Date: Thu, 29 Apr 2004 17:32:02 -0700 From: the_dojang-request@martialartsresource.net Subject: The_Dojang digest, Vol 11 #214 - 16 msgs X-Mailer: Mailman v2.0.13.cisto1 MIME-version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain To: the_dojang@martialartsresource.net Errors-To: the_dojang-admin@martialartsresource.net X-BeenThere: the_dojang@martialartsresource.net X-Mailman-Version: 2.0.13.cisto1 Precedence: bulk Reply-To: the_dojang@martialartsresource.net X-Reply-To: the_dojang@martialartsresource.net X-Subscribed-Address: kma@martialartsresource.com List-Id: The Internet's premier discussion forum on Korean Martial Arts. List-Post: List-Subscribe: , List-Unsubscribe: , List-Help: Status: O X-Status: X-Keywords: Send The_Dojang mailing list submissions to the_dojang@martialartsresource.net To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit http://martialartsresource.net/mailman/listinfo/the_dojang or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to the_dojang-request@martialartsresource.net You can reach the person managing the list at the_dojang-admin@martialartsresource.net When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific than "Re: Contents of The_Dojang digest..." <<------------------ The_Dojang mailing list ------------------>> Serving the Internet since June 1994. Copyright 1994-2004: Ray Terry and Martial Arts Resource The Internet's premier discussion forum devoted to Korean Martial Arts. 1600 members. See the Korean Martial Arts (KMA) FAQ and the online search engine for back issues of The_Dojang at http://MartialArtsResource.com Pil Seung! Today's Topics: 1. RE: Mike Ghrwawi (Rick Clark) 2. =?iso-8859-1?Q?Points_of_Interest?= (bsims@midwesthapkido.com) 3. FW: Aikido In SC? (Woodard Brian (ChW/TEF8)) 4. Re: USKMAF/Master Hilland (Dante James) 5. Knife Defense Rules (Farral, Kim) 6. C-step (Burdick, Dakin R) 7. Sine wave (Burdick, Dakin R) 8. knife defense (James Allison) 9. C Step/Sine wave (Dave Steffen) 10. C-step (C. Bonner) 11. Master West Clinic (DPRYGA) 12. RE: multiple attackers (Stovall, Craig) 13. Re: Korea Trip (Braeswood Martial Arts) 14. RE: knife defense (Rick Clark) 15. More on sparring - the back (A. Boyd) 16. Korea Society event (Ray Terry) --__--__-- Message: 1 From: "Rick Clark" To: Subject: RE: [The_Dojang] Mike Ghrwawi Date: Thu, 29 Apr 2004 07:20:13 -0500 Reply-To: the_dojang@martialartsresource.net Hi Tracy, > From: Tracy Bodnarchuk [mailto:trbod@telusplanet.net] > On his business card it states this.... > OKUYAMA MARTIAL ARTS ACADEMY > MIKE GHRAWI > "Hanshi 9 Dan - kaiden shihan" There are three titles used in Japanese martial arts for senior instructors. Shihan, Kyoshi, Hanshi these are normally issued by the organization. Kaiden indicate that the person has been initiated to all the secrets of the art. A Menkyo Kaiden is a certificate given by the head of the system. These were used by arts of Japan prior to the belt system and would indicate that the individual was able to carry on teaching the art. Very few were given out in a system - some indicate only one person would get the menkyo kaiden of the system. Okuyama Ryuho was the founder of Hakko-ryu, who it is said studied under Takada (Daito-ryu) as well as other styles of Ju-jitsu, sword and spear techniques as well. What confuses me is that two terms are used in the same "title" Hanshi and Shihan. Plus - there is not a style mentioned (at least one that I recognize). Rick Clark www.ao-denkou-kai.org --__--__-- Message: 2 Date: Thu, 29 Apr 2004 08:32:26 -0500 (CDT) From: To: the_dojang@martialartsresource.net Subject: [The_Dojang] =?iso-8859-1?Q?Points_of_Interest?= Reply-To: the_dojang@martialartsresource.net Dear Folks: The powers-that-be over on Martial Talk closed the thread I started on Frank Clay, but not before allowing him to throw-out one more shot. I thought you all would find it instructive regarding the sort of person we have here. "......I strongly recommend that we discuss Hapkido. Discussing likes or dislikes about people, their training, or the like, rarely gets us any further than a flame war. If we are to indicate that we are mature people then we must act like it....." I guess the question is when do we start? Do we start NOW and leave off examining how we got to where we are at? Do we foregoe discussing uncomfortable things as people advocated for in the early days of the Hackworth mess? "....I