His poetry generally unfolds in hometowns and rural villages and is an ode to the vitality of nature and the revolutionary power of the people.
In November of the same year, he published "Sijageul geureoke hamyeon doena" (시작(詩作)을 그렇게 하면 되나 Is That How We Compose Poems?
He wrote the poem "Aa gwangjuyeo, urinaraui sipjagayeo" on the subject of the horrors of the May 18 Gwangju Democratization Movement and it was published on the front page of the June 2nd issue of the Jeonnam Daily News.
Kim Jun Tae was soon arrested and tortured in prison after the publication of this poem, finally released after one month.
After he was fired from his teaching job, he started to work at Jeonnam Daily News—the same newspaper that originally published his poem.
Even after the removal of the military dictatorship and the establishment of a democratic government in the 1990s, Kim continued to write prolifically.
He continued to publish original poetry collections such as the 1991 Tongireul kkumkkuneun seulpeun saekjuga (통일을 꿈꾸는 슬픈 색주가 The Sad Barmaid That Dreams of Reunification), the 1994 Kkochi ije jisanggwa haneureul (꽃이, 이제 지상과 하늘을 The Flowers Now in the Ground and the Sky), and the 1999 Jipyeongseone seoseo (지평선에 서서 Standing on the Horizon).
During this time period, Kim Jun Tae expanded his literary activities to encompass broader areas.
With the May 18 Gwangju Democratization Movement as a central motif, he wrote the story for a pansori in 1922, titled "Mudeungjinhongok" (무등진혼곡 Matchless Requiem).
He also participated in numerous performances that commemorated the May 18 Movement, such as writing the screenplay for a 1999 opera, "Mudeungdungdung" (무등둥둥 Matchless Drum Beats).
He made his official debut as a novelist with the publication of his novella "Oreupeuseuneun jukji anatda" (오르페우스는 죽지 않았다 Orpheus Did Not Die) in the literary journal Munye Joongang.
In this poem, Kim Jun Tae surrenders himself to the providence of nature and focuses on the realities of workers.
The narrator of "Chamkkaereul teolmyeonseo," after having lived in the city for nearly ten years, brushes off sesame seeds and feels "a pleasure that is difficult to experience in the realm of worldly affairs."
This is because the sight of sesame seeds, continuously raining down as they are being brushed off and separated from the chaff, is an experience diametrically opposed to hectic and cramped city life.
[8] In this manner, Kim Jun Tae's poetry is constructed upon a foundation of love for farmers and farming villages.
Through the brutal massacre of civilians in the May 18 Gwangju Democratization Movement in 1980, Kim Jun Tae's poetry turned towards an even more radical criticism of reality.
[9] In the same way that this poem contributed to alerting the entire world about the horrors of the Gwangju Massacre, beginning in the 1980s, Kim oriented his poetry towards manifesting the political capabilities of the people in poetic form.
In other words, it was his experience of the May 18 Democratization Movement in Gwangju that allowed Kim Jun Tae to expand his poetic world.
These prints were comparatively simple to manufacture and easily mass-produced, thus making them an effective propaganda material for people seeking to resist the oppression of the military regime at the time.
In Oworeseo tongillo, Kim Jun Tae thus demonstrated the possibilities of resistance that the medium of panhwa embodied together with his own poetic orientation.
That is, the legacy left by the May 18 Gwangju Democratization Movement must be re-evaluated and seen in broader terms than merely opposing a totalitarian regime.
Kim Jun Tae's poetry criticizes the oppression and violence caused by the state while also seeking a universal set of values, seen in the desire for national unification between North and South Korea.
In the 1990s, after the dissolution of the totalitarian regime, Kim Jun Tae's poetry shifted towards paeans and imaginings of reunification on the Korean peninsula.
As demonstrated by Oworeseo tongillo, his poetry expanded the meaning of the May 18 Gwangju Democratization Movement and is the product of literary praxis.
[10] Even after his experience of the May 18 Movement and his poetry started to focus on criticizing reality, he never lost his imagination regarding fields.
Even as farming societies collapse and cities continuously expand, he believes that humanity can always find hope within the fields and soil.
Through his 1981 poetry collection, Naneun haneunimeul boatda, he further emphasizes this notion that he sees "God" in the victims of the Gwangju Democratization Movement.
In his 1984 poem, "Geumnam-ro sarang" (금남로 사랑 Love for Geumnam Street), he affirms that "Geumnam Street is love" and in reflecting upon the brave people that refused to surrender to harsh oppression, he simultaneously imagines farmers plowing the fields and planting trees.
/ Sarangui byeonju-gimjuntaeui hanguk segye myeongsiyeohaeng 2 (Love's Variations: Kim Jun Tae's Journey of Enlightenment Through Korea 2), Hanmadang, 1999.
《노래 물거미 – 김준태 시선집》, Norae mulgeomi (Song of the water spiders), Gesang der Wasserspinnen.