SUMMARY

"Poetry is the restoration of the whole through details. Think of it as making a sketch of a face only briefly seen. Just as one puts together a shattered skull or an earthenware pot, poetry is the creation of the pieces that go in the spots where the original pieces are missing."

Indeterminate Inflorescence is a collection of aphorisms on poetry-writing taken from the creative writing lectures of Lee Seong-bok, one of South Korea's most prominent living poets. These 470 aphorisms, collected by his students, are evocative micro-poems in their own right, some expressing an idea that is familiar in our recognition of a truth we could sense but not put into words, others unfurling fresh vistas and worlds to explore in their exciting and inspiring poetics.