July 23rd, 2008
Writer’s Edge Faculty Reading | The collective literary fringe new and now.0 comments
July 16th, 2008
COMIC BOOK TATTOO, Various Artists | The Portland/Tori Amos/Sandman connection revealed.0 comments
July 9th, 2008
David Wroblewski, The Story of Edgar Sawtelle | It’s like Hamlet, but with puppies.2 comments
July 2nd, 2008
While They Slept, Kathryn Harrison | A triple murder hits close to home.1 comment
June 25th, 2008
Andre Dubus III, The Garden Of Last Days | A stripper, a big tipper and two towers.0 comments
June 18th, 2008
Sasa Stanisic, How The Soldier Repairs The Gramophone | What kids talk about when they talk about war.2 comments
June 18th, 2008
Joseph O’Neill Netherland | A new novel set in post-9/11 New York simply isn’t cricket (it’s Seinfeld).0 comments
June 11th, 2008
Betty Roberts, With Grit And By Grace | A woman on top, for all the right reasons.0 comments
June 4th, 2008
Tim Weiner, Legacy of Ashes | Finally, some valuable intelligence on the agency that was supposed to have provided it for us.0 comments
May 28th, 2008
Brendan Mullen, Live At The Masque | The burn-hot, burn-fast punk life, while it lasted.0 comments
 Li-Young Lee IMAGE: donna lee |
[February 20th, 2008]
It is my impression, based more on gut feeling than evidence, that the majority of contemporary poets are more concerned with the way their poems sound read aloud than the way they look on the page. There are plenty of exceptions (Portland’s own David Biespiel, for one), but, in the age-old debate over whether poetry is, in essence, a literary art or performative one, the performers seem to have the upper hand.
Chicago poet Li-Young Lee, whose first new collection in seven years, Behind My Eyes (Norton, 106 pages, $24.95), came out in January, falls squarely into the latter camp. His poems, composed of simple, unembellished lines, look like nothing special on the page. He rarely dabbles in form, and never indulges in irregular punctuation.
But to hear him read is a revelation. Lee steps carefully through his lines, weighing each phrase before letting it leave his lips, slowly building momentum but never rushing or droning on and letting himself get bored the way Robert Pinsky does. His baritone voice is soothing, but not soporific. His pronunciation is consciously precise (Lee, born to Chinese parents in Indonesia, learned English in elementary school), but never sharp-edged.
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Lee’s publisher has realized that his reading has a special something, and Behind My Eyes comes with a CD of the author reading 22 of the poems printed in the book. It’s a genius idea, and one other publishers would do well to imitate. Keeping Lee’s cadence and tone in mind makes for a much more pleasurable reading experience, in the same way that Yeats is infinitely better once you’ve heard him read “Lake Isle of Innisfree.”
The predominant theme of Behind My Eyes is a sense of isolation—that of the immigrant as well as the more benign sort that can grow within close relationships. Along with a series of poems about coming to America as a refugee, Lee conjures up a child stuck in an apple tree, an empty house, an unmade bed. In “Virtues of the Boring Husband,” he writes, “Whenever I talk, my wife falls asleep.” But to hear Lee read is anything but isolating. He’s right there, and he wants you to understand.
Immigrant Blues
Download audio file (07___Immigrant_Blues.mp3)
Have You Prayed?
Glad to hear it! Although I couldn't make it last night, I did attend a Lee reading in college. It was excellent.
I saw Li-Young Lee last night at the Newmark and am really glad I did. He spoke of the "dying breath" in reading poetry out loud, and his explanantion has stayed with me ever since.
The 1st poetry book I bought that had a CD was Viggo Mortenson's. A lovely book of poetry and photography printed by Perceval Press (which I think he is founder of.)
While I value written words, hearing the author speak their poetry as s/he intended gives new tints of color to it all. Well worth it.