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From blossoms comes this brown paper bag of peaches we bought from the boy at the bend in the road where we turned toward signs painted Peaches. From laden boughs, from hands, from sweet fellowship in the bins, comes nectar at the roadside, succulent peaches we devour, dusty skin and all, comes the familiar dust of summer, dust we eat. O, to take what we love inside, to carry within us an orchard, to eat not only the skin, but the shade, not only the sugar, but the days, to hold the fruit in our hands, adore it, then bite into the round jubilance of peach. There are days we live as if death were nowhere in the background; from joy to joy to joy, from wing to wing, from blossom to blossom to impossible blossom, to sweet impossible blossom.
John Mayer- The Heart Of Life
Critical Analysis
by Li-Young Lee
From Blossoms
Analysis
Happiness comes in all forms. Life is sweet and juicy yet dusty and dry, yet we still have to appreciate it because it's succulent, divine, and worthwhile. Live life as it is and now how it should be, live as if it were your very last day. You can't freeze time, so make your life worthwhile.
Commenting of the scope of Lee's work, reviewer Zhou Xiaojing, writing in MELUS, stated, "both Lee's identity re-creation and his poetic innovation are overlooked by critics who attempt to explain his poetry by emphasizing his Chinese ethnicity." MELUS reviewer Mary Slowik noted that Lee writes "out of an oral tradition which is essentially dialogic in nature. Thus [his] poems are not dramatic monologues or first-person confessions. Nor are they documentaries or exposs. Rather, [his] poetry is based on the give-and-take of conversation. They embody intimate revelations made between family members through letter and prayer, through a family's story-telling and religious ritual. The poems revere these connections and are not intended to destroy them." Slowik concluded: "Li-Young Lee's poetry . . . attests to a faith in the continuity of language, particularly as it enacts a dialogue across generations."