am being persecuted by Bruce by something I had no knowledge of, and in actuality something that Hackworth and Connolly were actually right in. Bruce was slamming Mr. Hackworth from a government computer, and they complained. To the best of my knowledge, that is all that happened......" Frank is not being persecuted. He IS being held accountable for his behaviors. Maybe he experiences this as persecution. Sorry about THAT. All I have done is raised the issues that he engineered and asked questions about his role in things or contradicted information that he represented as true. ".....It is unfortunate that Bruce was terminated because of it, but the thing is that HE is ultimately responsible for that act...." Not actually. a.) I was NOT slamming Hackworth, but you folks do not have to believe me. The archives are right here on this Net. Simply do a search up to and including August 30th and make your own decisions about what I was saying about whom and why. b.) Hackworth and Connolly were not right in what they did. The actual complaint states that I libeled and slandered foreign nationals and impuned the reputation of the KMAIA. I did neither. But the culture of the US Governement was played and rather than investigate as they might have they simply rubber-stamped the complaint and this combined with the deteriorating culture of a VA hospital which is facing cut-back produced the result. c.) Whether Frank knew about the event prior to or during its execution is not the point. The fact is that he became aware of the event and did nothing to moderate its results. He said nothing. He did nothing. By now I know many of you are eye-sore with this stuff and I am quite sure that most of you would rather just have it over and done with. Me, too. What I won't let go of is that when all is said and done there is nothing to say that the same behaviors we have seen in the past won't be repeated in the future. If what has happened to me can happen to another KMA practitioner then its is worthwhile to keep Frank under observation. Currently he is "off-shore" with another organization. If the pattern of selling certs and standing in the KHF (or any organization)begins anew what are the recourses? And while we are at it, does anybody know who I can see to get my Balance back? BTW: Just a quick "thank you" to Ray for allowing this to post. He's probably as tired of this stuff as anyone. Best Wishes, Bruce --__--__-- Message: 3 Date: Thu, 29 Apr 2004 10:12:54 -0400 From: "Woodard Brian (ChW/TEF8)" To: "Dojang Digest (E-mail)" Subject: [The_Dojang] FW: Aikido In SC? Reply-To: the_dojang@martialartsresource.net Hello all; I did not hear from anyone on my previous request for HKD schools in the Charleston, SC area. We seem have an abundance of Aikido schools however. My preference is HKD but looks like I might have to go the Aikido route. Does anyone have and info on organizations within Aikido that they would recommend or not recommend. Please feel free to email me off the digest. Thanks in advance, Brian Woodard -----Original Message----- From: Woodard Brian (ChW/TEF8) Sent: Tuesday, April 20, 2004 10:53 AM To: 'the_dojang@martialartsresource.net' Subject: Hapkido In SC? Hello all :o) I recently achieved my Cho Dan in TKD and would like to begin studying HKD in addition to my TKD studies. Could anybody recommend a Hapkido school close to Charleston, SC? I would also like to hear your pros and cons on studying TKD and HKD simultaneously. Thanks in advance Brian Woodard --__--__-- Message: 4 From: "Dante James" To: Subject: Re: [The_Dojang] USKMAF/Master Hilland Date: Thu, 29 Apr 2004 08:35:48 -0600 Reply-To: the_dojang@martialartsresource.net Master Hilland, Thanx for the welcome. My leaving has not been unpleasant, and I am still in touch with many people in the organization around Denver. I have still been invited to do several seminars in the upcoming months. My "differences" in how I do what I do have always been appreciated within my region because it added components not usually seen within the ATA's curriculum or methods. I was once called the "Black Sheep" of the ATA by a senior rank. I told him I've been Black a long time so it wasn't a problem........Peace DJ Dante J. James, Esq. www.denverata.com Change is Inevitable, Growth is Optional ----- Original Message ----- From: "J R Hilland" To: Sent: Tuesday, April 27, 2004 4:58 PM Subject: [The_Dojang] USKMAF > Dante: Welcome to the USKMAF. I was independent for 9 years before joining > the USKMAF. When I went independent as a 4th dan in 91, it was not something > that just happened over night. It took me many years to make the decision to > leave and it was not pleasant or easy. But in the long run, things have > worked out just fine. > > Jere R. Hilland > www.rrhapkido.com > www.HapkidoSelfDefense.com > > <<<...I have been accepted as a member of the USKMAF...