baking
from the bakers round the corner
i live upwind from its scent
my heart is
the sentences i write you
when time whispers "wait"
and the words say "soon"
my heart is
the rain that wakes me in the morning
collecting in my alley
in the space between two walls
my heart is
the joy of knowing trans oceanic flight
and the hearts that wait
for mine
my heart is
awake to knowing that
i will know when to
send
when to go
when to stay
and when to
meet.
my heart is
the painting above my door
arms up in the akimbo of
surrender
my heart is
that silver coin
oblong shape indented
piece of memento
my heart is
wings tucked in
wings unfurled
always ready for the soaring
my heart is
the morning coffee in my cup
and cigarette smoke in the air
and music from small laptop speakers
my heart is
yours for always
my heart is
mine from the beginning
my heart is
living upwind of baked bread
downwind of cherry blossoms
in between two walls swollen with rain
silver smoke wings singing
akimbo'd ready for flight
and well
caffeinated
my heart
it just
is.
-- kim thompson. thursday 7 april 2011. seoul. s.korea 14.00
Friday, April 1, 2011
2 days (of [eternal] perfection)
by, Sara Teasdale
There will come soft rain and the smell of the ground,
And swallows circling with their shimmering sound;
And frogs in the pools singing at night,
And wild plum-trees in tremulous white;
Robins will wear their feathery fire
Whistling their whims on a low fence-wire;
And not one will know of the war, not one
Will care at last when it is done.
Not one would mind, neither bird nor tree
If mankind perished utterly;
And Spring herself, when she woke at dawn,
Would scarcely know that we were gone.
------
(she) speaks and writes to me of
sunflowers
and cherry blossoms blooming in the present
telling (me) how
the brilliance of sunflowers
is only for 2 days
"so short for so much beauty"
she explains
and how (oft) we forget reality
thinking things like such are somehow
bound to a
forever.
(how is it that i -love- you
without knowing
and without
quotations?)
(another)(she) writes to me of
the devastation and toxic water now around
but how
cherry blossoms have bloomed early in japan
... (recalling the lines of sara teasdale...
"there will come soft rains...")
and how (my) remaking of the words of how and when
spring itself shall slumber on...
sunflowers and how they stand
"like people"
she reminds me
-- so short
-- so brief
this beauty
-- so short
-- so brief
this life
-- so great
-- so immense
this beauty
-- so great
-- so immense
this life.
(how is it that when breathing
i see you
bodiless
and full?)
(her) words and images
play out with the steam that fills my tiled bathroom
thoughts collecting in rivulets that appear and then dissipate on the tiled walls and floor
sunflowers and seeds cascading down my flesh
cherry blossoms running down my hair
and into the drain
all being carried away by
by
by...
air and now
(i tell you of my day
and your ghost responds
with
"yes me too")
(i) want all the slices of my heart
to expand their shreds into
flapping wings
(i know this unfolding
i see it everyday/ noting "everyday" as "매일"
and drifting off into 내일
coming back to "오늘" "지금" the today of now...)
this morning when i awoke
ready to rip up the stalks of dead sunflowers
and curse their stems that knock me in the head
i found peace
in the blossoming of
cherry blossomed breaths...
and opened wide my
wing-ed (shredded) heart
and wrapped your words like
green as green so newborn green tendrils about
my neck and wrists.
so short
so brief
so unearthly
so sublime
so classically "magnificat"
all this
"2 day blossoming"
kind of
love and knowing.
for in the spring
we re-awake
even in the frost of
winter.
kim thompson. friday 1 april '11. seoul. s.korea 14.01
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
now
and the sound passes through the air
whilst a pigeon cries outside my kitchen window...
a window,
that is half blocked off by kitchen shelves
- a sort of inbuilt window security system
(the shelves, not the pigeon...)
