New to Tucson from South Korea in 2008, Kyung Sun Park found community at the Pima County Public Library.
By 2009, her infant son, Trent, accompanied her to read, ask questions, practice English and lug home books.
Those library visits laid the foundation for a love of reading, sure. The trips also opened up opportunities for new language: Storytime and reading programs in English instead of their native Korean and chess-related games.
“Thanks to these experiences, Trent has grown into a young man with a deep love for poetry and culture,” his mom wrote in a love letter to the Pima County Public Library.
Trent, who will begin his senior year at BASIS Oro Valley next month, was selected as one of the showcased youth poets who read their work at the Fox Theatre a few weeks ago.
His poem “And I Am the Desert” placed second in the 2026 Arizona State Poetry Society’s annual youth poetry contest and two other poems won additional awards in May. His work will be published in “Sandcutters,” the society’s annual poetry anthology, later this year.
Arizona Luminaria talked with Trent about the value of libraries, weaving language together, favorites, and what’s to come. The interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
Why and how would you encourage someone to go to the library regularly? It sounds cliché, but the contents of the library really do have another world stored inside them. Books have a way of making us, the readers, more in tune with reality. I think that some people have forgotten what books do for us, and I think that they forget that reading doesn’t have to be some hyperactive, life-consuming study. There is a kind of alienation for some that exists for reading and books and, subsequently, the library. A culture has formed where it becomes common for people to express that the library “is not for me,” simply because they are not English majors or not quite in tune with academia.
How? I would tell them to remember that the books are here for them, not the other way around, that reading is how we grow. I would point them towards the countless events held by the library about reading that are open to all people. Reading is not a special, strange task in the same way that schoolwork might have been. At the library, you learn, you read, and you learn to love to read on your own terms (barring, of course, book return deadlines). I think that this is the best thing that the library has to offer for an individual, that someone could freely choose how they want to grow. Beyond reading and beyond books, the library is also a place where anyone can go alone or with friends to community events or even just the space as a place to meet.
What do you do for fun? I wouldn’t say that I have any other things that I expressly do for fun. I’ve learned to have fun be a side effect of whatever I might be doing. If I had to name an activity, it would be Historical European Martial Arts (HEMA).
What is your favorite subject at school? Probably Latin. I like the historical aspects of it and the experience of being able to immerse oneself in the language that people used thousands of years ago. Beyond practicality, this is what drives me most for Latin. There is a grounded feeling that comes with it, as if you can connect to whatever a text is talking about. Things that have been buried for over centuries suddenly become alive, real to us.
Do you have a favorite poet? If I had to choose, it would probably be W. B. Yeats, and my favorite poem is “Sailing to Byzantium.”
How do poems come to you? It is hard to pick out a specific way that poems come to me. Usually, they come to me when I am sitting at my desk, but they also come to me at random moments. Even when I am not in the “writing” mindset, lines and phrases pop into my head.
And I Am the Desert
By Trent Lee
My spine grows sharper as the
Dusky, thin veneers of the moon
Set on my skin. It gnaws on me
As if it hasn’t taken enough
The palms are dried, their wrinkling
Bark coming off and spreading
On the city landscape
The hairs are becoming
Needles jutting out in the curtain
That has fallen so heavily
On us, our faces peeking
Through this sandy gossamer
Grain-cloth, ever cold in lonesome
A prickly pear like the sign
Of my post, my title as the dried
Thing standing on watch
Capped with the thin sprouts
Fiery and licking slowly the airs
Birthed from the winds. There are
Men and women walking,
Distant lantern lights on the dunes
And clay mounds in warpaint
They see me and hurry off
Yet counting their steps
In the path of the stars above,
And I am the desert
The graveyard of the pitifully
Powerful, the coffin of mountains
Ground down and smothered,
Pressed into the ocean
That has left me the scent
Of salt amidst the caverns,
And I am the first witness
Of the new Sun, its wings gathered
From furious and scattered dust
What/who is your inspiration? A lot of things become my inspiration. The language around me especially, either in writing or in speech. There is an understanding that language is a conveyor of ideas, but I think that there is an unspoken, often unrecognized, almost visceral quality to the best uses of language that knows where to push and pull on one’s mind. Beyond others’ use of language, I like to try and describe the world in my head as I go about my day. If I had to phrase it in a trite way, it would be “learning to see poetry everywhere.” And because we can define all of the world around us in language, there is no limit to how we can earn inspiration. It is our choice to see the intensity, the beauty of the world around us.
Do you ever write longhand and not type? If so, with a pen or pencil? I write down short phrases and expressions (and maybe even words) as notes for myself when writing in the future, but most of my writing is done from the computer. Writing on a word processor allows me to engage in a more aggressive and dynamic writing style. I am able to change what I have already written on the fly as I work through a poem. It becomes a constant process where I can maintain a sense of continuous change and evolution for my writing. Writing on paper feels more final in comparison, even when in pencil, and as a result, I like to write down finished poems on paper. For this reason, I like to write with a pen, when possible, as it adds to a feeling of finality and finesse.
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