Today's Morning Vocabulary

The South Korean poet and playwright explores loneliness, alienation, and flashes of togetherness, creating a world that his translator calls “overcast, yet playful.”

A student of Kim Hyesoon, Yoo writes poems that invite readers to reflect upon daily sorrows, while also illuminating single moments full of strange and arresting images that suggest the passage of time—a hardened piece of bread, a train about to arrive, a crumpled piece of paper. This debut collection in English chronicles contemporary life in a minor key where loneliness and existential ghosts thread the pieces. But Yoo’s title also points to his fascination with language, and how each day offers chances to understand new vocabularies and new meanings—of words, of living.