-- (then again this is korea so pigeons could keep many a female intruder away)
and theres the digging and drilling of the new airport subway line
filling my mind with the shape-sound of a well oiled drill bit
(sometimes when walking past all this noise i fear the snapping of chains
and objects plummeting from the sky
whilst the giant metal slabs covering the cavernous gorge in the earth
collapses and we tumble
samgyupsal, automobiles, ahjumas, ahjushis, students, and myself beneath)
all this whilst birds that i no longer want to shoot
are chirping about something
"you dig and toil whilst we sing"
is what i like to think theyre saying
happy with their own song
unbothered by the noise we make with machines
the whir of my now much beloved
air purifier
is a steady sort of hummmmm...
my pint sized refrigerator also joining in on the
white noise harmony going on inside my flat
-- sometimes i could swear that i can hear the smoke
drifting up and off my cigarette...
each day
with every passing moment
the sounds change
ceasing from memory
only to return with another passing breath
only to fade again
with the sound of my slippered feet slippering across my floors
to refill my mug that was made with love
with more
undesecrated morning coffee
this piece of writing
at times interrupted by the sounds of
editing
and spell checks
this piece of writing
comprised of the sounds
of my fingers speeding across the keyboard
(do you know how quickly a person can type with just three fingers?
and yet even with all ten i can barely play a tune on the piano)
a car
bongo truck
speeds by
as if pedestrians never walk these streets
im amazed at the lack of accidents that occur here
im amazed at and by a lot
why im here?
i dont always know
and sometimes this unknowing will break me down at night
and i fill the air with the ache of unknowing
but then the space fills me
with the joy of
becoming
... its no longer just
"the life ive lived"
it is rather now
"the life im living"
filled with daily sounds
filled with daily
"is's"
filled with daily
habits and routines
i am what is
and what is
i
am
brought into
being
(fully)
present
in all this symphony
of
"now"
kim thompson. 11.37 thurs 24 mar 11. seoul. s. korea
Thursday, March 17, 2011
Car Crash Love Poem/No, Not Like Cronenberg
Whiplash whips eyelashes back at
metal bending around metal,
whips memory back to
my arms bending around you.
This was all so avoidable--
road signs ignored, talking about milkshakes
instead of looking ahead.
No matter--no one was hurt;
this was just a minor accident,
between two people
and insurance will cover the damage
so we’ll sleep well tonight,
unaware of the refrain spoken
before work or a car crash--
let the last thing I ever say be I love you.
Monday, March 14, 2011
... today
"lyrics to a song"
she tells me
lean into the wind
lean into the pain
lean into the waves that crash
lean into the disappointment
flip in the air like ravens play with thunderous drafts
i remember how we were
back then
drunk
tying each other up
choking for relief
my skin scarred for a month
i remember how we were
back then
too scared to admit the size of our
love
the size of our
fear(s)
how the ink was about
cover-ups for the past
how the bottles were about
cover-ups for the present
how we leaned away
not
into
tippling back and forth in the backseat of a taxi cab
shouting directions repeatedly
cuz even close to home
we could get so
lost
i think of your message today
in the light of the past
how we once were
and
now are
how my joy leans towards the
love that you have found
and how i now love without
attachment
i think of
a town of 10,000
disappeared
swept away
consumed by the earth in a flash
and the 10,000 times millions more who
find our lives exhumed
to lean towards
not away
from the pain of a world that can do little more than
let out one collective:
sigh
i think of
all that has transpired these days
compared to the past 2 months
and how i know all it is that you run from
and know how the plates of your life
will one day shift you into an upheaval
to bring you back to your
soul
to bring you back to
leaning towards
the winds
the waves
the pain of your past
i think of
who we were just winters ago
my first winter here
how mountains may crumble
and the earth may slip into the sea
but we stand here today
leaning forward
hands clasped
and joined
by a shared
time of
yesterdays
i think of
the letters i would like to
write to you
so that you understand that we have peace
but instead
for now
i trust the wind
to carry to you
in the form of ravens tumbling joyously in flight
the words that (i) compose to you each day in my head
of how one day
i will say
"i think of who we were back then"
and we will sing with the song that is still being written
that
the past is the past
and we stand here today
joined by what was once shared
and though the very planet itself
can swallow us whole in one violent shake
we have so much to live and
lean
in
to
-- kim thompson. mon 14 mar '11 seoul. s.korea
Friday, March 11, 2011
she...
