I Want to Hijack an Airplane: Selected Poems of Kim Seung-Hee

The 103 poems in this volume by Kim Seung-hee cover a number of themes: sacredness of the life force, conditions of women, mother-daughter relationship, and husband-wife relationship. "Female Buddha" paints a vivid picture of a woman's agony in the delivery room and the triumphant birth of a new life. In "The Legendary Flute of Shilla," Kim poses a question to her husband: "Is it possible to live together, yet as if not, or to live apart, yet as if together?"

Her works also deal with the cold and dehumanizing aspects of modern urban life, and the longing for freedom as an absolute ideal. "Hijacking an Airplane" best expresses her desire to transcend existence and liberate the individual from everything that confines and oppresses.