Brain Snacks: Tasty Tidbits of Knowledge
Lee's father was the personal physician for Mao Tse-Tung, former leader of the People's Republic of China. Of course this caused the family some political troubles, which is why they wound up in Indonesia. (Source.)
Li-Young Lee describes himself as an insomniac. We probably could have guessed this from his poem. He also says that his insomnia stems from a time in his life when he tried to stop writing poetry. We guess he just couldn't escape all those poetic thoughts rolling around in his head. (Source.)
The collection of poetry in which this poem appeared, The City in Which I Love You, was awarded the now-called Laughlin Award, which is given to an excellent collection that is a poet's second body of work. Not too shabby, Mr. Lee. (Source.)