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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
THE HAMMOCK, by LI-YOUNG LEE Poet's Biography
First Line: When I lay my head in my mother's lap
Subject(s): Children; Mothers; Childhood
First Line: When I lay my head in my mother's lap
Subject(s): Children; Mothers; Childhood
When I lay my head in my mother's lap
I think how day hides the stars,
the way I lay hidden once, waiting
inside my mother's laughter. And I remember
how she carried me on her back
between home and kindergarten,
once each morning and once each afternoon.
I don't know what my mother's thinking.
When my son lays his head in my lap, I worry
His lips, swollen with his father's kisses,
won't keep his father's worries from becoming
his. I think, Dear God, and remember
there are stars we haven't heard from yet
they have so far to arrive. Amen,
I think, and I feel almost comforted.
I've no idea what my child is thinking.
Between two unknowns, I live my life.
And what's it like? Between my mother's hopes,
older than I by coming before me,
and my child's wishes, older than I
by outliving me, what's it like?
Is it a door, and a good-bye on either side?
Is it a window, and eternity on either side?
Yes, yes and a little singing between two great rests.
First published in The Kenyon Review, Volume 22, #1, Winter 2000.
www.kenyonreview.org
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