Diary of Use

Poetry. Asian American Studies. "In DIARY OF USE, J. Vera Lee's poems entangle and untangle themselves with and from the world they abide in. They arrive and take up residence in a place between nature and culture, fate and chance, simplicity and complexity. To say Lee's poems are 'at home' in either term of such oppositions is to miss their point: these poems are adrift—a drift of elements, an elemental drift—and find their path as it is being cleared by the poems themselves. 'Later, drifting as softly as possible, / bumping against street / curbs rather than / banks // or guards, you / have been / waiting / extremely.' If you're willing to wait, these poems will meet you along their own path."—Paul Naylor