Book of My Nights
Page 4
I am indebted to Ilya Kaminsky, Philip Levine, and Gerald Stern for suffering this book at various stages, to Thom Ward, editor at BOA Editions, for his close reading and untiring support of this work, and to Anthony Piccione for his relentless insistence on Being-in-the-Word. And to all of my family for keeping the circle whole.
About the Author
Li-Young Lee is the author of two previous books of poems, Rose (BOA Editions) and The City in Which I Love You (BOA Editions), and a book-length prose poem, The Winged Seed (Simon and Schuster, cloth; Ruminator Books, paperback). He has been the recipient of many literary awards, most recently The Lannan Foundation Literary Award, The American Book Award of the Before Columbus Foundation, and The PEN Oakland/Josephine Miles Award. He lives with his wife and two sons in Chicago, where he works in a warehouse.
BOA Editions, LTD.:
American Poets Continuum Series
No. 1
The Führer Bunker: A Cycle of Poems in Progress
W.D. Snodgrass
No. 2
She
M.L. Rosenthal
No. 3
Living With Distance
Ralph J. Mills, Jr.
No. 4
No. Just Any Death
Michael Waters
No. 5
That Was Then: New and Selected Poems
Isabella Gardner
No. 6
Things That Happen Where There Aren’t Any People
William Stafford
No. 7
The Bridge of Change: Poems 1974–1980
John Logan
No. 8
Signatures
Joseph Stroud
No. 9
People Live Here: Selected Poems 1949–1983
Louis Simpson
No. 10
Yin
Carolyn Kizer
No. 11
Duhamel: Ideas of Order in Little Canada
Bill Tremblay
No. 12
Seeing It Was So
Anthony Piccione
No. 13
Hyam Plutzik: The Collected Poems
No. 14
Good Woman: Poems and a Memoir 1969–1980
Lucille Clifton
No. 15
Next: New Poems
Lucille Clifton
No. 16
Roxa: Voices of Culver Family
William B. Patrick
No. 17
John Logan: The Collected Poems
No. 18
Isabella Gardner: The Collected Poems
No. 19
The Sunken Lightship
Peter Makuck
No. 20
The City in Which I Love You
Li-Young Lee
No. 21
Quilting: Poems 1987–1990
Lucille Clifton
No. 22
John Logan: The Collected Fiction
No. 23
Shenandoah and Other Verse Plays
Delmore Schwartz
No. 24
Nobody Lives on Arthur Godfrey Boulevard
Gerald Costanzo
No. 25
The Book of Names: New and Selected Poems
Barton Sutter
No. 26
Each in His Season
W.D. Snodgrass
No. 27
Wordworks: Poems Selected and New
Richard Kostelanetz
No. 28
What We Carry
Dorianne Laux
No. 29
Red Suitcase
Naomi Shihab Nye
No. 30
Song
Brigit Pegeen Kelly
No. 31
The Fuhrer Bunker: The Complete Cycle
W.D. Snodgrass
No. 32
For the Kingdom
Anthony Piccione
No. 33
The Quicken Tree
Bill Knott
No. 34
These Upraised Hands
William B. Patrick
No. 35
Crazy Horse in Stillness
William Heyen
No. 36
Quick, Now, Always
Mark Irwin
No. 37
I Have Tasted the Apple
Mary Crow
No. 38
The Terrible Stories
Lucille Clifton
No. 39
The Heat of Arrivals
Ray Gonzalez
No. 40
Jimmy & Rita
Kim Addonizio
No. 41
Green Ash, Red Maple, Black Gum
Michael Waters
No. 42
Against Distance
Peter Makuck
No. 43
The Night Path
Laurie Kutchins
No. 44
Radiography
Bruce Bond
No. 45
At My Ease: Uncollected Poems of the Fifties and Sixties
David Ignatow
No. 46
Trillium
Richard Foerster
No. 47
Fuel
Naomi Shihab Nye
No. 48
Gratitude
Sam Hamill
No. 49
Diana, Charles, & the Queen
William Heyen
No. 50
Plus Shipping
Bob Hicok
No. 51
Cabato Sentora
Ray Gonzalez
No. 52
We Didn’t Come Here for This
William B. Patrick Introduction by Fred Chappell
No. 53
The Vandals
Alan Michael Parker
No. 54
To Get Here
Wendy Mnookin
No. 55
Living Is What I Wanted: Last Poems
David Ignatow
No. 56
Dusty Angel
Michael Blumenthal
No. 57
The Tiger Iris
Joan Swift
No. 58
White City
Mark Irwin
No. 59
Laugh at the End of the World: Collected Comic Poems 1969–1999
Bill Knott
No. 60
Blessing the Boats: New and Selected Poems: 1988–2000
Lucille Clifton
No. 61
Tell Me
Kim Addonizio
No. 62
Smoke
Dorianne Laux
No. 63
Parthenopi: New and Selected Poems
Michael Waters
No. 64
Rancho Notorious
Richard Garcia
No. 65
Jam
Joe-Anne McLaughlin Introduction by Stephen Dunn
No. 66
A. Poulin, Jr. Selected Poems
Edited with an Introduction by Michael Waters
No. 67
Small Gods of Grief
Laure-Anne Bosselaar
No. 68
Book of My Nights
Li-Young Lee
COLOPHON
The publication of this book was made possible, in part, by the special support of the following individuals:
Pam & John Blanpied, Nancy & Alan Cameros
Sybil Craig, Dr. William & Shirley Ann Crosby
Peter & Suzanne Durant, Susan & Michael Feinstein
Dane & Judy Gordon, Richard Garth & Mimi Hwang
Deb & Kip Hale, Peter & Robin Hursh
Robert & Willy Hursh, Meg Kearney
Archie & Pat Kutz, Rosemary & Lew Lloyd
Peter & Phyllis Makuck, Suzanne D. Nelson
Kalliopy Paleos, Boo Poulin, Deborah Ronnen
Bernie & Jane Schuster, Pat & Michael Wilder
Geraldine Zetzel
Book of My Nights was set in Minion, with interior design and composition by Valerie Brewster, Scribe Typography, Port Townsend, WA.
The cover was designed by
Daphne Poulin-Stofer.
The art, Ambiguity’s Child, is by Stephen Carpenter, courtesy of the artist.
Manufacturing was by McNaughton & Gunn, Saline, MI.