In His Own Shadow
by Li-Young Lee
He is seated in the first darkness of his body sitting in the lighter dark of the room, the greater light of day behind him, beyond the windows, where Time is the country. His body throws two shadows: One onto the table and the piece of paper before him, and one onto his mind. One makes it difficult for him to see the words he’s written and crossed out on the paper. The other keeps him from recognizing another master than Death. He squints. He reads: Does the first light hide inside the first dark? He reads: While all bodies share the same fate, all voices do not.
Behind My Eyes (W.W. Norton, 2009)
This poem feels like a quiet moment of a man sitting alone with himself, aware of how much darkness a body can hold.
There’s something deeply human in the way he sits between shadows one cast on the table, the other cast inside his mind.
The outer shadow simply blurs his writing, but the inner one blurs his sense of meaning, his sense of who is truly in control.
The poem captures that fragile instant when a person realises how easily the mind can become its own dim room.
His squinting feels like a small act of courage, a human attempt to see through fear, doubt, and the weight of mortality.
The question “Does the first light hide inside the first dark?” sounds like someone searching for hope in the very place where despair begins.
There’s a tenderness in the idea that understanding might be born from darkness, that clarity might grow from confusion.
The poem recognises how the fear of death can quietly shape a life, becoming a shadow that follows every thought.
Yet the final line opens a window: even if all bodies share the same fate, each voice carries its own fragile, irreplaceable truth.
In the end, the poem becomes a meditation on being human living with shadows, reaching for light, and trying to understand the space between the two.
What a mysterious poem. Li-Young Lee is directing the reader's eye and mind.