Li-Young Lee Visits as Eighth Westminster Poet

How and why he writes poetry were some of the subjects covered during poet Li-Young Lee’s two-day visit to Westminster School April 8 and 9 as the eighth Westminster Poet. His visit included an evening poetry reading for the entire Westminster community followed by meetings with students in their English classes the next morning.

Li-Young, the author of three critically acclaimed books of poetry, read a number of his poems in the Werner Centennial Center Wednesday evening and talked about the experiences that inspired them. He also explained how poetry uses both language and silence. “Sometimes the silence itself is the subject,” he emphasized.

Li-Young’s family and his life growing up have been frequent inspirations for his writing. He was born in Indonesia, of Chinese parents. His great grandfather was China’s first republican president and his father was the personal physician to Communist Party leader Mao Zedong.

When Li-Young Lee met with students in their English classes, he answered questions about what how he writes poetry, what he intends people to understand from his poems and why he focuses on certain subjects. Most of the students had spent the first two weeks of the spring trimester working their way through one of his books, either in class or as homework assignments. Many of the students had written about his poems and some had written poems of their own in his manner.

He told the students his favorite poets include Emily Dickinson, Wallace Stevens and Robert Frost, and that he likes to write poetry anytime and anywhere. “The minute I get up every morning, I am ready to write,” he said. “I see poems everywhere. I have been obsessed by hearing and writing poetry.”

When asked the best way to understand the meaning of poetry, Li-Young suggested to the students that they look to coincidence. “Every time you say a word, it means all of its interpretations. A poem is an instance of coincidence.”

English Department Head Michael Cervas was very pleased with the response of students to Li-Young’s poetry. “They learned, first, that difficult poetry can also be interesting and thought-provoking, that with effort and imagination a reader can ‘unpack’ poems that are dense with meaning,” he said. “They also learned to be open to different perspectives and different voices. They discovered more about the life of the imagination, both as it is revealed in the person and poetry of Li-Young Lee and as it emerges from their own minds and hearts.”

The very successful Westminster Poetry Series has included visits by several U.S. poets laureate, a Maryland State poet laureate, a Connecticut State poet laureate, and a number of Pulitzer Prize winners.

 “Li-Young Lee's visit was very successful, for us and for him,” added Michael. “We were worried a little that his poems might be too challenging for some of our students and that his reading might be too intellectual. And he was following a very high-energy visit by Naomi Shihab Nye. But he surprised us all and turned out to be funny and warm, as well as smart and articulate.”

Li-Young Lee's first book, “Rose,” won New York University’s 1986 Delmore Schwartz Memorial Poetry Award, his second book, “The City in Which I Love You,” was the Lamont Poetry Selection of The Academy of American Poets and his third collection, “Book of My Nights,” was awarded the 2002 William Carlos Williams Award by the Poetry Society of America. His fourth volume, “Behind My Eyes,” was released in January. Lee also won an American Book Award from the Before Columbus Foundation for his 1995 memoir “The Winged Seed: A Remembrance.”

Lee has studied at the University of Pittsburgh, the University of Arizona, and the State University of New York at Brockport and has taught at Northwestern and the University of Iowa. His many honors include a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, a Lannan Foundation Award, and a fellowship from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. He lives in Chicago with his wife, Donna, and their two sons.

His Westminster visit was made possible through support from the Ford-Goldfarb Fund, which was established by Trustee Maureen Ford-Goldfarb and her daughter Kirsten Ford ‘00 in 2005 to support English Department enrichment activities.