Indeterminate inflorescence is the term for a flower spike which blooms from the base up, meaning that as the stem grows, the potential for flowering is unlimited. This concept, and various concepts of process and becoming, are at the heart of this series of miniature lessons from master poet Lee Seong-bok.
Grouped under the headings of Language, Object, Poetry, Writing and Life, these aphorisms move from the granular tools of the poetry trade towards wider reflections. Gathered by Lee’s students, there are moments of overlap and affirmation which serve to emphasise the lessons the poet really wants to communicate, but also a vivid snapshot of a teacher, a place, a cultural context: “When writing, try to feel the tensile strength of a ssirium wrestler’s satba high band. The words may be gentle, but there has to be something kicking itself into the heart.”
Functioning almost like a book of days, one could open this volume at random and find a meaty piece of advice to apply to almost any creative situation. The tone is warm, urgent, often frustrated – this is no staid, prescriptive lesson plan, but rather the record of a craftsman trying to understand their art in real time. Some particular gems that had me nodding included, “There’s more hope in wide, ambitious failure than in narrow, safe success”, “Don’t write like a searchlight passing over a landscape”, “A poem is a coherent rambling. If there is only coherence or only rambling, poetry disappears.”
Many of these aphorisms emphasise the difficulty of poetry (or, I would offer, by extension, any creative process). Lee doesn’t go easy on us – “Poetry takes its form in its endless failure to express what language cannot” – but there’s something humane in taking the emphasis off success, destination, achievement, and placing it back on the act of living.
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There are no certainties offered, only moments of hope, glimpses of clarity: “Maybe poetry is like a jazz performance. The process itself is the goal, and the ending is simply the moment it stops.” A gift of a book for anyone involved in creative practice.