makes me wanna write so much
that i can't find a word to begin
so i just say
"she"
she
makes me wanna tear down my walls
to find the open fields
and run towards the
light
she
makes me wanna take my world
spin it upside down
shake it inside out
collect all the change
and buy her a
ring that completes itself on end
and say
"here is my beginning
here is our end"
she
makes me wanna breathe in
and
breathe out
not caring anymore if there's a ground and
say to her
"don't groundlessness just feel so flight?"
she
makes me wanna take all my woes
turn them into mustard seeds
plant them in the earth
and wait for spring to
take
full effect
and then take what's grown and tell her
"this is faith and this one's hope"
she
makes me wanna wrap my wrists in leather and cloth
put on my red hoodie
wear my striped black and white trousers
with my soviet era brass belt buckle
and tell her
"i say trousers
not
pants"
and then stand in front of a mic
and say all the things
that
she
makes me wanna
do
she
makes me wanna wait for perfection
that ive too long been sub-parring for
and then take that perfection
and label it
"her"
she
makes me wanna sit in my home
clean the dust off the floor of my
soul
do laundry
and
write
until the day that i can say
"ive prepared this for you"
and give her my soul
all cracked clean full of light
radiant like that moment that ive seen from the window of an airplane
just before the sun is seen by those below
but we see it up above the clouds
purple - orange - and pink
shooting out like we've all just seen the colors of
the
rapture
and i know
what a beautiful day we're gonna have when
my plane touches land
she
makes me wanna put down my ways
that weigh me
down
so that i can be
pure
poetry
for
this great immaculate
"she"
who is out there
waiting
for
me.
--- kim thompson. fri. 11 march 11. seoul. s. korea
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
heart shards
on the opposite end of the same
(pain) line
as
(me)
the leaver
and the left
a place for where there is no "right"
only
somewhere
in between
used to think that
mine
was worse
than yours
but being here
knowing (you)
i think now maybe
(yours) is worse
than
(mine)
we (both) live with loss so deep
but (yours) is also mixed with guilt
and (mine) with only lack of comprehension
i used to think
(fear)
that only i was wondering
now,
knowing (you)
i realize how deep wondering can go
to the point of
burying
denying
and running
(mine "towards"
and yours "away from")
i was both
your
redemption
and your
reminder
(i often wondered how much it hurt you
to know
just how flat your excuses sounded
when bounced off of one like me
who is a reminder of
a name like mine that my own blood did not speak for years
but kept deep inside her heart)
we are together
broken shards of hearts
only
ive found out
just how large my heart is
and what i can make with all those broken pieces
"stained glass windows"
is my new cliche
"stained glass window"
is my new constructionist's belief
of what i'll build from
broken bits of heart
to make a window for letting in
and not a wall for keeping out
and i wonder
what its like for you at night
when you feel the loss of what your arms once held
(youve) helped me to understand that
i cannot
blame
or
understand
(her)
that like you
she too
was once
young
and
scared
and in that one last act of
oddly labeled time of courage
lost everything
today
as the wind blows into my windows
i think
of you
opposite side of me
as i gather up my shards
and rebuild
and you and she
slice your hearts to pieces
- kim thompson 9 mar '11 wed. 18.02 -- seoul. s.korea
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
But, seriously, have you heard Monster?
2036 or The Day After The Tea Party is Defeated
There’ll be a day when we move beyond political statement--
in being, we’ll be less than a political statement.
