Lee, Viola 2021
O, I won’t write about the corn cob buildings
or Oak Street Beach
beyond sidewalk and trees.
O, instead
let me write about the Lavendaria
on the corner of Armitage Avenue
and Kedzie
where the other day I saw
a little boy
pushing his infant sister
in one of those metal clothes carts on wheels.
– Viola Lee, “Wild Abandon”
Watch Viola Lee’s 2021 reading with Sun Yung Shin at the Chicago Poetry Center:
Viola Lee begins at 4:10 minutes.
Out of poems written by the where and when
Out of everything has become a fever again
Out of dark, light, need for the night
Out of hot, cold, can’t get it right
Out of bargaining for up and down rides
Out of poems and lions standing close to their pride
Out of pomegranates are what one craves
Out of the stomach of fire are the lines seeds pave
– Viola Lee, “A Lightening of Storms”
Watch Viola Lee read some of her poems at Poetry Foundation’s Open Door series:
