Sunday, August 13, 2023 “Asterism” by Ae Hee Lee
Today too, the sky arches
in faithful trajectory and
even when there’s no eye
to keep it company, it unfurls
stars for the season.
Tonight, my wonder is a needle
without a thread,
it embroiders with the missing
links between a satellite’s silver, the dying
edges of a sore, an oxtail bone
I once nibbled clean,
my grandmother’s braids
turned tinsel after two wars,
words, aluminum, allure,
alumbrar, aludir—Yesterday’s cloud
might become shadowed
with rain over some stranger
I will meet another day
and the sheen over red
pomegranate seeds
on my sister’s hand warbles
white like the sea
between us.
I have many questions
I leave unresolved for tomorrow
and tomorrow: every star
periphery and center,
part lyre, part storied lover,
not a single thing untethered.
About the Poet
Ae Hee Lee is Just Buffalo Literary Center’s 2023 Poetry Fellow and will be in residence in Buffalo for the month of August.
Born in South Korea and raised in Peru, her debut poetry collection ASTERISM was selected by John Murillo for the 2022 Dorset Prize and is forthcoming from Tupelo Press. She is the author of poetry chapbooks: Bedtime || Riverbed (Compound Press 2017), Dear bear, (Platypus Press 2021), and Connotary (Frost Place Chapbook Competition Winner – Bull City Press 2021).
Ae Hee is a recipient of a James Olney Award by The Southern Review, Adroit Journal Gregory Djanikian Scholar in Poetry, and is a Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Fellowship finalist. She has also received scholarships and awards from the Academy of American Poets, AWP, Bread Loaf, the Palm Beach Poetry Festival, and Gasher Journal, among others.
Related Event
- Ae Hee Lee will join poet Roger Reeves, along with a musical performance by singer-songwriter Katie Bejsiuk, and an installation by photographer and wheatpaste artist Max Collins at the next Just Buffalo Literary Center Silo City Reading Series event from 7 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 26 at Silo City (Marine A), 85 Silo City Row in Buffalo. Doors at 7:00 p.m. Reading begins at 7:30 p.m. Books of the featured poets are available for purchase from Fitz Books online and at the event.
The Poem of the Week feature is curated by literary legacy awardee R.D. Pohl.