We’ll wash the blood of a race war from our faces
just enough to see each other,
just enough to be embraced by being
nothing more than two
(or three--there’ll be a day for that)
and just our names will matter.
That day will be the day our names can swell,
take on the weight of history or personal baggage
but no one will think to ask if it means something exotic.
If my hands are shaking that day,
light my cigarette and smile as a gentle reminder
that it was us or them.
Thursday, March 3, 2011
on love
i will buy you red shoes
for you to dance in
will buy you
white heels to match the coat
that you thought
i made
magically
appear
i will let you believe
that things appear from
behind your ears
and that with one wave
flick
of my wrist
all that you wish for will be granted
i will give you 3 of my 6
cobalt blue glasses
till the point that you have broken 2
and i am down by 4
later to return to 6
i will bury my letter to you
under the ducks and garden gnome
beneath (one of)
your favorite
backyard trees
i will drink champagne to your memory
and plant roses on ice
and sit on the edge of the deck
(sobbing) with my back to your now unmoving rocking chairs
and remember how you would pull slivers from my feet
i will be angry at you for 34.5 years
writing you words that no eyes should ever see
until finally the words appear
that can be sent
and we have
peace
i will raise the arms of my heart in surrender
letting you in
and one day almost one year to the day
letting you go
whispering with the note
"magicians do not exist"
-- kim thompson. posted on a thursday (3 march) but written on a tuesday and wednesday. seoul. s.korea
Friday, February 25, 2011
HOW A ZOMBIE MAKES A PROMISE
Friday, February 18, 2011
5 blue balloons and superman
3 deflated
2 dilapidating
hanging on a telephone wire above some bar
i could not tell if they were sad or relieved
i didnt have the time to ask them
but i thought about them as i rode the bus
to and from my work
whilst listening to
how to manifest
and breathe
and say thank you for my heart's desires..
i went about the hour
chanting
"5 blue balloons
deflated"
inside my head
while chubby faced grace jumped and shrieked
and tony made some kind of orgasmic noise that 5 year olds know nothing of
and then i said
"sit down"
and kept repeating
"oh yes, good job"
"good job"
"yes ... yes... wow. good job"
all the while only thinking of the state of those 5 blue balloons
wondering
debating
between
"deflated"
"dilapidated"
"withered"
"resting"
and the like
and then i thought of superman
and the poem that i was going to write about him
and that day he went away
as a means of avoiding the word that i really wanted to write about 2 nights ago
or 3 years ago
when i was fuming from it
how superman wouldve been just "man" without the
"super"
how he woulda been the same as a deflated blue leotard and red cape hanging
from a
wire
how one time he gave up his "super"
to just be
"man"
and wound up drunk and deflated at a dive bar with stubble as his only friend
how he was something like
a
sad balloon without its air
knocking shots of whiskey back
how he gave up his "super"
to be "man"
for lois lane
till they both found out that
halfa why she loved him
and halfa why he'd loved himself
was because he had been such a
super
man.
