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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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38 comments:
Happy birthday! Nice to hear you read your poems - always interesting to put a voice to a person, as it were.
I was just about to order your book; are you sure you don't want any extra for sending it over the Atlantic?
Thanks, Harry, for the wishes, and for the order. No extra needed. BTW, I thank you, bates, and Lola II in GMT party, for the apprentice thing. Cheers.
Fab. I'm going to be in a bar in the West End when it's time for the next instalment and then heading off to a karaoke bar (eep) so I'll have to catch up with it later. Have a nice day!
Loved the biographical poems you read, Now love poems coming up - what more can one ask?
Happy Birthday!
I can't decide if your controlled, eclectically-accented voice makes you more real or even more mysterious and ethereal.
Harry,
Drinking and singing...is that a wise combo? Catch up with you later. We must go drinking in London sometime.
Thanks, Lai Meng, for celebrating my birthday with me. Not as good as in the flesh, but this is something.
Happy birthday Jee! I'm listening along right now!
Larry, what a kind way of describing my mishmash, wobble of an accent. I never thought of myself as ethereal. I shall from now on.
Good to see you here, vmh. Have a manhattan!
Thank you! ::takes drink:: It's only 8:15 am here but I think I can manage it! ::sips::
Vicky
Vicky, it's never too early, in my book, to drink!
I am also blogging about the party simultaneously: http://jeeleong.blogspot.com. And yes, you are all quoted there.
Not here at the right time, Jee, but nice to tune in nevertheless. I'll miss the GMT party because I'm at the StAnza Poetry festival. I travel to St Andrews in just over 2 hours time.
Anyway, just wanted to say I enjoyed the launch recording. All the best for the book.
Good of you to drop in, Rob, in the midst of a day of travel. Thanks for getting the book.
Great poems! Happy birthday!
Thanks, Paul, I'm glad you like the poems.
Congratulations and Happy Birthday!
I would have been here sooner but PFFA's been down for several hours due to a database glitch and Bela just got it back up and running a short time ago.
Jee Leong,
Happy Birthday! How wonderful to see that great new photo of you, and to hear your voice today. I am looking forward to reading the whole book.
Congratulations.
Love,
Patty
Never too late, Howard. So glad to see you here.
Patty! Big hug! Thanks for coming.
Happy birthday, Jee. I have just listened to the poetry, sometimes with text, sometime without, just listening to the relationship of voice, to word, to line. I had the good fortune to read the text of ETTE before hearing them, but you know, the voice I hear now is the voice I heard in my inner ear. The opening of Hungry Ghosts is a marvellous first poem!
Andrew,
the voice in the inner ear is what matters after all. The spoken voice, especially my untrained one, is so uncertain, so varying, so error-ridden, so much a matter of machine, it cannot be but a bad reproduction of the voice I hear in my own ear. Each reading will have to stand on its own as an imperfect copy. I'm glad you like Hungry Ghosts.
I don't think the "untrained" voice is a problem, Jee. (I find opera unbearable because of the "trained" voice). The voice is a hybrid voice, a meeting of many cultures and histories, which is as it should be...for these poems.
You put it wonderfully, Andrew. I must remember what you say whenever I am inclined to feel embarrassed for the way I speak. Thank you.
Hey Jee! I'm still trying to get this thing working over here. Happy Birthday!
Emilio
Hey Emilio, so good to see you here. Welcome. Thanks for your wishes.
Child I am here is it too late to DANCE?
O.K. Jee, I just got back from dropping a money order at the post office. It should get there sometime next week. I look forward to seeing the book. Have a great rest of your evening!
All the best,
Emilio
Tricia, too late? Why the party is only warming up. The climax, the crescendo, is coming up at 8 PM (EST).
Emilio,
Thanks for taking all the trouble. I am glad you like the reading enough to do this.
Jee, Happy Birthday, and many congratulations on your beautiful voice
x,k.
You're going? So soon? Have a beautiful weekend.
What a wonderful way to celebrate your birthday with friends around the world! I began with the GMT party, then moved on to EST, but for some reason I'm not able to listen to the SST reading, which contains some of my favorites. Congratulations again on the book!
Thanks, Jane, for celebrating it with me. I'm glad you are able to make it.
Happy Birthday!- A virtual party can go on and on - I was out but feel I can catch up with it by listening to some beautiful poems. xx Valerie and JF
Valerie and JF,
You're never too late for a virtual party. So glad you could make it. I hope you enjoy being here!
Wow, impressive medium to promote the book and very well done! I'm impressed Jee. I am enjoying the poetry. But I have one observation: now that I've heard you read the book, do I really need to buy it!? (ha, ha?)
Glad to see you here, Darrick! Your question could be rephrased: now that you have heard the poetry, how could you not buy it?
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