The Invention of the Darling: Poems - Paperback

by Li-Young Lee (Author)

"The poet of rapture and tenderness" (Major Jackson, American Poets), Li-Young Lee speaks these poems with the intimacy and primacy of a whisper, as if from a lover to a beloved, or a believer to God. Each poem in The Invention of the Darling is a mysterious conjunction of spirit and matter, movement and stillness, the divine and the mundane, the sacred and the forbidden. They yearn for holistic union with The Beloved, every sentence another name for The Beloved, every poem another way to say "I love you." Forged in awe of life and love, these poems emerge from the unlit depths of our earthly, material desires and our deepest fears of mortality.

Back Jacket

Praise for Li-Young Lee and Invention of the Darling

"Potent and mysterious.... [Li-Young Lee] pivots confidently among registers, speakers, and languages.... Countless gorgeous details provide, in poem after poem, distinct delights."
? Dan Chiasson, The New Yorker

"Few poets write like Li-Young Lee these days, facing the biggest and broadest questions head-on.... Fewer still ask these questions so well, and so movingly.... [U]tterly true poetry."
-- Craig Morgan Teicher, Los Angeles Times

"The poems emerge with their simplicity and complexity intact. In a word, they are heartfelt, without condescension. It's the triumph of sincerity over authenticity.... Lee's elegance transports us into the aspirations of yearning."
? David Biespiel, American Poetry Review

"[Li-Young Lee's work] ground[s] the mysteries of existence in the plain imagery of the everyday."
? Deborah Shapiro, Chicago Magazine

"Erotic.... Throughout this multilayered book, [Lee] challenges readers to think and to feel more deeply."
? Elizabeth Lund, Washington Post

"A heart-rending collection of poems that tackle love and violence with equal curiosity."
? Chicago Review of Books

"Delight[s] in revelations that are holy and intimate.... [Li-Young Lee's] wisdom situates itself in a fresh way."
? Derek JG Williams, Rumpus

"[Lee] presents breath-catching metaphysical equations in incantatory cadences that swing between earth and sky, flesh and holiness.... [An] exquisite, enthralling, and ringing call to wind, trees, sea, the beloved, and love, both human and sacred."
? Booklist, starred

"Immediate, sensual, unrelentingly intense."
? NPR