“New Year,” “Spiral,” and “Father” by Xiaoly Li appeared in Issue 38 and can be found here.
We’d love to hear more about “Father.”
My father is the most respected person in the family. Yet he was distant before when his work absorbed him. After his retirement, we became much closer even though we were physically distant across the Pacific. Yet, the generation gap is an undercurrent. We have to accept that.
When I wrote this piece, I cooperated our surrounding details into it, like the winding road, the betta fish, and the goji berry in my glass pot as the transitioning elements. As I read it, I see their hidden connections to the subtle yet paradoxical tone of the poem.
What was the most difficult part in writing that poem?
To restrain my longing to be understood and accepted by him. To be ok with love with its blue veil.
Recommend a book for us which was published within the last decade.
Diane Seuss’ poetry book, frank: sonnets. Her poems cut into the bones, so-called radical honesty, yet with a sense of humor.
If you could have a drink with any living author, who would it be? Why?
I’d love to drink with the poet Todd F. Davis. He is very kind and solidly rooted in this earth, the beauty of nature. Even when the future of us on the planet is uncertain, he is hopeful of regeneration.
What are you working on now? What’s next?
I just had my first poetry collection, Every Single Bird Rising (FutureCycle Press, April 2023), entering the world. I’ll start to work on my second poetry collection, thinking of naming it Between the Sun and Moon.
Our thanks to Xiaoly for taking the time to answer a few questions and share these poems. Read “New Year,” “Spiral,” and “Father” here: https://www.sequestrum.org/three-new-poems-by-xiaoly-li.
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Xiaoly Li is a poet and photographer in Massachusetts. She is the author of the poetry collection, Every Single Bird Rising (April 2023, FutureCycle Press). This collection was a finalist for the Zone 3 Press Book Award and a semi-finalist for the Trio House Press Book Award and the 2022 Laura Boss Poetry Foundation Narrative Poetry Award. She received an Artist Fellowship Grant in Poetry (2022) from the Massachusetts Cultural Council. She has been nominated for Best New Poets, twice for a Pushcart Prize, and three times for Best of the Net. Her poetry has been featured or anthologized in Spillway, American Journal of Poetry, Salamander, Atlanta Review, Chautauqua, Rhino, Cold Mountain Review, J Journal, Verse Daily, etc. Her photography has been shown and sold in galleries in Boston. Xiaoly received her Ph.D. in electrical engineering from Worcester Polytechnic Institute, and her Master’s in computer science and engineering from Tsinghua University in China. She lives in Massachusetts.