Lunch Poems - Li-Young Lee

Li-Young Lee's collections of poems include The City in Which I Love You and Book of My Nights. In his poetry he explores a range of subjects, from his family's immigrant experiences to the haunting meditations of his most recent work. "His poems are made from his life with his life; his poems are earned. He dares to be simple. And he is surely among the finest young poets alive," writes the American Poetry Review. He lives in Illinois. [events] [artshumanities] [lunchpoems] Credits: producer:UC Berkeley Educational Technology Services

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[dinokillz]

that boring intro guy is a two time pulitzer prize winner.

[jaykayhooray]

man he is awesome

[ForexReviewsCentral]

Very artistic. Great

[lyricarol]

That boring guy may be the single greatest living poet. Not best. Greatest.

[mathwho27]

just seems like such a beautiful heart this man has

[pwhishaw]

I really like the paradox Lee taps into about the simultaneous death of the breath and the building life of an idea: how as you exhale, in speech, your body essentially loses life, but your point takes further and deeper form. It takes an artist or a writer to notice those sorts of beautiful patterns in life and turn them into poetry.

[kaywhy13]

One thing that really struck me while listening to Lee's poetry is what he said about metaphors being a connection between one thing in reality and a psychic idea. I think this is a very apt and poignant way of describing Lee's poetry as a whole: he takes very real, raw, and vulnerable experiences from his past and connects them to larger themes and motifs that his audience can relate to, even if these themes are somewhat obscure.

[crystalcurtain]

What fascinates me the most about Li-Young Lee's reading is his performance- his near painful shyness accompanying his honestly and undisguised vulnerability. I found these traits strongly reflected in many of his poems, making it difficult for me to separate the speaker or narrator of the poem from its author. However, I do not think his poetry suffered for it.

[bobbyvinograd]

The intro was a bit muddy, but I found Li-Young Lee very inciteful through his thoughts. His poetry comes off to me as fairly benevolent/innocent and sentimental.