Once again I went to the internet to find a poetry prompt this morning. This one came from Poets & Writers and is highly appropriate for me although I did tweak it a bit. It says to write an ode to your favorite singer, placing them in a particular moment in time.

What better prompt for someone who can’t get through a day without listening to K-pop, right? I didn’t write this poem to anyone in particular, though. It’s more an ode to the genre, which is why the title is “Noraebang”, the anglicized word for the Korean word for “Karaoke”. It literally means “music (norae) room (bang)”, which is what I try to imagine my head is sometimes. An empty space that I fill with the good feelings of the music I’ve filled my life with.

Music is a funny thing. It twines itself into our memories and feelings. I reached a point in my life where a lot of the music I had enjoyed for a large portion of my life was too twisted into a part of my feelings that I needed to get away from…and then K-pop happened. A genre of music that is mostly positive and was completely new.

It helped me rebuild myself. And that’s what this little ode is meant to share.

Noraebang

By Michelle Garren-Flye

When I can’t sleep

I listen to you instead:

turn up the music

and you fill my head.

Push out all the doubt

that plagues my soul.

Fling off the loneliness,

allow me to be whole.

It’s only a sweet moment,

this stolen away time,

but for that space I feel

as if everything rhymes.