but i got so
inflated today
by those 5
dilapidating
withering
balloons
up there on the wire
that all i could really think about was
that one word
thats been keeping me so high and full of hope
that one word being:
"rise"
- kim thompson. seoul. s. korea. thursday 17 feb 2011 sometime after 4pm and before 7pm
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
"You Need"
Websters vest pocket dictionary
and food and water
and beds and couches
and chairs and tables
and blankets and mirrors
and jeans and shirts
and markers and pillows and mats
and bedboards and markets
and paper
and air and light
and pictures and cell phones
and cds and pills and house phones
and houses and makeup and purses
and football players
and hats and gloves
and color
and internet and computer
and handles
and wood and cement
radios and snowpants and boots
and snow and flowers
and fans
and dogs and cats
and fruit
and clouds and white and blue
and money signs
and poles and pools
and basketball hoops
and cars
and dirty snow
and stinky snow
and sweaty snow and booby papa and …
THE GREAT SHORTIES! d;P
And Eminem <3 And Lil Wayne.<3=>
Saturday, February 12, 2011
on ashes and change and so much more
and i can feel the ashes of this
sliding 'tween my fingers
hands open-winged at my side
but i dont say a-thing
i just say
"wait"
perhaps because ive never taken the time
to watch the full decomposition of a thing
perhaps because i hate knowing
before im ready to allow for what i know
so we sit
stand
letting the world make its slow slide into the sea
as if the crumbling will reveal something semi-precious
that we can still grab
but this is not a poem for sadness
not a poem for things lost
things betrayed
things sullied by deceit
this is a song for what can be rebuilt
after cities have settled to the bottom of the sea
this is a hymn for the fertility that springs from volcanic ash
a manifest for what we let go (of) and take in
i let go as the snow fell
i let go as the singer sang her words
and then took hold of what is waiting
knowing one day the words i'll say
that there you are
that i have traveled so far to come back to where i began
and we dreamed to find that we were no longer strangers
i came back to reclaim
all that has been laid out for me
to let the erosion make way for what my heart intends
i came back to rebirth again in the middle of my life
i am as she told me
that angel circling round my own head
telling me
what i have always known
that here
is where i will find
you
with my ashen outstretched hands
and well timed out heart
today the world itself is humming change
change that comes from hope
today the world rejoices
and tomorrow some day when it weeps
we will know what we have always felt
that we have built - destroyed - and rebuilt all this crumbling beauty
from our words
and with my sentences i can create you into being
and form that thing that has just been waiting for me to
surrender
and say
"ok. im finally ready"
today
ok
im
finally
ready.
gathering ashes to breathe new life into.
we were formed from dust and ribs.
selah.
kim thompson. yesterday sat 12 feb. seoul. s.korea
Friday, February 11, 2011
(i am)
drinking cold coffee left over from late morning's brewing
smoking dry cigarettes for how they hang from my lips
like they somehow make me look that much more the writer
(i am)
thinking how i want to do (with you) like neruda wrote of spring inhabiting cherry trees
remembering lines by frank o'hare
remembering the lines of the girl who exclaimed "each day i am something new" - forgetting the poet who penned her into being
(i am)
recalling every time when i thought i might never breathe again
which is exactly right now why i know i can exhale quite freely
knowing what i want
uncertain of how to get it
determined to not repeat past ways of running
(i am)
wondering how it is that most of the best lines are in songs
but how poems never work well when sung
and how saul williams has this crazy poem about love that makes me say "hell yeah"
and punch my fist in the air to show my belief
(i am)
wooled down in a blue cardigan that would make mr. rogers proud
and contemplating how much is too many when it comes to leather wrist bands
and how im certain i need more
but not with studs
(i am)
reminding myself i really must do something about eating
as its something i keep forgetting
reading my horoscope on every site possible
with hopes of finding one that tells me what i want to hear
even redrawing reshuffling till i read my ideal spread
and then mumble "yes yes so true. wow these things are so right!"
(i am)
here on a friday not wondering too much about saturday
twittering about nothing to no one
hoping that someone tweets back
for one second making today so exciting
(i am)
listening to what the air is saying
how the trees are changing
and what i think i know
is about to happen
all of this while
still holding cold coffee in my mouth.
- kim thompson. friday. afternoon sometime. seoul. s. korea 11 feb
Friday, February 4, 2011
love poem for the inanimate
made for two
how i love you
so many times we have sat
reclined
resting
working
watching
and the poetically unmentionable
dear sanded wooden table
stained with booze and food
sometimes seating 4
with a 5th one standing
how i love you
and your white stained legs
absorbing my words into your grains
absorbing my highs and lows
listening when the world was deaf
dear big mauve washing machine
that clunkers and bunkles into the night
hopping cross my bathroom floor
like a mad rabbit come to life
how i love you
giving me a place to rest my head
when its tired from life's spin cycle
you bounce across the tiles reminding me that i am alive
dear photographs on my front door
frozen perfect moments of days printed onto sheets
half swaying like sentinels upon entering and exiting
how i love you
always whispering to me
"remember?
