Li-Young Lee

KQED Radio over the weekend played a program called Sacred and Profane including Al Green. I enjoyed that part, but Li-Young Lee's poetry, as always, moved me nearly to tears. He read a poem about how, when he speaks, his wife falls asleep. I believe the reader is supposed to initially think she is bored by him. But I never thought that. The poem went on to describe how he speaks to her when she has insomnia and it calms her. He loves her so much that his ego doesn't get caught up on the calmness he brings to her. He is clearly brilliant with words, but she is moved more deeply, subconsciously, by his presence. I'm also an insomniac who can sometimes only fall sleep in the arms of someone I love; I found it so refreshing to hear described in loving words the other side of that.