Chiwan Choi

Chiwan Choi is a poet, writer and publisher, author of three full length books of poetry—The Flood (Tia Chucha Press, 2010), Abductions (Writ Large Press, 2012), and The Yellow House (CCM, 2017) – and multiple poetry chapbooks, including Time Out of Space and lo/fidelity lovesongs. Choi has published his poetry, fiction and essays in numerous journals and magazines, including The New York Times Magazine, ONTHEBUS, Poem-A-Day, Entropy, cream city review, Mud City Journal, chaparral, Twelfth House, Spiral Orb, Zocalo Public Square, Esquire, Maura Magazine, and the anthologies Resist Much/Obey Little and ATTN. He has been the subject of features on KCET, LA Weekly, Cosmonaut Magazine and OTHRPPL. He was also a librettist for the opera Songs and Dances of Imaginary Lands, produced by Overtone Industries. Choi is a partner at Writ Large Press and a member of The Accomplices and the Editor at Cultural Daily. He also hosts the paranormal podcast with a literary twist, Are You There, Ghost? It’s Me, Chiwan. Source

Excerpt from "The Yellow House"

we touch down on US soil

we are taken to Santa Monica beach

i don’t remember having seen the ocean before

there is the touch of sand at the bottom of my feet

i look up at the sun

and suddenly i can’t remember my name

a hand pulls at my arm

this is skin on my skin

he wants me to race against him

i tumble into the sand

he pulls away toward the finish line

and stops to tell me to keep running

but i don’t rise into the air

and instead watch him cry

as he promises to make me whole

we stood out in the front yard

i stared at the giant ant hills

in the center divider of our street.

he looked up at the sky

and put his hand on my shoulder

i turned and tilted my head to face him.

“this is what i want for you,” he said

“to learn to stand in the light and see the storm.”

Published:

2017

Length:

Regular

Literary Movements:

Contemporary

Anthology Years:

2022

Themes:

Childhood & Coming of Age

Family

Immigration