The Gift by Li-Young Lee- Poem for the Twenty-Third Sunday after Pentecost, Year A
The Englewood Review of Books curates a weekly series of classic and contemporary poems that resonate with the themes of the lectionary readings. Here is one of the poems for this coming Sunday (More poems for Twenty-Third Sunday after Pentecost, Year A can be found here)
This poem was selected to accompany one of the
lectionary readings for the coming week, 1 Thessalonians 2:9-13
The Gift
Li-Young Lee
SNIPPET:
To pull the metal splinter from my palm
my father recited a story in a low voice.
I watched his lovely face and not the blade.
Before the story ended, he’d removed
the iron sliver I thought I’d die from.
…
Li-Young Lee (b. 1957) is an American poet, who was born in Jakarta, Indonesia, to Chinese parents. In 1959 the Lee family fled Indonesia to escape widespread anti-Chinese sentiment and after a five-year trek through Hong Kong and Japan, they settled in the United States in 1964. Many of Lee's poems are filled with themes of simplicity, strength, and silence. All are strongly influenced by his family history, childhood, and individuality. (via Wikipedia).