Early in the Morning | A Poem by Li-Young Lee

April 27 - Here's a poem for you for National Poetry Month: "Early in the Morning" by Li-Young Lee from "Rose."

This is a fantastic collection of poems from Li-Young Lee, one of my favorites—highly recommended. This collection is great if you’re new to poetry because much of the imagery in the poems reflects daily life: family, lovers, persimmons, hair combs, birds…and yet the syntax and diction are completely unique and bring these images into a new light.

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Early in the Morning

A poem by Li-Young Lee from his collection “Rose”

While the long grain is softening
in the water, gurgling
over a low stove flame, before
the salted Winter Vegetable is sliced
for breakfast, before the birds,
my mother glides an ivory comb
through her hair, heavy
and black as calligrapher’s ink.

She sits at the foot of the bed.
My father watches, listens for
the music of comb
against hair.

My mother combs,
pulls her hair back
tight, rolls it
around two fingers, pins it
in a bun to the back of her head.
For half a hundred years she has done this.
My father likes to see it like this.
He says it is kempt.

But I know
it is because of the way
my mother’s hair falls
when he pulls the pins out.
Easily, like the curtains
when they untie them in the evening.