Jungtae Lee

contributor to 4 posters

  • Crows fly through snow under a dark night sky

    Poet

    A Crowd of Crows Fly

    I wrote this haiku in response to a newspaper article about open war on crows in Auburn.I was troubled by the idea of shooting crows randomly. There should be a better way of dealing with these creatures.

    As a bird lover I have always been stunned by the powerful presence crows bring in nature. No wonder so many visual and verbal artists use the common crow as a muse.

    I could visualize crowds of crows in the severe winter sky of Central New York. Where will they rest?

  • A person swims in a tree-lined green lake encased in a clear jar atop of which perches a large purple dragonfly

    Poet

    An Ocean Blue Sky

    Green Lakes is one of my favorite places in Central New York, in the summer and throughout the year. You can go there with a friend or by yourself. I try to be there as much as I can. It's a beautiful place. It's another world.

    Whenever I write haiku, it's more about nature. I want to write about what I see.

    When I see the clouds and the water, it just stops me. You want to capture it in words—the way you want to take a picture.

    Anyone coming to Central New York or the city, I would like to encourage them to visit that beautiful place.

  • A crescent moon looks down at a busy and congested city scene

    Poet

    A Curious Moon

    I wrote this haiku a few years ago, gazing out a window in a building overlooking Armory Square.

    It brought back memories of city life in Seoul, where I lived amid a thriving metropolitan culture of businesses, museums, theaters, movie houses and galleries, in addition to thousands of bars.

    The bright night life of Seoul stole any chances to catch a full moon. Ain't we so lucky to savor a full moon over the beautiful old buildings in Armory Square?

  • A woman stands contemplatively beside a city fountain pool as the sun begins to set

    Poet

    Old Canal Waters

    I'm a multi-media artist who creates films, photographs, sound design. But I never wrote haiku until I saw the ad for it in the New Times. Then I remembered, when I was in film school, we learned about this Russian filmmaker, Sergei Eisenstein, who wrote about an editing method based on haiku. Like lines of haiku, one scene creates another scene, and they inspire each other. So I thought, This is like filmmaking, I can do it.

    I'm interested in local history—the history of the canal, old buildings. I love the city's old buildings. Whenever I see them neglected, somehow it bothers me. I grew up in Korea, and so much of Korea was destroyed during the War. We don't have many old buildings now. You never know how precious they are until you lose them. So when I saw the fountains, they reminded me of the canal and its incredible buried history.