Lee, Li-Young 1982; 2003
Monday, October 20, 2003
Silver, the women sing of their bodies
and the men. Darker, the men sing
of their ancestors and the women.
Darkest is the children’s ambition
to sing every circle wider. Dying.
– Li-Young Lee, “Every Circle Wider”
Broadside of “Every Circle Wider” by Li-Young Lee
Listen to Li-Young Lee’s 2003 reading for the Poetry Center of Chicago:
Audio recording of the Poetry Center Reading Series featuring Billy Collins, Andrei Codrescu, Ron Padgett, Lucille Clifton, Mark Perlberg, Li-Young Lee, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Anne Waldman, Yusuf Komunyakaa, Lisel Mueller, Ted Kooser, Paul Carroll, Jorie Graham, and Paul Hoover.
Buy this audio recording featuring Li-Young Lee⇒
To pull the metal splinter from my palm
my father recited a story in a low voice.
I watched his lovely face and not the blade.
Before the story ended, he’d removed
the iron sliver I thought I’d die from.
– Li-Young Lee, “The Gift”
Watch this interview with Li-Young Lee from the HoCoPoLitSo:
Li-Young Lee, a conversation of poetry and consciousness
In this edition of HoCoPoLitSo’s The Writing Life, poet and host Michael Collier speaks with Li-Young Lee in 1995 about poetry, prayerful attitudes and unconscious states. Lee reads his poem “Epistle” to start off the show, which Collier says acts as a sort of prologue to his first book of poetry, “Rose.”
