Li-Young Lee - From Blossoms
Ivan M. Granger June 19th, 2009
From Blossoms
by Li-Young Lee
From blossoms comes
this brown paper bag of peaches
we bought from the boy
at the bend in the road where we turned toward
signs painted Peaches.
From laden boughs, from hands,
from sweet fellowship in the bins,
comes nectar at the roadside, succulent
peaches we devour, dusty skin and all,
comes the familiar dust of summer, dust we eat.
O, to take what we love inside,
to carry within us an orchard, to eat
not only the skin, but the shade,
not only the sugar, but the days, to hold
the fruit in our hands, adore it, then bite into
the round jubilance of peach.
There are days we live
as if death were nowhere
in the background; from joy
to joy to joy, from wing to wing,
from blossom to blossom to
impossible blossom, to sweet impossible blossom.
— from Rose, by Li-Young Lee
/ Photo by ellievanhoutte /
The slow, circling dance of the year… and this weekend is the summer solstice, the day we catch the sun’s most brilliant smile.
A day of light. A day of fullness. A day of ripeness… and of sweet peaches still dusty from the orchard.
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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.
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Summer Solstice
The Light overcomes night
igniting fire…
Solstice Blessings everybody!
A prayer calls
Another tear falls
Love becomes the answer.
Much Love
Jim Atwell