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Jan 15, 2025 | 
orisonbooks.com | Jane Hirshfield |Sarah Ali |Warsan Shire |Li-Young Lee
Over the five sessions of this discussion-oriented class, we’ll delve into the particulars of how a wide range of spiritual poems from diverse traditions and perspectives achieve their impacts on the reader. We’ll also explore ways in which the poems under consideration might serve as springboards for our own poems. Participants will have opportunities to share their new drafts with the group.
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Oct 10, 2024 | 
poetryfoundation.org | Li-Young Lee |Ocean Vuong
Time leaves the smallest wounds, and your body, a mortal occasion of timeless law, is all the word I— Li-Young Lee, “Changing Places in the Fire”Li-Young Lee (1957–Present) is a poet, translator, and memoirist and the author of poetry collections including The Invention of the Darling (Norton, 2024), The Undressing (Norton, 2018), Behind My Eyes (Norton, 2008), Book of My Nights (BOA, 2001), The City in Which I Love You (BOA, 1990), and Rose (BOA, 1993).
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Oct 3, 2024 | 
poetryfoundation.org | Li-Young Lee
Li-Young, don’t feel lonelywhen you look upinto great night and findyourself the far face peeringhugely out from betweena star and a star. All that spacethe nighthawk plunges through,homing, all that distance beyond embrace,what is it but your own infinity.
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Oct 1, 2024 | 
beta.poetryfoundation.org | Li-Young Lee
Doubt everything.
But never doubt the moon
was in the room with us that night.
It touched each place we touched
on both of our bodies.
Every word we said
was spoken in its presence.
Every cry we uttered in trust and abandonment.
So what the moon can’t remember anything?
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Oct 1, 2024 | 
poetryfoundation.org | Li-Young Lee
Open window.
Blue sun.
Green sun.
Last night
light rain fell
off and on. Thunder
rumbling nudged me
how many times almost awake?
Windowsill wet.
Blue and green shadows on the garden wall.
Flowers fallen
into the birdbath. Wings,
sparrows and finches, splashing
in the pool. The bathers’ cries
of pleasure make a sound
like tiny anklets ringing
or little sacks of coins being shook.
Those little pipers know
how to pipe
and never grow hoarse.
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Oct 1, 2024 | 
beta.poetryfoundation.org | Li-Young Lee
Say the words:
On earth
as it is in heaven.
Say the words:
Love thy neighbor
as thyself.
Say the words:
And the Lord saw that it was good,
and it was good.
Say the words, said my father.
So I say the words.
Sing the words, said my mother.
So I sing the words.
Dance, said my sister.
But I didn’t know how to dance.
So my sister taught me.
Night said, Sleep.
But I didn’t know how to sleep.
And I still don’t know.
Day said, Rise. Work.
Sing for your mother.
Dance for your sister.
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Oct 1, 2024 | 
poetryfoundation.org | Li-Young Lee
Bees come
from out of the sun,
God’s fevered eye.
Any simple child can see.
Tears are gifts
from the mother of God,
as are memory and imagination,
as are seeing, hearing, breathing, thinking, and feeling.
There’s nothing but gifts on this poor earth.
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Aug 9, 2024 | 
sixtysixmag.com | Li-Young Lee |Gianna Annunzio |Chris Force
Li-Young Lee was born in Jakarta in 1957 to Chinese political exiles and moved to the United States in 1964. He began writing poetry seriously while studying at the University of Pittsburgh, drawing influence from classical Chinese poets and his own experiences.
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May 14, 2024 | 
poetryfoundation.org | Li-Young Lee |Leonora Simonovis
The Invention of the Darling, by Li-Young Lee, opens with a poem titled “Love’s Unswerving Gaze,” which begins:
What was told to me in a whisper
I must now repeat
under my breath:The true lover
lives only
to love the beloved.
Love—for the world, for life, and for what lies beyond human comprehension—is the driving force behind Lee’s poems, which meditate on mortality and on the mysteries of life as they are manifest in nature.
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Apr 28, 2024 | 
theatlantic.com | Li-Young Lee
The tall curtains billow with presences coming and going, impossible to confirm. Is there any word from the Lord? Is there any word from the dead? Is there any word from the dying? Is there any word from the living? The curtains rise and fall like wings. Is the room about to lift off the earth? Is there any word from the Lord? You were born speaking the language of the dying: I want. I need. Not enough. Give me. When will you learn the language of the living? Is there any word from the dead?