>>> Dante > _______________________________________________ > The_Dojang mailing list, 1600 members > The_Dojang@martialartsresource.net > Copyright 1994-2004: Ray Terry and Martial Arts Resource > Standard disclaimers apply > http://martialartsresource.net/mailman/listinfo/the_dojang --__--__-- Message: 5 Date: Thu, 29 Apr 2004 10:12:10 -0500 From: "Farral, Kim" To: "Dojang " Subject: [The_Dojang] Knife Defense Rules Reply-To: the_dojang@martialartsresource.net Pil Seung... Totally agree with Rule No. 1 on knife defense...which also applies to all subsequent rules on knife defense... The One and Only "TINK" ************************************ This email and any files transmitted with it are proprietary and intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom they are addressed. If you have received this email in error please notify the sender. Please note that any views or opinions presented in this email are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of ITT Industries, Inc. The recipient should check this email and any attachments for the presence of viruses. ITT Industries accepts no liability for any damage caused by any virus transmitted by this email. ************************************ --__--__-- Message: 6 Date: Thu, 29 Apr 2004 10:15:52 -0500 From: "Burdick, Dakin R" To: Subject: [The_Dojang] C-step Reply-To: the_dojang@martialartsresource.net Chris Hagness explains: >My instructors (3rd dan, all of them) explained that the C-step was developed in Okinawa where practitioners used it to feel their way forward into their next stance and to prevent stepping barefoot on any sharp rocks. (Apparently Okinawa is a pretty rocky place.) The head stays level throughout the step (fanatically so) My Reply: Thanks for the information Chris. I know we appreciate detailed information on what different instructors said about a particular move. In my experience, the C-step is there so that one is not double-weighted (weight in two legs) during a move. If one is single-weight, it is easier to change direction quickly. Half way through the step, one can decide to instead step back, or to move the other leg forward or back, or to fire off a kick, etc. The head staying level seems largely to be the influence of the Japanese, who stress hip action more than hydraulic up and down action with the legs. Take care, Dakin dakinburdick@yahoo.com --__--__-- Message: 7 Date: Thu, 29 Apr 2004 11:01:17 -0500 From: "Burdick, Dakin R" To: Subject: [The_Dojang] Sine wave Reply-To: the_dojang@martialartsresource.net Thanks to James Morgan for talking about Gen. Choi and the sine wave. Good story! One thing though: >Then for some odd reason in the early/mid-80's, Gen. Choi was influenced by some physics guru and was told that by moving in a Sine Wave motion, the body would generate more power... I STILL haven't figured that one out! Everyone knows that the shortest distance from one point to another is a straight line, not an up and down motion like a Sine Wave. Will it generate more power?? Don't know. Maybe I'm wrong or maybe I'm missing something but I always thought that power was best delivered in a straight line motion.. Ok, the shortest distance between two points is a straight line, so a sine wave hit won't be the fastest. It may, however, hit harder. It is kind of a like a wind-up in a way. It takes longer, but hits harder, not least of which because you can use all your weight in it. Why did Gen. Choi eventually dislike it? Well, I understand he didn't have a lot of weight, right? So he would want a system that worked better for a smaller man, which will require speed and hitting vital points. But for a big guy, a sine wave might make a lot of sense. Get in close, sine wave him, and level that quick little dude. :) We do teach our students differently, don't we? Everyone has a different style and body type. Take care, Dakin dakinburdick@yahoo.com --__--__-- Message: 8 From: "James Allison" To: Date: Thu, 29 Apr 2004 12:27:44 -0400 Subject: [The_Dojang] knife defense Reply-To: the_dojang@martialartsresource.net I agree that the best way to defend against a knife is to run, if you are so lucky as to see it coming. Must of the time when there is a knife involved it isn't head on. Many times people that will cut you are cowards or just down right mean and will pull the knife when you are not looking. I think the key to any defensive action, especially against a knife: will you be able to keep your self together mentally to deal with the attacker after they have cut you? I just recently had one of the Sheriff deputies I train get cut in an altercation in a crack house. He had already taken down two suspects when a third slashed at him cutting his face. Once the knife cleared him he rushed the guy and took him down with an arm bar. In this case had he reacted to the cut and stopped to check his wound he would have been cut again. The key here was not to stop but to stop the attacker from cutting him again. If only the scenarios on the street were always head on it would be easy to defend against any kind of attack. But what most martial artist lack is dealing with situations that are not ideal. When you add in Murphy's Law and try to prepare for the unknown you have a better chance of survival. Respectfully, James Allison Hapkido Sun Moo Kwan --__--__-- Message: 9 From: Dave Steffen Date: Thu, 29 Apr 2004 10:33:00 -0600 To: the_dojang@martialartsresource.net Subject: [The_Dojang] C Step/Sine wave Reply-To: the_dojang@martialartsresource.net Some sine-wave comments... > From: Robert Martin > > C step in ITF TKD is not as pronounced as in some Karate styles or > other TKD systems. Gen. Choi pushed for movement to become more > natural. The C-step and sine wave are, to some extent, a natural > motion of the body as it moves forward. In the ITF patterns, the > sine wave is very pronounced -- over pronounced in my opinion (for > what its worth). I think of our stepping as more of a "parenthesis" step - not nearly as pronounced as the Karate C-step, but there's still a curve to it. As for the over-exaggeration - I have a pet theory about this, I'll present it briefly and let people kick it around. :-) I once attended a beginning Aikido seminar with Gokku Homma Sensei. He pointed out that all motions in Aikido are circular: as a beginner, you make big circles; as you get better at Aikido, the circles get smaller. Similarly, I think the over-pronounced sine-eave movements are taught because it makes it much easier for the students to understand what they should do, and (more importantly) easier for the student to _feel_ what's going on. The better you get at the sine-wave, the smaller it gets. The problem is that people don't _know_ that the sine-wave, as shown to colored belts, is an exaggertaion, so they never work on "making the circles smaller", or maybe even think that doing so is _wrong_. I found some support for my theory at General Choi's last seminar in Denver. We spent two hours or so on sparring - which amounted to a lecture by GM Park (I think it was GM Park - Robert, can you confirm?). He was demonstrating what one might call "sparring" hand techniques (as opposed to "formal" or "pattern" punches), and he was really only doing the very end of the sine wave motion, i.e. the explosive part. In fact, his technique looked very similar to that of several Karate masters I've seen. So, my theory is that the end result of both the sine-wave and the "traditional" Karate motions is essentially the same - we just take different paths to get there. The sine-wave is essentially a pedagogical tool to help students learn how to generate power, by making power easier to generate (at the expense of other things, which are put back in later). -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dr. Dave Steffen, Ph.D. Wave after wave will flow with the tide Raytheon IIS And bury the world as it does tkd-physics@comcast.net Tide after tide will flow and recede Leaving life to go on as it was... - Peart / RUSH "The reason that our people suffer in this way.... is that our ancestors failed to rule wisely". -General Choi, Hong Hi --__--__-- Message: 10 From: "C. Bonner" To: the_dojang@martialartsresource.net Date: Thu, 29 Apr 2004 14:55:03 -0500 Subject: [The_Dojang] C-step Reply-To: the_dojang@martialartsresource.net            The instructor's the General sent over here in the 60's, did the c-step. Or at least the one's i have been around. Also, no sine wave.       