Customer Reviews

Rose (New Poets of America)

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Mr Lee is one of my favorite poets, period. The Rose is a wonderful collection, and I think I like it a tiny bit better than The City In Which I Loved You. The way that Mr. Lee captures love & longing, subtle forms of love, nuances of parental relationships, and the physical world is amazing.

The first time I read 'Persimmons' it was in a Pushcart Prize Anthology, and I had never seen anything by Lee. It was years ago, and with no access to a printer or computer (stuck on holiday) I hand wrote at least 5 copies to immediately put in the mail to friends because I loved the poem so. Every poet resonates differently, it happens that Mr. Lee echoes some voice that I really understand and appreciate. If you love words, and how they can move together into something magical, he is one to read.

I wanted to include an excerpt, but I'm not sure that's right. Do a web-search on him if you want to see what sort of writing style it is. It's difficult to take a stanza out of context, and it's too hard to pick one. :)

p.s. If you happen to agree with my taste, and you don't know about The Weight of Oranges by Anne Michaels, that's another rewarding read.

Like a child who possesses a sensual, adult relationship with the world, Li-Young Lee radiates with an open gentleness and delicate sensitivity that seems, at times, almost too fragile to allow him to walk the streets alone. Nothing escapes his keen eye and, as he so poignantly illustrates, the greatest art is all around us, in glimpses that, when combined with memory, produce a renewal of the spirit. Lee's poetry results in a clarification or awakening of feelings that summon the reader's desire to examine his or her feelings, and by examining them, express them. Thus, by reaching into our own self-awareness, we are able to seek redemption. We forgive ourselves. Li-Young Lee is at the leading edge of what is good about contemporary, American poetry. After devouring all his works, my only complaint is that there is too little of it. More, please.

Li-Young Lee works as a commercial artist, and in his poetry, he paints masterful pictures in the readers mind. I believe that the "stand-out" poem from this selection is "From Blossoms."

The idea of "taking what we love inside, to carry within us an orchard" brings a new sense of gratefulness for the memories and knowledge we have, and a profound sense of regret for the experiences, emotions, and knowledge we have missed.

Don't miss the emotions that these poems will evoke in you. Read them, love them, and take them inside.

Li-Young Lee's poetry is lucid in the way he captures the details of living with accuracy and tenderness, it moves the reader to awe. In poems such as "The gift" and "Early in the morning," Lee reveals the way our families create who we are in a manner that heals the reader and makes us examine our own lives. Lee often writes about his father and his own attempt to understand his connection to him and the heritage bestowed on him. In "The Gift" Lee uses a splinter as the union of everything that is valuable in his life and all our lives.

Kafka said... "We ought to only read books that stab us."

Li-Young Lee has stabbed me with "Rose." In these beautifully crafted poems, he has interlaced the past and the present, his Chinese heritage, mother, father, wife...but Oh, his father is so very present.

Reading Lee's poetry is like soaking in a warm bath, having a lovely dream, remembering something beautiful. The language dripped inside my ears and at times moved me to tears...

His memories about hair...

'The scent of it, hair falling against his face, his skin, brushing it,combing it, braiding it,unbraiding it, hair spilling over, her autumn hair, and finally, caught in his
mother's hair.

I love these imagages. I love Li-Young Lee for stabbing me in the heart and making me feel.

"In my dream I fly
past summers and moths,
to the thistle
caught in my mother's hair, the purple one
I touched and bled for,
to myself at three, sleeping
beside her, waking with her hair in my mouth." -Li-Young Lee-

Very rarely does the inspiration for a book of poems make itself so clearly felt throughout. In this case, the shadow of the poet's father is cast clearly across nearly every page. Part I is the homage, Part II is the eulogy and Part III is the aftermath. Every section is cooled by this shadow of loss which doesn't dissipate, even in poems that at first seem to be about something else. Still, I was taken by how powerful & beautiful & even uplifting this book is. It has a working unity that is often missing in other collections.

The ever-present father figure is one key to this unity but so is the recurrence of certain images; particularly, growing things: persimmons, peaches, ivy, apples, roses, hair. His lover is a vegetable for harvest. Persimmons are a metaphor for knowledge. In "Eating Alone," the poem that closes Part I, Lee writes: "I've pulled the last of the year's young onions./The garden is bare now. The ground is cold..." Which brings us again to the poet's father and pears, but now the fruit is dead. The poet and his father walk "among the windfall pears" and his father bends "to lift and hold to my/eye a rotten pear." The poem concludes with the poet left with "my own loneliness./What more could I, a young man, want." A statement, not a question. These memories are the poet's muse, sad but necessary.

Part II is the title poem, Rose, which works as an extended eulogy. At first, it seems like it will free us from the father figure as we move into Part III, where the survivors, like the poet and his mother, take on more influence. Still, Lee never really shakes his father's influence. "The Weepers," for example, reminds us of the continuing presence of grief.

And yet, despite the melancholy that hangs over the book, it is a wonderful read. I have yet to read a collection of poems where every poem is great but this one works towards it. Maybe because the whole thing feels like a single, extended poem rather than individual one. In any case, I highly recommend this book.

Li-Young Lee, Rose (Boa Editions, 1986)

I am a longtime fan of Li-Young Lee's work, but I somehow never got round to reading Rose, his first book, until now. Sometimes going back and reading the first published work of an author is interesting in that you can see how s/he developed over the years (this is reviewer-code for "man, this book is not nearly as good as I was expecting"); such is not at all the case with Lee, whose first pieces are just as polished, professional, and deeply absorbing as his most recent work:

"From laden boughs, from hands,
from sweet fellowship in the bins,
comes nectar at the roadside, succulent
peaches we devour, dusty skin and all,
comes the familiar dust of summer, dust we eat.

O, to take what we love inside,
to carry within us an orchard, to eat
not only the skin, but the shade,
not only the sugar, but the days, to hold
the fruit in our hands, adore it, then bite into
the round jubilance of peach."
("From Blossoms")

Li-Young Lee is a fabulous poet, and if you haven't yet discovered his work, I can't recommend strongly enough that you seek him out as soon as possible. A true poetic treasure. **** ½

I have been a fan of Li-Young Lee for about four years. This started when I came across his poem "Persimmons" in an introductory to poetry class. "Persimmons" instantly captivated my attention. I bought his book of poetry "Rose and I was not let down. There are several poems in "Rose" that I hold in high regards like " Persimmons," such as "From Blossoms," "Ash, Snow, or Moonlight," and "Early in the Morning," amongst others. Lee writes a lot about nature, fruit, his father, and coming to America from China and feeling like an outsider. Lee has a very artistic mind and is able to capture daily things and express it on paper in an imagery filled, non-traditionally detailed, lyrical way. He is one of my all time favorite poets and I would recommend "Rose," to everyone.

Li-Young Lee's poems are powerful, beautiful and speak to the humanity in all of us. I marvel at his command of language, the artists eye with which he sees the world, and his ability to share these with the reader. Writing about the mundane, such as his wife's hair or a bag of peaches, memories of his father, or reminisences of being an immigrant, in each poem is a work of art. I strongly recommend this collection of poetry, especially for those who who have read little (or none) poetry - these poems are simple, beautiful and striking - a magnificent collection.

li young lee has the most phenominal approach to poetry..he will have you riveted from page one...buy this book...