Tim Kahl is the author of Possessing Yourself, The Century of Travel, and The String of Islands and Omnishambles. His work has been published in Prairie Schooner, Drunken Boat, Mad Hatters' Review, Indiana Review, Metazen, Nnth Letter, Sein and Werden, Notre Dame Review, The Reality System, Konundrum Engine Literary Machine, The Journal, The Volta, Parthenon West Review, Caliban and many other journals in the U.S. He is also co-editor of Clade Song. He is the events coordinator of The Sacramento Poetry Alliance. He plays flutes, guitars ukuleles, charangos, and cavaquinhos. He currently teaches at California State University, Sacramento, where he sings lieder while walking on campus between classes.

The Korean sijo is an antiquated form in Korean poetry that was prominent in the late fourteenth to early fifteenth century. It was typically sung (each line containing four metric segments—what are called hemistichs—with a minor pause at the end of the second segment and a major one at the end of the fourth).

3/4          4          3/4          4
3/4          4          3/4          4
 3           5-8          4          3/4

A logical "leap" is employed at the beginning of the third line. Or sometimes this gap/caesura takes shape as a developmental shift. Not unlike the Italian volta in the last two lines of a sonnet, it is considered the crux of the poem. Often there are interjections at the beginning of the third line which addressa particular person. The entire form ranges between 43 and 51 syllables.