A debut poetry series portraying 95 key biblical figures in lyric verse has been published — a collection aimed at general readers as much as Christians.
So Kang-seok, senior pastor of Saeedun Church and the author of 13 previous poetry collections, released "Psalms of the Glass Mirror" (Munhak Namu) on Thursday.
The collection renders the inner lives and narratives of biblical figures in the voice of contemporary lyric poetry.
In the poem "Jesus Christ 1," Jesus is described as "the one poem of heaven / that existed before the beginning of time / flying toward the blue star Earth / across those distant stars / through the long passage of ages / on a night when neither sun nor moon nor star had risen / on a horizon of darkness without a single ray of light."
Another poem, "David," closes with the question: "Are you now, on some dust-blown plain, / spinning your sling / and running toward yet another Goliath?"
So made his literary debut in 1995 through the monthly journal Munyesajo and has since received the Cheon Sang-byeong Literary Award, the Yun Dong-ju Literary Award, the Hwang Sun-won Literary Award and the Christian Literature Grand Prize. He founded Saeedun Church in 1988 and built it into a major congregation, serving as moderator of the Presbyterian Church of Korea and chairman of the Korean Church Association. He currently chairs both CBS and the Korean People's Peace and Sharing Foundation.
So said of the collection: "Writing in verse the grand narrative of salvation — from Adam to Jesus Christ — and the stories of the biblical figures fills me with boundless honor and trembling awe at once. I will continue my creative work, planting love and dreams like dandelion seeds in the hearts of people today."
Poet Jeong Ho-seung, writing in a foreword, called the book "a gospel written in poetry and a New and Old Testament written in contemporary verse," adding that "the life narratives and spirituality of each of the 95 biblical figures shine before us — living through this age of suffering — like morning sunlight reflected in a glass mirror."
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