Li-Young Lee - Out of Hiding
Ivan M. Granger April 27th, 2009
Out of Hiding
by Li-Young Lee
Someone said my name in the garden,
while I grew smaller
in the spreading shadow of the peonies,
grew larger by my absence to another,
grew older among the ants, ancient
under the opening heads of the flowers,
new to myself, and stranger.
When I heard my name again, it sounded far,
like the name of the child next door,
or a favorite cousin visiting for the summer,
while the quiet seemed my true name,
a near and inaudible singing
born of hidden ground.
Quiet to quiet, I called back.
And the birds declared my whereabouts all morning.
— from Book of My Nights, by Li-Young Lee
/ Photo by popofatticus /
It’s been too long since we last had a poem by Li-Young Lee.
Someone said my name in the garden,
while I grew smaller
in the spreading shadow of the peonies,
grew larger by my absence to another,
grew older among the ants, ancient
A child’s game of hide-and-seek becomes a moment of magical awareness, of silence, of self-discovery.
under the opening heads of the flowers,
new to myself, and stranger.
That game of secret places and stillness, becomes the opportunity mystics of the great traditions seek–
while the quiet seemed my true name,
–the opportunity to disappear and, at the same time, to become profoundly yourself.
The poems title “Out of Hiding” hints at one other truth: Through this kind of hiding, we actually come out of hiding. It is a form of disappearing that fundamentally reveals us to the world.
Quiet to quiet, I called back.
And the birds declared my whereabouts all morning.
|
Li-Young Lee
US (1957 - ) |
Li-Young Lee has a fascinating family history. Lee’s maternal grandfather was the first president of the Republic of China. His father, however, came from a family of businessmen and gangsters. During the Chinese Civil War, Lee’s father was attached to a nationalist general who switched sides, which resulted in Dr. Lee becoming the personal physician to Mao Tse-tung for a brief time.
Li-Young Lee was born after the war when his family had moved to Indonesia. While Lee was still a toddler, his father was jailed for political reasons for nearly two years. When he was eventually released, the family moved about for a while. In Hong Kong Lee’s father became a hugely successful evangelical preacher and businessman.
Lee’s father was an emotional man and, after an argument, he dropped everything and left with his family, finally settling in the United States, where Dr. Lee became the minister of a small church in Pennsylvania.
Li-Young Lee grew up in the US and studied at the University of Pittsburgh. He currently lives in Chicago.
Subscribe (
Li-Young Lee is my absolute favorite poet; his depth, his metaphors are unique. I didn’t know he studied at the University of Pittsburgh. Now we have something in common..
Caroline.
Am reading him for the first time. I really appreciate the play of meanings from the title to the text. The depth is echoed in its simplicity. The underlying secrets that lay beneath our innocence is captured here.
I keep coming back to this one line and ruminating on it:
that I- “grew larger by my absence to another,”
Don’t we all really???
Grow really really big in absence.
In proportion (or maybe more) to how much the absence is felt!!!
Love this poem….and love the idea of coming out of hiding. Thank you!
[…] To see what Lilia Pilia says about Li-Young Lee click here, and what Ivan Granger has to say here. […]