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The American poet Li-Young Lee's (b. 1957) short collection of poetry, "The Undressing" combines meditations on the broad nature of reality and God with its expression in human love and sexuality. The poems often are autobiographical and describe Lee's early life as a refuge to America fleeing brutality in his native country. This collection includes many movingly lyrical, thoughtful works and passages together with some works that are less effective.
The book consists of four parts with the first part consisting of the lengthy title poem and the fourth part consisting of another long poem, "Changing Places in the Fire". Both these poems consist of a dialogue between the poet and another speaker. In the first the poet is undressing his beloved and speaking of sex while the woman returns his ardor with reflections on the spiritual character of love. The latter poem raises similar themes but also, as the poet talks with a woman-like bird, involves themes of the nature and value of poetry and of the word against its detractors. There is much beautiful language and thought in these poems together with a degree of didacticism.
On the whole the second and third sections of the book which include shorter more focused poetry are more effective. Although it is difficult to be abstract in poetry, Lee is at his best when he expresses strong religious feelings about Eternity and timelessness. He is able to share broad reflection on the mystery of life and being. Among the metaphysical poems, I most enjoyed "God is Burning", "Three Words" and "His Likeness" from part 3 of the book. In "His Likeness", the poet describes the elusive character of what we conceive as reality and concludes:
"God's love. Exhausted.
God slips me unfinished
under God's pillow.
I sleep as long as God sleeps.
And time is a black butterfly, pinned
While someone searches for its name in a book."
Many of the poems use metaphors involving birds and the power of song as a key to approaching reality. The poems with these themes that I enjoyed include "Spoken For" ("I didn't know I was blue/until I heard her sing.") ; "The Word From His Song" ("God seeks a destiny in all things fixed/in the kiln of the mind. / That's the word from his song".) , and "All About the Birds".
Among the best of the love poems in the book, is the final work in the collection, "Sandalwood".
I enjoyed getting to know the poetry of Li-Young Lee though this collection and hope to have the opportunity to explore his work further.
