identity papers
Jeffrey Ethan Lee
$14.95
Purchase this title from SPD
For poem samples and audio files, see identitypapers.org
About this title
Poetry. Asian American Studies. In the aftermath of a random act of violence, Lee has “found it necessary to create new forms of language that were as visceral as they were lyrical, as brutal as they were intellectual”–from the Author’s Preface. At once dramatist, poet, and storyteller, Lee explores the bewilderment of the modern world and consciousness. The poem’s speaker is seriously hurt, yet passersby ignore him, and the police mistake him for the perpetrator. In this circumstance, Lee “shows what it means to assert ones identity, to live with and be close to others while remaining true to oneself–a heroic undertaking for any writer in this day”-Thaddeus Rutkowski. The title poem has been written and recorded as a full-length dramatic poem for two voices, yet the visual experience of the poem is a critical one.
Blurbs
“Who do we become when brought face to face with violence? Who is the changed one that cries from its depths, “See my naked self and call me back to who I truly am”? Is the beauty of word (guiding thighs) and image (sweet as the smell of the rain polished peach) capable of reeling us in? In this current world where we question our own identities in the aftermath of violence, Jeffrey Ethan Lee’s identity papers offers a testament to the value and power of love and language to help us remember who we are. This book should be required reading.”
—Linda Tomol Pennisi, author of Suddenly, Fruit and Seamless
“The title work of Jeffrey Ethan Lee’s collection is a tour de force, a marvelous tapestry of dialogues and voices, a successful long poem that is also riveting, tragic, and wry. With it, he explores his experience as the survivor of an act of violence like a necessary guide, a Dantesque interpreter of ruined cities, convoluted and colliding cultures, the fearfully real and volatile American night we have come to accept. For Lee, and as his verse so deftly suggests, for us as well, identity—genuine self, is the redeeming but elusive talisman.”
—David N. Moolten, winner of the Samuel French Morse Prize for Plums & Ashes and author of Especially Then
“Jeffrey Lee’s identity papers is the psalm of the alienated, ethereal soul sung in counterpoint to the guttural cacophonies of a trash and steel world. At once dramatist, poet, and storyteller, Lee continues his important work into the ephemeral din of the modern world and consciousness. One by one, the lost of his poems are thrust into a bewildering flux, finding, as if part solace, “in each deep wound/ A star of pain.” An inspiring work.”
—Kathryn Winograd, Colorado Book Award winner for Air Into Breath
“At the center of identity papers, Jeffrey Lee tells of a harrowing experience: being attacked by an unknown, hammer-wielding assailant in the New York City subway. The incident brings home the horror and banality of random violence. Lee’s speaker is seriously hurt, yet passersby ignore him, and the police mistake him for the perpetrator. But surrender is not part of the poet’s response. Lee shows what it means to assert one’s identity, to live with and be close to others while remaining true to oneself—a heroic undertaking for any writer in this day.”
—Thaddeus Rutkowski, author of Tetched and Roughhouse
“In identity papers, Jeffrey Ethan Lee takes personal experience and writes about it in a moving and transformative way. His parallel-column two-voice poems are luminous and highly original. Lee is a poet “bruised by the low road” who has found his way to a place where “vision goes beyond.” This is a book to read, savor, and re-read.” —Susan Terris, author of Natural Defenses & Fire is Favorable to the Dreamer
