Analysis of "Down Jacket God" by Moon Bo Young Translated by Hedgie Choi

Poem Found Here:  "Down Jacket God" by Moon Bo Young Translated by Hedgie Choi

The language is simple.  I think there's two commas in the whole poem and everything else are just simple sentences, but the subject matter is so complex.  As a prose poem, this poem leads the reader down the scenario, the set up metaphor, and how the metaphor works very cleanly that when we get the end of the poem, there's a simple clean sentence with a devastating image.

"God wears a massive down jacket."  The scenario.  Although the image of god wearing a down jacket seems odd and humorous. the poem pivots to focus on the make-up of the jacket, the set-up, " Humans are the countless duck feathers trapped inside," So God is looking good in a comfortable jackets, and humans are the ones that fill in that warm support.  "the poet writes."  Placing the poet in this poet subdues the metaphor from being direct and transfers power to the poet, the observer.  God, humans as duck feathers, and the poet have some stake in this metaphor.

"Sometimes a feather pokes out."  The period here adds a lot to this poem.  It's a statement.  There's no reaction to this statement from the speaker or God.  This statement stands alone, and then the reaction, "God plucks it carelessly." Another statement without emotions or flow -- like axioms one after the other. "That's what people call death."  So we have further explanation of the set-up, the flow of an idea where the sentences are blunt stagnations.

"A feather gets plucked.  The person dies.  A feather gets plucked. That person expires. A feather gets plucked. That person breaths their last breath. A feather gets plucked. That person disappears."  This sequence builds to nothing, well literally nothing in death.  Note how the actions are the same repetition, same wording of "A feather gets plucked" which feels so laborious and distant, but then look at how the poet (not the speaker, the poet as defined in the beginning writing this) alters the phrasing a bit "dies," "expires," "breathes their last breath," "disappears."  All of these phrasings lack emotional connectivity but ands visual and vocabulary distance that makes the lines a bit more personal but also distant as well.

"After death there's no heaven or hell, no angels or devils, the poet writes."  The end destination doesn't exist, no one divine being to greet you, the poet writes only of the action, the scenario, the setup. "There's only a feather.  It swings in the air.  Gently, the feather settles on the ground."  Such a devastating last image which id a "Dead" metaphor.  The metaphor could mean how God interprets humans in life and death scenario, but it's not.  Don't forget the poet is writing this.  It's a specific distance on a personal issue.  Only to see the beauty and the tragedy.  The artifice of the scene.