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Poet and activist Park No-hae, who sang for the labor movement and campaigned against capitalism, was a voice of time in the 1980s. He is back.
Known for his works in “The Dawn of Labor,” which sent a shockwave to the literary world in 1984 and became a song of grassroots demonstrations, and “Man Is Only Hope” in 1997, the poet received both critical acclaim — and political persecution — at that time.
His works delve into the recitation of socialist and intellectual ideologies and the daily life of laborers in their own language.
He was imprisoned in 1989 for his involvement in the so-called “Socialist Labor Alliance,” and was only released by special pardon on Aug. 15, 1998. Park’s prison work “A True Beginning”is less cynical and satirical and reveals the calm self-reflection of the former labor activist who witnessed the fall of ideology.
Park kept silent for more than 10 years after his last poetry collections “Today Is Different” and “Winter Blossoms”in 1999.
Now he has released a new book, “So Don’t Vanish,” consisting of 304 poems from more than 5,000 poems he has written over the years.
His new poems deal with local issues and a growing global agenda for which he has traveled around the world.
Park toured the world’s disputed spots in which people are suffering from poverty, war and illnesses. He went to conflict areas in the Middle East, Africa and Central and South America from 2003 after setting up a social activist group, “Nanum Culture,” and actively participated in peace activities around the world. But he has continued to write poems.
He described himself as a revolutionary and prophet. “A poet cannot but shout out for truth in front of people suffering even if shot by a gun to the chest,” he said in a recent press conference.
His recent pieces imply what he has done over the past years and why he had to keep silent through diverse channels and subjects.
“Solitude of Time” portrays the present emptiness of consciousness due to the materialistic abundance, with seemingly no cause to fight against anymore. He wrote that we are living in a time when the boundaries of evil and good are blurred. “How powerless is a protest in a legalized democratic era.” It shows his solitude as a past “failed revolutionary.”
The book contains his contemporary spirit and major incidents that can be recorded as world history in the 21st century along with the grief and injustice of society, but still satirizes such inequalities and the bleakness of life.
The book explores the global crises through four aspects — ecology, war, polarization and spirit — through his fundamental search and revolutionary messages.
“Flipside of iPhone” depicts the hidden aspects of the digital era and high technology through the eyes of laborers who produce the gadgets.
“Wet eyes smartly avoided and simply designed log-in revolution / Convenient social network through the state-of-the-art technology / From the flipside of iPhone of our hero and guru Steve Jobs / Invisible killers see globalization.”
Park captures scenes he encountered during his travels, such as girls who were killed and children fighting against armed tanks in the Middle East. His traumatic experiences are melted into realistic poetic languages.
But what he most wants to discuss seems to be the instability and loss of identity in the present time as the title of the book suggests. Regardless of the rich and poor and the young and old, there is no identity at all, he argues. The poet sings for a time when faith is murdered, life is gone and first of all the subject of hope disappears. “The world is now pitch-dark / Hope is lost and dying / If there is a glimmering light / We’re not over yet / Hope is immortal / So don’t vanish,”in the title poem “So Don’t Vanish.”His new works seem to end up with the same faith he used to chant in which he finds hope in humanity.
Park was born in 1958 in Goheung, South Jeolla Province. After graduating from Sunrin Commercial High School, he began working from an early age. In 1983, he made his literary debut with the publication of “The Dream of an Inferior” in the journal, “Poetry and Economy.” His first collection of poems, “The Dawn of Labor” was well received among university students and intellectuals, triggering the so-called labor literature in the 1980s.
Park believed that his works constantly confronted the existing social realities to bring the revolution and at the same time deeply explored the beauty and the complexity of the trivial details of the world around him.
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