Book of My Nights

As a previous reviewer noted, the tone of this collection of poems is much more somber than his previous work. Li Young Lee continues to demonstrate his masterful way with words, but the feeling is serious and meditative rather than celebratory as it was in _Rose_. While I enjoyed his poetry immensely (particularly "My Father's House"), I much preferred the lighter, more joyful _Rose._

Pick up this book and prepare to revel in several readings of it. Li-young Lee is a poet of profound force not so concerned with the effect of a poem as with its "center" as he would call it. In his past collections he has dealt with the theme of the literal father--knowing and finding him in the present self, and most of all, remembering him--and with the more mythical/religious father. It is this more abstract father that Lee looks to more and more especially in this, his third collection of verse. He asks questions of himself, the father, his family and the world at large in his poetry as when in "Hurry toward Beginning" his closing lines quietly ask, "The fruit of listening, what's that?" His poetry seems to have listened to all of our most secret needs for centuries. Lee also seeks memory's essence perhaps putting forth that in the act of remembering and writing it down we inevitably must refigure it somehow. It is the spirit that connects us, "sown in the air, realized in a body uttering/windows, growing rafters, couching seeds." Lee also sees the body, perhaps the poet too, as a vessel for all memory. Though doubt weighs in greatly throughout _Book of My Nights_ Li-young Lee comes to some new understanding and awareness of the self not as apparent in his earlier works. The last poem in the book is titled "Out of Hiding," and in many of the other poems we follow Lee on his journey to reconcile the divided sides of the self to reach, "that ancient sorrow between his hips,/his body's ripe listening/the planet knowing itself at last." Li-young Lee's _Book of My Nights_ are essentials for anyone concerned with the art of memory, the spirit that poetry can embody and around which it must revolve, and the fruits of one poet's productive insomnia.

While we may never feel the rush we felt discovering Lee in _Rose_, _Book of My Nights_ is easily his second best book, surpassing the imagery and emotional depth of _The City in Which I Love You_. Of course, you'd have to be crazy not to own all three! If you've never read Lee and are considering picking up this book, by all means do so. This is heart/gut wrenching poetry at its original best. This is poetry which makes poets think, "I wish I wrote that".

Li-Young Lee's latest collection once again shows what a phenomenal poet he is. While not quite as good as his first collection, _Rose_ (which is one of the better first books i've seen), it comes close. Lee has a lyricism and depth that continues to raise the bar for contemporary poets. The central theme of the mythic-hero father that was in Lee's first collection does not dominate this latest collection. Instead, we have poems that try to understand origins from both the father and the mother. _Book of My Nights_ is another poetry collection that deserves to be on your shelf.