{"id":419,"date":"2017-03-09T18:53:15","date_gmt":"2017-03-10T02:53:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theprovinceofjoy.com\/?p=419"},"modified":"2017-03-09T18:53:15","modified_gmt":"2017-03-10T02:53:15","slug":"the-weepers-by-li-young-lee","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theprovinceofjoy.com\/?p=419","title":{"rendered":"“The Weepers” by Li-Young Lee"},"content":{"rendered":"
 Were it not for the rain\r\n beginning, big drops slapping\r\n the gravestones, then spreading\r\n like wounds, or smacking\r\n the leaves overhead, first\r\n one, then another, until\r\n I stand beneath a chorus of mumbling\r\n and leaves trembling \u2014 thus the rain\r\n marks its passage through time, steadily\r\n darkening what it touches,\r\n and makes indistinguishable the moments\r\n by narration in a monotonous voice \u2014\r\n were it not for the rain I\u2019d stay.\r\n\r\nI\u2019d lean against this tree, and admire the beauty\r\n of the weeping girls, the marble\r\n twins who kneel together above a grave,\r\n their white backs bent\r\n in grief, their draped clothing conforming\r\n here and there to the curve\r\n of a breast, a hip, a thigh, while live\r\n roses lie in their laps.\r\n\r\n There have been times when I\r\n was the one on the left,\r\n hands folded between her knees,\r\n withdrawn, almost inconsolable,\r\n and times I was the other,\r\n who embraces her sister, kisses her\r\n on the round shoulder.\r\n At any time, both\r\n live in me\r\n like sister branches of one tree,\r\n\r\n the comforter and the comforted.\r\n I am the father who comforts\r\n his son, and I am the son\r\n who returns in later years to give succor\r\n to his father. I am the one\r\n who walks among the dead,\r\n and the one who waits\r\n at home with warm bread and milk,\r\n the way, I know, someone waits for me.\r\n\r\n I recall an afternoon\r\n we lay together, she\r\n curled sideways and atop me, my body\r\n cradling hers, which had been growing\r\n round with our second son.\r\n Lying that way,\r\n her full hip fit\r\n so perfectly\r\n between my hip bones,\r\n and with a gravity not unlike desire,\r\n it conjured sadness\r\n in my loins, almost pity.\r\n\r\n O weepers, stone\r\n girls weeping stone tears,\r\n will you never recover?\r\n Were it not for the rain, I\u2019d linger\r\n and maybe I\u2019d weep.\r\n But I\u2019ll do neither today, while someone\r\n waits for me, and the rain\r\n touches me, touches us\r\n over and over, changes each of us,\r\n shoulders and lips, roses and stones,\r\n my love and the world,\r\n all things which fit well.\r\n\r\nfrom Rose<\/em>. Published by BOA Editions. Copyright \u00a9 1993 by Li-Young Lee.<\/span><\/pre>\n
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This is a poem from Lee’s collection Rose<\/em>, which he published after the death of his father. Many of my favorites of his are bound in this book!\u00a0 If you like him, read “Dreaming of Hair,” which can be found embedded in this post on my blog<\/a>.<\/p>\n
What in this poem speaks to you?\u00a0 The statue? The one waiting for him? What about the rain that changes all things?\u00a0 All things which fit well?<\/em><\/p>\n
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Were it not for the rain beginning, big drops slapping the gravestones, then spreading like wounds, or smacking the leaves overhead, first one, then another, until I stand beneath a chorus of mumbling and leaves trembling \u2014 thus the rain marks its passage through time, steadily darkening what it touches, and makes indistinguishable the moments … Continue reading “The Weepers” by Li-Young Lee<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40,3,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-419","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-poems-for-contemplation","category-prayer","category-spirituality"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theprovinceofjoy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theprovinceofjoy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theprovinceofjoy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theprovinceofjoy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theprovinceofjoy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=419"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/theprovinceofjoy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":421,"href":"https:\/\/theprovinceofjoy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419\/revisions\/421"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theprovinceofjoy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=419"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theprovinceofjoy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=419"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theprovinceofjoy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=419"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}