Behind My Eyes

by Li-Young Lee

Overview

“Lee’s lyrics have a tidal sweep as he moves between the universe within and the world without.” —Booklist, starred review

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780393334814
Publisher:	Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc.
Publication date:	07/06/2009
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	108
Sales rank:	244,361
Product dimensions:	6.08(w) x 9.04(h) x 0.30(d)

About the Author

Li-Young Lee’s verse has earned numerous honors, including a Lannan Literary Award, a Paterson Poetry Prize, and an American Book Award. Lee lives in Chicago.

Editorial Reviews

12/18/2017
In his sixth collection, Lee (Behind My Eyes) ponders what separates a poem’s words from the word of God or birdsong or a lover’s familiar voice. Lee’s father, a Presbyterian minister, influences the poet’s work and view of God: “Two fathers in one, I was their son,/ we three alive together/ in one space two at a time.” The lines can mystify as they illuminate, occasionally offering a glimpse into Lee’s childhood as the son of Chinese exiles. In a more personal poem, Lee likens his childhood to an open book: “the left-hand page begins: They hated us without a cause./ And the right-hand page ends:/ The fire had not harmed our bodies,/ nor was a hair of our heads singed.” In the long title poem that opens the collection, the speaker undresses his partner—though the moment is flirtatious and erotic, he doesn’t bother to confirm consent—as she entreats him to listen to her curious, urgent disclosures. The woman warns that “hunger vacant of love is a confusion.” Perhaps she feels a helplessness similar to that Lee feels when he writes of God’s mercurial manipulations: “Sometimes it feels like love./ And makes me tremble./ Sometimes it hurts like death./ And makes me shake.” This is a fine collection, though the title poem may disturb readers. (Feb.)

Publishers Weekly

The conversations in Behind My Eyes beautifully speak the mind’s inquiring rhythms.”

Harvard Review

Luminous, deceptively simple poems.

Times Union

Accessible, enigmatic, melodic, humorous . . . profound.

Cleveland Plain Dealer