remember us?
remember when?
remember how you felt that day?
look at where you are right now"
remembering when i forget
dear knick knacks collected from a close to decade's worth of wandering
collecting dust
solid in your sentimental worth
how i love you
having carried you across continents and oceans
and back again
having packed unpacked repacked resettled you
each one of you a sort of talisman of a life well lived for an age so young
dear objects inanimate each and every one of you
paintings
drawings
works of art
notes written
moments taken
moments stolen
mugs smuggled
28 year old pair of pink argyle socks
bears whove been more places than most humans
dear objects inanimate
each time i wonder if or when or how
somehow one of you comes to life to say
"its real it happened
everything now will be ok"
objects inanimate
how i love you
-- kim thompson. seoul. s. korea. friday 4 feb 11 17.52
Thursday, January 27, 2011
superhero
after dreaming
"then what?"
waiting
ready
to begin
to want
again
after "wanting" so much
comes "having"
the "having" being harder than the 32 years of "wanting"
and then the greatest hardest newest challenge:
"to want - AGAIN"
where do dreams go after they are found?
where do birds fly after they have
well...
"flown" ?
dreams
true dreams
do not begin at night
but in the middle of the day
somewhere between the bed and the bus line...
theyre tearing down sultang
the night before my dream came true
that is the place that heard my fears over a bottle of beer and a lot of smoke
that is the place you found me at
before i found you the next
these days
i watch them tear down the ugly walls
men sitting on chairs around a fire
the sky exposed from the labor of their hands
the walls smeared in paint as if someone high on lsd or shrooms was having the trip of their life
only to discover the next day why painting when high is a regrettable thing
they are now ripped from the top as if a five year old decided to forgo scissors
and i hear the whisper again
- its time - let go - begin again - only here can you sense the sky
mpls my beloved but mpls my ceiling
seoul my tormented lover but seoul my endless sky
it is not the destruction of a dream
it is the rebuilding of a place that lasted years longer than it should have
that was stunted in its own lack of growth
-- i am so much taller than you know --
what do dreams become after they are gathered in the relief of letting go of 32 years of tears
what do dreams become after you have finally found your face?
where do dreams begin
after the only words to describe fall under the cliches of:
"magical"
"mysterious"
"miraculous"
and
"fairy tale come to life"
-- better than anything KBS could have scripted and filmed...
they tell (me)
"this only proves you can have it all"
"but i already do"
i say to (them)
... how do you dream again
after you did the impossible?
-- am i to turn water into wine?
-- walk on water?
-- turn fishes and loaves into one big surplus picnic?
-- rise from the dead?
i am not holy and i am not one third of some perplexing trinity...
so what is there left to want?
to see the world that ive already 3 to 4 continents explored?
to be what i already am no matter how it is my bills get paid?
to expand my heart when it's already burst?
what does life grow into after you no longer want but instead already have?
"dream the next impossible thing"
im told
to which i respond
"that seems... implausible"
... today ive passed sultang twice
now darkened inside
the trippy ripped up walls challenging the night to finish them off
i see in that corner that still exists but may be gone tomorrow or the next
us sitting shivering heating our hands over a candle
building dreams from fears
how for that moment you cracked
and i saw you for all that is you
and you saw me for all that is me
and for that night we had love that we took the wrong direction
i see us talking
maybe back then i saw the me from now passing by - perhaps that is why i shuddered at the thought of ghosts haunting us into reality
i see us then
in that corner
that each time i sat there after... i drank out of remembrance for the sacred-ness of how life is so ordinary the night before 32 years of an impossible dream is found sitting cross legged with right hand over heart that laurie had foretold me to know...
these days i pass by the bar
watching walls disappear and blue sky reveal itself
and i think the same thing
i hear the same thing
i carry the same thought
"that night is long over - your new day is rising - the sky is revealing -
kim child,
its time to start wanting again."
