Poetry came to Lee at the University of Pittsburgh. Although his father read to him throughout this childhood, writing and poetry was not Lee’s passion until he went off the university. He was influenced by Chinese poets like Li Bai and Du Fu. His writing mostly includes themes of simplicity, strength, and silence. His simple writing allows for readers to fill in the blanks and use their imaginations to create a world of their own. The themes of exile and boldness are also included in most of his poems as Lee uses personal experience to question the realities of the universe. 

Lee’s debut collection was Rose (1986). It caught the attention of American poet, Gerald Stern, who commented that he was “amazed by the large vision, the deep seriousness and the almost heroic ideal” of Lee’s poetry. This collection won the Delmore Schwartz Memorial Poetry Award from New York University. His next collection, The City in Which I Love You (1990) won the Laughlin Award. The collection The Winged Seed: A Remembrance (1995) talks about Lee’s past. He traces his journey from Indonesia to America and talks about his childhood memories and his father. His third book, Book of My Nights (2001) talks less of his family and childhood memories. Instead, it’s focus is on his own person and inwardly thoughts and introspection.

Lee has won many awards and written many collections of poems that each have won numerous titles. He now lives in Chicago, Illinois with his wife and two sons.  

Sources:
https://poets.org/poet/li-young-lee
https://www.poemhunter.com/li-young-lee/biography/
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/li-young-lee

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.

Li-Young Lee (1986)

The singing allows Lee to travel to the places that he’s never been to. In the second stanza, he lists a few places that he hears in the songs. He sees the “picnickers running away [from the rain] in the grass” (7-8) at the Kuen Ming Lake. The vivid imagery helps establish how innocent and how regular the people are in the song. It really helps to create a beautiful sense of what is happening right now on the lake, even if they are characters created for a song.  

The third stanza continues to talk about the rainy day at the Kuen Ming Lake. The waterlilies have filled with rain until they flip and “[spill] water into water, then rock back, and fill with more” (11-12). I feel like this part of the poem shifts from the happier memories of Lee and his family singing about the lake to something much sadder. The state of which water is spilling into water makes it feel like Lee’s mother and grandmother’s singing about their homeland is just spilling away into nothingness. 

The last two lines of the poem hit the hardest. The women have “begun to cry, but neither stops her song” (13-14). The memories for the grandmother and mother have caught up to them. They realize that they cannot return to their homeland for whatever reason, and the speaker catches that emotion because the women don’t stop singing. To the women, singing a song about their homeland is bittersweet. They left that land for a reason, and all that’s left for them is the good memories they have about home.  

As a first generation Asian American, this poem hits home. Just like the speaker, I was raised on stories about China, but I was never able to go there and experience it myself. I’m a foreigner in that country, and I only vacation there. This poem is a reflection for all first generation immigrants to be proud of their culture and to be thankful for their parents. 

The food described in the poem is very specific. There are “slivers of ginger, two sprigs of green onion, and sesame oil” (2-3). The imagery helps establish a setting of where the speaker is, who he is with, and what he will be doing with his family later on. This vivid imagery is a powerful representation of a family getting together for lunch. Lee uses “shall” to institute how the family is getting together. The family getting together and eating fruitful food is a very familiar aspect of Lee’s life. 

The poem is very reminiscent about the moments that Lee’s family could eat together as he can never get them back now, as revealed later of the death of his father. The way that his mother holds food “between her fingers deftly” (7-8) reminds him of his father who isn’t there with them. For the first time, he and his family are eating together without an important person in the family. The poem then shifts its focus from food to Lee’s father. Lee lays his father “down to sleep like a snow-covered road” (9-10). This is a clear indicator that Lee’s father has died not a long time ago and that his body has been lowered to the ground. The simile “like a snow-covered road” establishes the imagery that his burial was peaceful and serene, well, as serene as a funeral can be. It shows that his father has finally found peace. Not only that, but the last few lines of the poem shows the immense love that Lee has for his father. It ties back to the beginning of the poem where he and his family are eating together. Food is a very important symbol in this poem. It’s around food that Lee and his family bonded and it’s around food where the love for his family, and for his father is established.