Clint ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Lose those love handles! MSN Fitness shows you two moves to slim your waist. --__--__-- Message: 11 Date: Thu, 29 Apr 2004 18:13:40 -0500 From: DPRYGA To: Subject: [The_Dojang] Master West Clinic Reply-To: the_dojang@martialartsresource.net Just a last minute reminder that Master J.R. West and a group of USKMAF Instructors will be in Mosinee Wisconsin this weekend to teach the annual CWMAI Hapkido clinic. All list members are invited and welcome to join us.....Dave Pryga www.cwmai.com www.hapkido.com --__--__-- Message: 12 From: "Stovall, Craig" To: the_dojang@martialartsresource.net Date: Thu, 29 Apr 2004 15:32:28 -0500 Subject: [The_Dojang] RE: multiple attackers Reply-To: the_dojang@martialartsresource.net <<>> I can only speak for myself, but I think it would be extremely interesting to hear a couple of the stories. How did these situations arise, what were the techniques/tactics that manifested themselves, and what was the ultimate resolution? Probably some very valuable information to be shared here. If you get the time, I'd appreciate some anecdotes. Thanks. CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE This email transmission contains privileged and confidential information intended only for the use of the individual or entities named above. If this email was received in error or if read by a party which is not the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any dissemination, disclosure, distribution or copying of this communication is strictly prohibited. If you have received this communication in error or are unsure whether it contains confidential or privileged information, please immediately notify us by email or telephone. You are instructed to destroy any and all copies, electronic, paper or otherwise, which you may have of this communication if you are not the intended recipient. Receipt of this communication by any party shall not be deemed a waiver of any legal privilege of any type whatsoever as such privilege may relate to the sender. --__--__-- Message: 13 From: "Braeswood Martial Arts" To: Date: Thu, 29 Apr 2004 16:42:12 -0500 Subject: [The_Dojang] Re: Korea Trip Reply-To: the_dojang@martialartsresource.net Hello SJN and fellow DDers, As only a 2nd Dahn under SJN Rudy Timmerman it is certainly not my place, but I could no longer hold in my excitement. I hope SJN does not mind (and will correct me if I miss quote) spreading the news of some of the other great things that happened for himself, SBN Lorne Keatley and the NKMAA. 1st - Kong Shin BupTM was recognized as an official kwan by the World Kido Federation. 2nd - Master Rudy Timmerman was awarded his well deserved 9th dahn. CONGRATULATIONS!!!! again Sir. 3rd - SBN Lorne Keatley's sparring match ended in a tie and there was a 4 minute sudden death match to call a winner. I know I am not the person who should spread this news, but as I said I am very excited about these events and wish I had been there to witness them in person. Respectfully, Kat --__--__-- Message: 14 From: "Rick Clark" To: Subject: RE: [The_Dojang] knife defense Date: Thu, 29 Apr 2004 17:30:44 -0500 Reply-To: the_dojang@martialartsresource.net Hi James, > I agree that the best way to defend against a knife is to run, I am not quite sure if you or others are serious with the idea that the best defense is to run. It seems to me there are several tactical errors in running. I was born in 1948 (do the math if you really want) I have an implanted defibrillator, a torn ACL that has had reconstructive surgery. So IF a young attacker decided to come at me and I chose to run I would not run very far, at some point I would be more winded than my opponent and all this time I would have had my back to him (or her). When I did stop running and if they were still behind me I would have to either get stabbed / cut or attempt to defend myself. Personally I would rather not be winded; my legs tired from running, and not have turned my back on my opponent. While I might still be stabbed or cut, at least I would have all the energy available to me being fresh than not. Rick Clark "Illegitimis non carborundum." ("Don't let the bastards grind you down.") -Gen. Joseph Stilwell www.ao-denkou-kai.org --__--__-- Message: 15 Date: Thu, 29 Apr 2004 20:11:30 -0400 (EDT) From: "A. Boyd" To: the_dojang@martialartsresource.net Subject: [The_Dojang] More on sparring - the back Reply-To: the_dojang@martialartsresource.net This question on sparring may have a broader relevance to the members on the list: What sorts of things do you do to discourage the abuse of turning attacks? By abuse,I mean the competitor uses a spin or turn to hide legitimate targets rather than to generate power or gain some other form of legitmate advantage. I am starting to suspect that this sort of thing is just accepted as a necessary evil. ===== Anthony Boyd: Swordsman and English Teacher www.stormpages.com/haidonggumdo ______________________________________________________________________ Post your free ad now! http://personals.yahoo.ca --__--__-- Message: 16 From: Ray Terry To: the_dojang@martialartsresource.net (The_Dojang) Date: Thu, 29 Apr 2004 18:06:37 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [The_Dojang] Korea Society event Reply-To: the_dojang@martialartsresource.net Forwarding... The Korea Society Presents: A Poetry Reading by Suji Kwock Kim Wednesday, May 5, 2004 at 6:30PM The Korea Society 950 Third Avenue, 8th Floor (entrance on SW corner of 57th Street) New York, NY Info: Grace Chon at 212-759-7525 x301 grace.ny@koreasociety.org FREE ADMISSION Winner of the 2003 Walt Whitman Award from the Academy of American Poets, selected by Yusef Komunyakaa Winner of the 2004 Bay Area Book Reviewers Award Finalist, 2004 Griffin International Poetry Prize, selected by Billy Collins (winner announced June 3) Notable Book, 2004 Kiriyama Pacific Rim Awards www.poets.org/skkim www.griffinpoetryprize.com/gpp2004/intro.html _______________________________ from THE LOS ANGELES TIMES: "I wish I had space in which to consider at length the important debut of NOTES FOM THE DIVIDED COUNTRY by Suji Kwock Kim. It seems to me that this first book (already acknowledged by the Walt Whitman Award) deserves close and celebratory attention. Suji Kwock Kim has written a book of unforgettable poems; she has found a way, through the medium of language, to allow readers into a double consciousness that is, finally, the poet's undivided mind. She writes of the "old country" reborn in the New World, of her ancestors in Korea during the Japanese occupation and her immediate family in America: the Trees of Unknowing and Knowledge. In one of the most inspired and brilliant poems, she considers sparrows and their symbology: "How to stay faithful / to earth, how to keep from betraying / its music " she wonders --- as she writes of the Earth that both divides us and brings us together." --- Carol Muske-Dukes _______________________________ from THE WASHINGTON POST: "I've been struck by the rich and complicated way that many young Asian-American poets, especially women, have been dealing with their ancestry and engaging the past. These poets are creating an art that looks forward by turning back. Their work confronts history and comes to terms with a wide range of cultural influences, a complex and divided inheritance. I am deeply moved and instructed by Suji Kwock Kim's brilliant debut collection, which moves fluently between the living and the dead, the Korean past and the Asian American present. NOTES FROM THE DIVIDED COUNTRY is a heartfelt, blood-soaked work of flights and explorations, of personal probings and historical exposures, of suffering and responsibility, of tribute and witness, of American soul-making." Her work is shadowed by the question of what is passed on through a long history. She tracks the generations through strong poems for her great-grandparents, her grandmother, her father and, especially, her mother. She also traces the tormented, catastrophic history of countless others, many of them nameless, who figured in the making of more than half-a-million new Americans." --- Edward Hirsch _______________________________ from BOOKLIST: "The four parts of Ms. Kim's impressive first collection contain poems of family, history, love, and vision, respectively. The first part is punch-in-the-guts powerful. After opening with the virtuosic "Generation," tracing the poet's journey from before conception to implantation in the womb, the poems lay out a painful familial scenario, the soul-searing climax of which comes in "ST RAGE," in which sadistic boys torment the poet's