Background
This poem is part of a suite of poems that was the result of an intercultural exchange with the Korean poet Jin Eun-Young over about 4 months as part of the Invisible Walls: Poetry as a Doorway to Intercultural Understanding program. I was 1 of 10 Australian poets over a 2 year program paired with ten Korean poets and invited out of a competitive national call-out. The program was funded by the Australian-Korea Foundation, Uni of SA and Sogang University. Besides resulting a set of poems in a special issue of Cordite Poetry Review, translations of the earlier set will be translated & published into the Korean journal run by the Society of Fair Poets.
Contribution
The poem navigates the presumptions of gendered authorship and mother-daughter relations in response to the work of Korean poet Jin Eun-Young, making a creative contribution to intercultural feminist poetics.
Significance
This poem contributes to a better understanding of inter-cultural feminist poetics. It appeared in a special issue of Cordite Poetry Review on the Invisible Walls transcultural exchange. Poems by Jin Eun-Young in this issue also evidence our exchange.