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"Jee Leong Koh is a vigorous, physical poet very much captured by the expressive power of rhythm, rhetoric, and the lexicon. He is also, paradoxically, a poet in pursuit of the most elusive and delicate of human emotions. The contradiction is wonderful and compelling, and so are his poems."
"I was several times reminded of Joni Mitchell's conversational, outsider-styled song lyrics while reading this book." Read more.
A new book of poems by Jee Leong Koh
About Me
To preview and buy book, click here.
--Vijay Seshadri, author of The Long Meadow (Graywolf Press)
"His poems are like the sexy nerd you meet at a bar, the one you really want to get to know better-- with his glasses and tie on and nothing else." Read more.
"His poems are like the sexy nerd you meet at a bar, the one you really want to get to know better-- with his glasses and tie on and nothing else." Read more.
--Christopher Hennessy, Outside the Lines: Talking with Contemporary Gay Poets (University of Michigan Press)
"Equal to the Earth is characterised by enquiry, technical curiosity and emotional questioning." Read more.
--Eshuneutics
"I was several times reminded of Joni Mitchell's conversational, outsider-styled song lyrics while reading this book." Read more.
--Robert Urban, Urban Productions, NYC
Followers
Retakes 1
After my book party I invited people to give me their takes on my poems, in the form of poems, art, photography, videos or readings in their own voice. AH responded to the poetry and the photography with an elegant sonnet.
Portrait
alcun’altra beltà nel cor traluce.
--Michelangelo (76).
Unable to discern the solar eye
(In dark before the alba’s light) I hill
The brightness settings through degrees until
At thirty-seven there is symmetry;
And mid-tones, shadows, highlights re-concur,
To form a formal elegance. Your look,
Now balanced, burning bright, unfolds that book
Of love that stirs inside the connoisseur
Of eyes “Some other Beauty in the heart
Not issuing from light’s first cause.” Observed
At this intensity, you are reserved,
Ethereal, as others hear: pure art.
I note, then turn again to what was good:
The cockcrow dark of man in Morningwood.
AH is a writer and teacher who lives in the United Kingdom. Since Spring 2006, he has written a poetry blog using the name Eshuneutics. (In a past incarnation, his field of academic research was Ezra Pound and The Cantos). His main interests are modern poetry, the Hermetical tradition from the Renaissance onwards, and gay poetries.
Portrait
alcun’altra beltà nel cor traluce.
--Michelangelo (76).
Unable to discern the solar eye
(In dark before the alba’s light) I hill
The brightness settings through degrees until
At thirty-seven there is symmetry;
And mid-tones, shadows, highlights re-concur,
To form a formal elegance. Your look,
Now balanced, burning bright, unfolds that book
Of love that stirs inside the connoisseur
Of eyes “Some other Beauty in the heart
Not issuing from light’s first cause.” Observed
At this intensity, you are reserved,
Ethereal, as others hear: pure art.
I note, then turn again to what was good:
The cockcrow dark of man in Morningwood.
AH is a writer and teacher who lives in the United Kingdom. Since Spring 2006, he has written a poetry blog using the name Eshuneutics. (In a past incarnation, his field of academic research was Ezra Pound and The Cantos). His main interests are modern poetry, the Hermetical tradition from the Renaissance onwards, and gay poetries.
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32 comments:
I'm there -- what a beautiful voice.
Thanks, Kate, for coming. What do you want to drink?
(Actually my last comment pertained to this picture, not the other one.)
Thanks for clarifying. :-)
Happy Birthday!!
Another glass of wine from the bottle with the pretty purple label? Or... some champagne??
I'm enjoying the readings :)
Time to open the champagne! Thanks, Tara!
Don't you think you should be polite and offer some bubbly to the guests, sir?
Tara (grandly), serve them some.
gladly...I do hope they brought their own glasses though. If not, we do have an abundance of brightly colored plastic cups.
Plastic cups?!? What do you take me for, a straight man?
hello again. (I'm staying longer than I thought I would; I hope not overstaying.) especial thanks also for the hypnotic reading of the Spinoza poem; i loved it.
That Spinoza was a last-minute addition. I'm glad we added it.
How did you get the dolphin noise in there just before you mention the dolphin in Mermen poem??? BrillianT!
Sheer genius.
Happy birthday and happy poetry! This is wonderful. I look forward to reading the book.
The bubbly rocks!
And I'm always happy to meet new friends!
Chloe'
Happy birthday and happy poetry! This is wonderful (and a great idea!)
Thanks for the bubbly and the chance to meet new friends.
Chloe'
So happy to see you here, Chloe! Thanks for coming.
The final section has an erotic questing running through it. I know CH, sweetly, referred to you as that sort of erotic "nerd" that one would like to see naked in a tie! If any image comes to mind, for me, in the later poems you've selected, it is Cafavy, drunk on wine and poetry, tipsy on complex metres and rhymes, well-dressed, refined, yet elegantly seductive. I'm speaking of the poetry ;-).
It has been a memorable party. ("Good night, sweet ladies, good night.") Thank you for the invite. Wake up happy tomorrow, Jee.
Jee Leong, thank you for sharing your sensuous and soulful gift. Good luck with the book!
(By the way, I'm drinking Smart Water as I'm taking a break from booze for a bit.)
Hey Jee, you have a beautiful voice. I'll ave to come back and listen again. Your poem "Blow Job" was great.
Andrew,
Trust you to hear the greater complexity of form attempted in the last section. If the content is naked and the form is elegantly attired, am I not both simultaneously clothed and unclothed? I like that paradox. Thanks very much for staying throughout the party. It would not have been the same without you.
Mark,
I'm glad you came, and that you liked the poems so much you bought a book! Smart Water sounds as tempting as Budlite, more, perhaps.
Arunava,
I'm glad we met in time for you to join in the party. Thanks for coming, and for liking the work.
Well done! :-)
Thanks, Jeffery, for listening!
Hi, Jee--
HAPPY BIRTHDAY! Wasn't able to make your viritual party, but was there in spirit, and from your re-cap of it, so glad for you that it was an international success. Your work deserves such celebration!
Brant,
I felt your spirit at the party! Thanks for coming!
Beautiful picture to complement the poetry!
Thanks, Darrick!
Thanks for making this available to us all. It is beautiful work Jee.
Beautiful and available, both good.
Good luck, bro. Props. I hope one day I may be published too. And we can form a poetry posse. Until that day, my friend, I leave you with this:
pls help spread this like bubonic plague virus of "viral poetry":
"I WILL NEVER BE PUBLISHED"
by Jeremy Ahn
I wake up and my arm is still in
your mouth so you take back
your face from my head before you punch my head
and my face says "ow"
'that hurt,
bitch'
and you laugh at my head because
my head
is funny to your head
and we go back
back to sleep
i check my email
you pretended to be
an editor at the
New York Times
you said i should stick to mowing grass
instead of writing verses or prose
i emailed back,
"give me your address and i'll show
up with a weedwhacker at your door"
you typed back, "LOL"
though in jest, your words stung truth
I will
Never be published in anything.
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