Poems in this volume reflect the poet's life in a myriad of ways like the light cast through a prism. The fifty-three poems collected in the book fall into two groups: those that reveal what the poet feels and thinks while living her daily life, and those that deal with what she, as an immigrant, has to go through while living in a foreign country away from her homeland. As witnessed in some poems, Kim is sometimes very self-conscious of her life that should be led as an immigrant in a foreign country, which makes her poetic world unique and conspicuous among her contemporary Korean or Korean American poets who are writing poetry in the Korean language. Without a doubt, the delicate poetic sensitivity characteristic of Moon Hee Kim's poetry will make the Korean or Korean American literary heritage much more bountiful and attractive.
Born in 1950 in Korea, Moon Hee Kim earned a B.A. degree in French Literature at Sook Myung Women's University in Korea. After coming to the United States, she obtained an M.A. degree and two Ph.D. degrees, all in the fields of education.
Kim has published five books of poetry in Korean: Leaves of Grass, Awakening (1988), Autumn River (1990), Morning Grass (1992), The Being, Deep Mind (1998), and Lighting Candles for You (2007). Autumn River has also been translated into English. Her poetry has also been published in Los Angeles Times, The Korea Daily, The Korea Times, among other newspapers, magazines and periodicals. Kim was invited as one of the representative Korean-American poets to read poetry on April 11, 1994 at the Library of Congress.