handicapped brother. Anguish also pervades the second section's preoccupation with the half-century of horror Ms. Kim's ancestral homeland, Korea, endured, first under Japanese occupation, then in the Korean War; members of Ms. Kim's family played historic roles then, and they figure as actors and dedicatees here. The third section's poems on love are analytic, personal, and sensual, though seldom all at once; whereas pain predominated in the first two sections, emotional intensity preoccupies these poems. In the last section, Ms. Kim applies that intensity to observation of art and nature, so strikingly that, for instance, having read "On Sparrows," you may never regard those common birds as commonplace again." --- Ray Olson _______________________________ GRIFFIN INTERNATIONAL POETRY PRIZE, JUDGES' CITATION: "Suji Kwock Kim's title NOTES FROM THE DIVIDED COUNTRY refers not only to the Koreas North and South and to all the Americas, but also to the countries of the mind. Travelling between past and present, Kim's powerful fictive imagination creates almost unbearably realistic enactments of war-zones once inhabited by her parents, grandparents, and even her great-grandparents. If "death is no remedy for having been born", as she says in "The Tree of Knowledge", then perhaps poetry is: poetry as expiation, history, memory treasure trove. In highly sophisticated verse, with lines long and lean or short and subtle, an exorcism seems to take place through the precision and music of her language. In poems about the couple next door in San Francisco, or the poet on the road to Skye in Scotland, or in the streets of Seoul on the Buddha's birthday, Suji Kwock Kim celebrates being alive and well in the complexities of the present moment." --- Billy Collins, Bill Manhire, Phyllis Webb _______________________________ from THE VILLAGE VOICE: "Suji Kwock Kim's Whitman Award-winning collection arrives at a moment when many Asian American poets bristle at the ghettoization of ethnic poetries in American letters. Kim's NOTES FROM THE DIVIDED COUNTRY opens with an almost mythic retelling of the poet's conception in the "labyrinth of mother's body." After this surreal, prenatal fugue, the book shifts gears and launches into a series of first-person accounts of political atrocities perpetrated by the Japanese during the forced colonial assimilation of Korea and later by the Americans during the Korean War. An epigraph by Brecht alerts us to the fact that these imaginary perspectives are a deliberate attempt to flunk the ethnic litmus test of "authenticity." Citizens from Kim's home village are "blown to hieroglyphs of viscera" --- a piercing, uncanny image that doubles as a critique of the aestheticization of historical trauma." --- Chris Chen _______________________________ from the back cover: "This is a brilliant, unerasable book. It begins with the descent of the soul into flesh, which is also the descent into the catastrophic, tormenting history of family and nation. Kim does not turn away from this history but takes it into herself, making poems that give it indelible voice. The poems as a whole surprise not only by their ambition and ferocity but by their delicacy, their sudden reserves of stillness and contemplation. If there is justice, the future will look back on this book as a major event." --- Frank Bidart, editor of THE COLLECTED POEMS OF ROBERT LOWELL _______________________ "NOTES FROM THE DIVIDED COUNTRY springs out of a civil war in the soul. . . .[Its] revelation of horror is so explicit, so necessary; a facing up to history that frees the speaker. . . .[She] seem[s] to know that only an approximation of the truth can make [her] whole again, that even in the negative there's nobility. To understand the gift of the senses is a blessing. It is a graceful, powerful trope. . . .There's love and sadness at the root of these poems. There is also a bridge, a language that mends." --- Yusef Komunyakaa, winner of the 1994 Pulitzer Prize for poetry --__--__-- _______________________________________________ The_Dojang mailing list The_Dojang@martialartsresource.net http://martialartsresource.net/mailman/listinfo/the_dojang http://the-dojang.net Old digest issues @ ftp://ftp.martialartsresource.com/pub/the_dojang Copyright 1994-2004: Ray Terry and http://MartialArtsResource.com Standard disclaimers apply. Remember September 11. End of The_Dojang Digest