Monologue for an Onion
With her 2003 collection Notes from the Divided
Country, Suji (“Sue”) Kwock Kim became the first
Asian American to win the Walt Whitman Award
of the American Academy of Poets. In this volume,
Kim explores themes of family, nation (the title
refers to Korea), isolation, community, emotion,
and politics. While her poetic voice is influenced
by her experience as an Asian American woman,
she strives to write about universal human truths.
She draws those truths from the strangled and war-
torn history of her family and their native Korea.
To add authenticity to her telling of history, she
takes on the voices of her parents and ancestors.
Kim’s poems describe the horrors of war, the strug-
gle to overcome extreme circumstances, and the
pain of loss.
One of the poems in Notes from the Divided
Countryis “Monologue for an Onion.” In this
poem, an onion expresses its thoughts and feelings
while a person goes about cutting it up. In the hands
of other poets, this premise would be a setup for a
humorous poem; in Kim’s hands, it is serious and
even disturbing. Exploring themes of appearance,
essence, truth, and seeking, Kim finds an unlikely
speaker in an onion. Because of this poem’s ac-
cessibility and its unusual subject matter, it is ap-
pealing to students who are new to poetry. More
advanced students will be rewarded by a close
study of the poem that reveals its depth of style and
content.
Sue (Suji) Kwock Kim
2003
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