- kim thompson. seoul. s. korea - thursday 27 jan 2011 - 19.35
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Dear Fong,
I bet right now you're wishing you had been gay
and bullied
because maybe then
Fong Lee would be in the papers,
your tormentors might see justice,
and Mr. Sulu would have to remember which face he wears first.
I bet right now you're wishing you had a closet to hide in,
to protect you from the American Justice,
lock out Hatred with a badge and a gun.
But you can't take your face off
and bullseyes are often brown eyes.
There are no hotlines for kids who like to ride their bikes with friends
and your roommate didn't film it when who you really were
drained out of you from thirteen holes
onto North Minneapolis.
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
IN MY NEXT LIFE
Rico: you can do that like next week, why wait for another life?
So then I wrote this, you know, as long as I was brainstorming stuff I might not get done next week.
IN MY NEXT LIFE
In my next life
I will drive to work on an elephant,
start my days from up high.
The ride will not be smooth.
I will give thanks to the ground.
In my next life
they will call me Chef Squid,
my ten arms will swing around the kitchen,
the average human eye will not keep up with the
tantalizing twist of my tentacles,
I will chop like a humming bell,
I will saute on high heat,
vegetables will cry for their mothers.
I will be a mother
with two spines.
The sky
will not be enough to scare me.
The continents will have moved together,
the land may have quivered at each other’s touch,
we may have lost lives in our unity.
So in my next one
I will catch every wedding bouquet,
fold their petals into cranes.
When I have one thousand
I will wish for a snowstorm.
I will hang my heart on an icicle
and wait for a wanderer to see it
flicker.
I will be safe by then.
I will be a shelter.
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
thoughts on pain and how everyone feels so (entitled) to it
meanwhile we make shows and documentaries and like to sit around talking about the children who have no food or clean water in some far off land and how that's just really f'd up...
... loss... is. loss
pain is pain
rain is rain... unless of course youre talking about the singer... then that's a different story (shout out to the king of k-pop yo!)
and ive too often gotten attached to the idea that my loss is greater than anyone who doesn't share the same loss as me...
and then i go and make shows about it and people stand and clap thus adding to my attachment to this loss because it makes me money and causes people to pay attention to me...
while i am quite right in claiming that you can never understand the loss and pain that i feel in my life i really hate having to admit that i can never understand the loss and pain that you feel in yours...
it's pretty much like arguing over who enjoyed their amazing dinner of (insert food choices here) last night the most...
that said id like to point out that last night i enjoyed the most amazing meal of boiled pork, radish and cabbage kimchis, oysters, and soup... so i'm pretty certain that i had the best meal out of anyone who is reading this.
id also like to point out that not only is my art more meaningful due to the fact that my pain and loss are more real than anyone else's - every single break up i've ever gone through has definitely hurt more than anyone else who has ever gone through a break up because "you dont know break ups like i know break ups"
the in house fighting of communities is disgusting and abhorrent and though i scoff at the peacenik verbage that comes out of the mouth of tree hugging hippies i really do agree with the man whose horrible attack at the hands of police brutality said so simply "can't we all just. get. along. ?"
(we can discuss the mis and over use of the word "namaste" another day as right now im too fragile to make myself the victim of angry "namaste" sayers. cuz... "you don't know what it is to make yourself a victim like i know what it is to make myself a victim")
so far as i have discovered in my travels (and by the way "you also don't know what it is to travel the world like i know what it is to travel the world") is that ive yet to meet anyone who has never experienced pain and loss so deeply that it is pretty much miraculous that they have managed to love, heal, and trust again.
