Sometimes I reread poems I wrote long ago
I don't ask textbook questions like "what was the author feeling when he wrote this?"
When you write a poem, there is nothing but the feeling of wanting to write a poem
Even if I wrote that I am sad
I know it doesn't mean that I was sad at the time
It's difficult to read my own poems critically
I had nearly forgotten them, and while they don't belong to someone else,
they can't possibly be mine
How best to take responsibility is utterly lost on me
Sometimes, unawares, I find myself moved by my own poems
Poetry ignites the lyricism that lies hidden within people
You might say it does so brazenly and without shame
I've heard that Saul Bellow said one of the most essential purposes of literature
Is to pose ethical questions
But the truth which poetry strives for is different from that of novels
Rather than the progression of time, poems concern themselves with moments
But while rereading my poems I think to myself
I can't write like this
A day is made up of more than the sunset
I can't live merely standing there before it
No matter how beautiful it may be
