Whorled

Of Ed Bok Lee's second collection, Dobby Gibson notes that there are very few poets who with "with a lens this wide, this gracefully[.]" Indeed, Lee's poetry is, as Gibson says, "rich with destinations" and strives to span worldviews and multiple forms of consciousness. In "Sand Camouflage Energy" Lee writes

Or religion maybe this: we all slide

back down our shadows of birth

in the enemy's uniform

And it matters only

on eternity's hot wave

you kissed the grenade back


and never why

or where


Buddhist, Christian, Muslim, etc.,

in whatever sector of the soul tonight

you re-light the body's need

to glow

The work in this collection, written in an array of poetic styles, is concerned with making sense of a global world and the shifting political, social, and cultural identities within it.


This book review originally appeared in American Poets.