i confess that at times i become so involved in my own woes that i become so blind to the woes of those around me because "you dont know woes and you dont know oblivious like i know woes and oblivious"
... and when i realize what i have done i find myself to be as disgusting and as abhorrent as i find the communities that i roll my eyes at to be... because "you dont know eye rolling like i know eye rolling"
... to say that one of us is more marginalized or more maligned or is struggling more is probably pretty close to actually defining the word "blasphemy"
not that i am taking away from those who are truly marginalized, maligned, or struggling...
its just that i wonder what the good is in saying "more"
... and i am in no way implying that we must not strive for change in our communities or to not have as the politicians of late have been yammering on about -"truly robust discourse on the issues that concern us"
but it is pointless to point at ourselves as struggling more... in fact i find pointing to be such a waste of time all together as i figure why raise your hand to point when you can raise your hand to drink a beer ... or in my case - a shot (or 17) of soju. ... or in the case of the 5 and 6 year olds i teach - a glass of milk.
as much as i would like to believe that i hold the golden ticket when it comes to loss i must face the sad humbling reality that my loss is equal to yours... different but equal as we like to say
and that sometimes my being an artist and writer and all around self absorbed self reflecting over-thinking re-analyzer of analyzing really does not help things AT ALL.
i think instead it might be a "better world" if we attached the word "more" to the words of "love" "trust" "healing" "unity" "support" "faith" "creation" "creativity" "fun" "joy" "happiness" etc... all the words that have for some reason been labeled as "emo" slash "hippie" slash "disjointed from reality"
i would hope that we work "more" to "support" one another...
of course it doesn't mean pretending like there aren't issues to address or things to have different opinions on
but lets face it
at the end of the day
when all cliches are said and done
(which according to some should be around dec 2012)
"aint no one know pain and loss like i know pain and loss and ain't no one's opinion right but mine"
so let us in the meantime work "more" to create inspire engage love joy and all other good gut rottingly good sweet things in this life whilst keeping our eyes open to both our own loss and pain and the loss and pain of our friends and family and even the people that we find to be annoying - smelly - and obtuse.
p.s. if you can't understand where the "tongue in cheek" in this lies then let it be known that "you don't know where tongue in cheek lies like i know where tongue in cheek lies"
kim thompson. seoul, s. korea. 12.13 thursday 19 jan 11
Saturday, January 15, 2011
i think
even just seeing
the bottles of vitamin water on the shelf
made me have to skip that aisle of kuwolskis
back when
just that green tinted incredibly hulk green
was like kryptonite
and id drive avoiding blue suv's
back when
i didnt know
but i knew
and so did everyone else
but i couldve sworn
- i really didnt know
i forget
how much is lived in less than
six
i forget
how short "six" really
is
that if it took
thousands for a heart to form
and thousands millions more
for this shape to house
that primordial sludge
then...
six
is just so
swift
... to have lived so many feelings
to have wondered so many things
to have questions answered by new questions
to have had too many to count on both hands and toes
six is not so much
for so much of this to have
been formed
sometimes i forget
how six is not
an
eternity
how six is just
one more than 5
and it wont be six
till
that
fabled resurrection day
when life re-borns itself
and somehow all the way from there
ive landed here
worried if i can make one year
when that's 1/6 of 6?
so these days are just hours
and these hours just minutes
and these minutes just seconds
and all combined still not enough for
the first
primordial sludge to have shaped into
a valve that beats
so i think
clearer than i have in 2
clearer than i have since the shaping of this 1
that
all of this?
will be like those shelves that now just make me smile to remember
how i can still recall that wonder of that tinted green photograph
how blue suv's now make me smirk
how i did not just get to dance with you i got to know your flaws that for 2 seemed impossible
how i dropped 15
and gained 15
and lost again
and now am somewhere inbetween
and still cannot count
all the valves of mine that have been broken
all the valves whose names i struggle to recall
and thats just in 6
so these seconds
are just so much less than 6
for waiting
- kim thompson. seoul. s. korea 22.45 sat 15 jan