© 2022 Don Yorty. All rights reserved.
I missed Daniel W.K. Lee’s reading at the Bureau when he was in town. I emailed him and asked if he would read some poems from his new book, Anatomy of Want, so I could share them on my blog. He did right away. Like his poems, the poet wastes no time, but gets succinctly to the point. In the Vimeo below you can see for yourself. Enjoy.
The ghazal, an Arabic poetic form often about love repeats a word perhaps a bit like a hammer gently or not so gently hitting the nail on the head. Daniel Lee uses the form to great effect. Here is the first ghazal in the book.
SECRETS
[for C.L.]
Black currants and bergamot infuse the deep secrets.
The bar serves fevered water as sangria to steep secrets.
Your phone’s in love, you say. It calls you without me.
Has it drunk-dialed and left after the beep secrets?
A light bulb is loosened behind the wrought iron gate;
a square under the stair where we’d heap secrets?
Scanning the dedications in his rare editions,
the ones missing my name belong with the cheap secrets.
Winter’s kimono sleeves whirl, wetting the eyes;
a clever cover in daylight while we seep secrets.
An accomplice of rapture rewinds to the crime:
“The shoebox falls twice…between breaths creep secrets.
He peels back his hood and with it hesitation.
Let want be canine. I’ll put to sleep secrets.
For food, for thrill, for fucking, the appetite asks:
Isn’t a hunger left hungry free to reap secrets?
Your mouth, Daniel’s: they’ve turned into honeycomb.
Hint: their sweet walls—once?—did more than keep secrets.
Anatomy of Want is published by Rebel Satori Press. You can check it out here:
To find out more about Daniel W.K. Lee, check him out here:
Camden and Daniel