Honestly, I expected to like this a lot more than I actually did. Some of the poems are amazing, but the majority of them felt cliche and a bit drab. Maybe I'll reread this later and see if I change my mind. ( )

if i hear another poet use a rose as a symbol i will symbolically vomit. way too sentimental for me. ( )

This is Lee's first collection of poetry, which won the New York University's 1986 Delmore Schwartz Memorial Poetry Award. The poems are delicate and beautiful, yet powerful and deeply emotional, and use imagery to describe the love he has for his parents and his wife. A representative example is The Gift:

The Gift

To pull the metal splinter from my palm
my father recited a story in a low voice.
I watched his lovely face and not the blade.
Before the story ended, he'd removed
the iron sliver I thought I'd die from.

I can't remember the tale,
but I hear his voice still, a well
of dark water, a prayer.
And I recall his hands,
two measures of tenderness
he laid against my face,
the flames of discipline
he raised above my head.

Had you entered that afternoon
you would have thought you saw a man
planting something in a boy's palm,
a silver tear, a tiny flame.
Had you followed that boy
you would have arrived here,
where I bend over my wife's right hand.

Look how I shave her thumbnail down
so carefully she feels no pain.
Watch as I lift the splinter out.
I was seven when my father
took my hand like this,
and I did not hold that shard
between my fingers and think,
Metal that will bury me,
christen it Little Assassin,
Ore Going Deep for My Heart.
And I did not lift up my wound and cry,
Death visited here!
I did what a child does
when he's given something to keep.
I kissed my father.

Highly recommended. ( )

Two of my favorite poems reside in this book. The Gift and From Blossoms. But to be truthful, almost any poem from this book is beautiful and thought provoking. In my mind, this is Li-Young Lee's best (that I've read!). Get it! ( )

All of Li-Young Lee's poetry is wonderful. I think Lee has developed even more in subsequent books. ( )