This week's poem is by Li-Young Lee, who is of Chinese ancestry but was born in Indonesia. He and his family emigrated to the U.S. when he was a young boy. You can read about his family's experiences and Lee's career here.
One Heart
by Li-Young Lee
Look at the birds. Even flying
is born
out of nothing. The first sky
is inside you, open
at either end of day.
The work of wings
was always freedom, fastening
one heart to every falling thing.
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"As soon as we express something, we devalue it strangely. We believe ourselves to have dived down into the depths of the abyss, and when we once again reach the surface, the drops of water on our pale fingertips no longer resemble the ocean from which they came...Nevertheless, the treasure shimmers in the darkness unchanged." ---Franz Kafka
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