Mother and daughter sing like young girls.

If my father were alive, he would play

his accordion and sway like a boat.

I’ve never been in Peking, or the Summer Palace,

nor stood on the great Stone Boat to watch

the rain begin on Kuen Ming Lake, the picnickers

running away in the grass.

But I love to hear it sung;

how the waterlilies fill with rain until

they overturn, spilling water into water,

then rock back, and fill with more.

Both women have begun to cry.

But neither stops her song.

Your mother wouldn't approve of how my mother raised me
But I do, I think I do"

The importance of familial connection with immigrant families is astronomical. These relationships unite them in the face of adversity. Li Young Lee uses art and poetry to express these connections.

Poems of Marilyn Chin, Garrett Hongo,

Li-Young Lee, and David Mur