{"id":2291,"date":"2013-12-20T13:58:59","date_gmt":"2013-12-20T21:58:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kathleenflenniken.com\/blog\/?p=2291"},"modified":"2013-12-20T13:58:59","modified_gmt":"2013-12-20T21:58:59","slug":"kim-an-lieberman-1974-2013","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/kathleenflenniken.com\/blog\/?p=2291","title":{"rendered":"Kim-An Lieberman, 1974 – 2013"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Kim-An Lieberman<\/a> has left us too early. On the few occasions I met Kim-An in person or heard her read, I wished to know her better–warm, funny, and so so smart, kind, down to earth, generous. I knew her through her poems, especially her gorgeous first book, Breaking the Map<\/a><\/em> (Blue Begonia Press, 2008).<\/p>\n

I think most of us come to writing, at least initially, to sort out our own identities, and I felt that was so with Kim-An’s first book. Here were the two sides of herself–her Vietnamese heritage, her Jewish heritage, and the split between. She found rich material, for example, in her grandmother’s sudden and epic relocation to California from Saigon in 1975.\u00a0<\/em>She writes about this in the introduction to her wonderful poem,\u00a0“Water Buffalo Tale”<\/a>\u00a0on the Poetry Northwest<\/em> site. The surreal sometimes appeared in Kim-An’s poetry, surprising but perfectly at home, and seemed to grow up out of that split in her identity like a flower in a sidewalk crack.<\/p>\n

I’m eagerly anticipating Kim-An’s forthcoming collection, In Orbit,<\/em> which will appear from Blue Begonia Press early in 2014. \u00a0Jack Straw Studios will be hosting a reading from In Orbit<\/em> sometime this spring. \u00a0Please keep an eye out for a date and help us celebrate her abiding talent and voice. \u00a0Find a beautiful tribute to her\u00a0in The Seattle Times<\/em>\u00a0here<\/a>, and another by poet Alan Chong Lau in the International Examiner<\/em> here<\/a>, and a third by local literary critic Paul Constant here.<\/a><\/p>\n

A memorial will be held on December 30th at 3:00 p.m. in the Seattle Asian Art Museum. In lieu of flowers the family requests donations be made to the Kim-An Lieberman Memorial fund<\/a> at The Evergreen School to offer financial aid for students in need.<\/p>\n

Here is Kim-An’s beautiful and unexpected poem, “Wings,” from Breaking the Map.<\/a><\/p>\n

Wings<\/p>\n

It had been three years, maybe longer, and the map of his body
\n……….<\/span>was etched
\nin her palms. \u00a0The stretch of his legs. The stiff, clean-shaven line of
\n……….<\/span>his jaw.
\nHis left ring finger, curved slightly inward. \u00a0So of course she made
\n……….<\/span>the discovery.<\/p>\n

The first feathers appeared in a pair. \u00a0She was facing him in the grey
\n……….<\/span>wash of morning,
\nstroking the knoll of his shoulder blade, when twin quills broke
\n……….<\/span>suddenly through the skin.
\nHe locked himself in the bathroom for hours, cursing blankly
\n……….<\/span>at the mirror.<\/p>\n

They grew quickly, eclipsing his back like snowfall. \u00a0In the moonlight they
\n……….<\/span>were lustrous.
\nshe would brush them gently with a damp washcloth, gather loose
\n……….<\/span>feathers in a basket.
\nUnder their spreading canopy his muscles formed tight knots, pulsing
\n……….<\/span>like fists.<\/p>\n

He complained about their aching weight, how they poked holes in his
\n……….<\/span>favorite sweater
\nand sometimes, of their own accord, began to flap and pull his feet
\n……….<\/span>from the ground.
\nJust think of all the usefulness, she said, fan on a flaming night or extra
\n……….<\/span>warmth in winter.<\/p>\n

But he became sullen, took long walks alone after dinner, absolutely
\n……….<\/span>refused to see a doctor.
\nHe would not go to the beach anymore, even when she promised
\n……….<\/span>a three-color sunset.
\nCan’t trust these things, he told her, and I’m not stupid. \u00a0I know
\n……….<\/span>my mythology.<\/p>\n

When he asked her to leave, it was another grey morning. He lay
\n……….<\/span>sprawled on his stomach
\nat the opposite end of the bed. He gave no reason, but she knew it was
\n……….<\/span>another woman
\nbecause their beauty was blinding. Even fully clothed he leaked
\n……….<\/span>gallons of light.<\/p>\n

In time she moved on, ripped up his pictures and set the ridiculous
\n……….<\/span>basket of feathers on fire.
\nBut some mornings she woke drenched in jealousy. Half-believing
\n……….<\/span>she heard a rustle,
\nshe would stare at her husband’s empty back and wonder if anything
\n……….<\/span>would change.<\/p>\n

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  Kim-An Lieberman has left us too early. On the few occasions I met Kim-An in person or heard her read, I wished to know her better–warm, funny, and so so smart, kind, down to earth, generous. I knew her … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[15,122,666,37,8,1],"tags":[803,804],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/kathleenflenniken.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2291"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/kathleenflenniken.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/kathleenflenniken.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kathleenflenniken.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kathleenflenniken.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2291"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/kathleenflenniken.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2291\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2294,"href":"http:\/\/kathleenflenniken.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2291\/revisions\/2294"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/kathleenflenniken.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2291"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kathleenflenniken.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2291"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kathleenflenniken.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2291"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}