All the Poets Who Have Touched Me by Lyn Lifshin
World Parade Books, 2011
Reviewed by Janelle Elyse Kihlstrom
Lyn Lifshin's latest collection All the Poets Who Have Touched Me is an intimate whirlwind tour through literary history in the company of the perfect confidential guide. Lifshin, prolific "queen of the small presses" for the last several decades, must have been at least casually acquainted with some of the poets she writes about here, but to what extent only she could tell us, and this isn't a tell-all. One poem is entitled "The Poets I Know the Best Are the Ones I Could Never Write About" and begins, "It would be betrayal..."
And it would be, wouldn't it? Any poet, novice or established, tends to feel the necessity of that rule instinctively. So, having set those parameters, Lifshin puts us at ease that these poems are primarily works of the imagination, with maybe a few smuggled-in details, a few sly observations thrown in here and there. Many of the poems, like "Eating Chocolate With Edgar Allan Poe," are playful; others are candid, meditative, sensual, melancholy.
As with all of Lifshin's work, these poems are self-revelatory, but they also offer insights into her sources of inspiration, often in stunning imagistic language. In "New York With Dylan Thomas," she writes:
... I hated it when he
wrote his wife, Caitlin. Though he
called her a fishmonger, he still wrote
with one arm shadowing the page. Light
through jade glass, days burning
fireflies in September. I knew they
could not stay
In "When Being Awake Seems Agony After Disappointing News," she shares Sylvia Plath's last hours in that cold London flat, where the two of them...
... drank hot chocolate with some
Sambuca, talked about how the worst time
of day was 5 am, early morning, the
depression time hardest to endure. It seemed
funny, her daughter’s name, my mother’s,
Frieda. On the last day together it was
so cold. Even in 3 sweaters I was shaking.
Maybe I sensed what was ahead though
Sylvia chattered, her lips a wild red,
her cheeks rose. Maybe it was the fever
hanging on since December...
Other poems tell of shared moments (often courtesy of time travel) with Byron, Keats, Whitman, Dickinson, Millay, Sandburg (who got it all wrong about the fog and cats) as well as Sexton, Ginsberg, Bukowski, Kenyon, and the list goes on.
A few sources of inspiration are lesser known, even unknown poets, like an unnamed fan with more than his share of demons, recalled in "He Said He Saw My Picture in a Magazine":
... I never liked his
poems as much as I pretended, not even
the ones he stole. But I loved the stories,
how he made love in coffins, stood on the
roof of his house screaming at stars. But
he kept breaking into places. Once I
held him four hours while he cried.
In the sensual "Sleeping With Lorca," she writes, "There’s/ more you might coax me to say but/ for now, it’s enough I can still smell the/ green wind, that 5 o’clock in the/ afternoon/ that would never be another time".
"There's more you might coax me to say" sums up the charm of this collection. With all that is revealed of reverie and anecdote, fantasy and (possible) reality, there is always another delicious detail that might have been added, another poet who might have been befriended and revealed. It's easy to get caught up in the infectious fun as we teleport with Lifshin through pivotal moments in the lives of poets who have touched us as well, imagining with her what well might have been.
Read Melusine's interview with Lyn Lifshin in our debut issue here.
And it would be, wouldn't it? Any poet, novice or established, tends to feel the necessity of that rule instinctively. So, having set those parameters, Lifshin puts us at ease that these poems are primarily works of the imagination, with maybe a few smuggled-in details, a few sly observations thrown in here and there. Many of the poems, like "Eating Chocolate With Edgar Allan Poe," are playful; others are candid, meditative, sensual, melancholy.
As with all of Lifshin's work, these poems are self-revelatory, but they also offer insights into her sources of inspiration, often in stunning imagistic language. In "New York With Dylan Thomas," she writes:
... I hated it when he
wrote his wife, Caitlin. Though he
called her a fishmonger, he still wrote
with one arm shadowing the page. Light
through jade glass, days burning
fireflies in September. I knew they
could not stay
In "When Being Awake Seems Agony After Disappointing News," she shares Sylvia Plath's last hours in that cold London flat, where the two of them...
... drank hot chocolate with some
Sambuca, talked about how the worst time
of day was 5 am, early morning, the
depression time hardest to endure. It seemed
funny, her daughter’s name, my mother’s,
Frieda. On the last day together it was
so cold. Even in 3 sweaters I was shaking.
Maybe I sensed what was ahead though
Sylvia chattered, her lips a wild red,
her cheeks rose. Maybe it was the fever
hanging on since December...
Other poems tell of shared moments (often courtesy of time travel) with Byron, Keats, Whitman, Dickinson, Millay, Sandburg (who got it all wrong about the fog and cats) as well as Sexton, Ginsberg, Bukowski, Kenyon, and the list goes on.
A few sources of inspiration are lesser known, even unknown poets, like an unnamed fan with more than his share of demons, recalled in "He Said He Saw My Picture in a Magazine":
... I never liked his
poems as much as I pretended, not even
the ones he stole. But I loved the stories,
how he made love in coffins, stood on the
roof of his house screaming at stars. But
he kept breaking into places. Once I
held him four hours while he cried.
In the sensual "Sleeping With Lorca," she writes, "There’s/ more you might coax me to say but/ for now, it’s enough I can still smell the/ green wind, that 5 o’clock in the/ afternoon/ that would never be another time".
"There's more you might coax me to say" sums up the charm of this collection. With all that is revealed of reverie and anecdote, fantasy and (possible) reality, there is always another delicious detail that might have been added, another poet who might have been befriended and revealed. It's easy to get caught up in the infectious fun as we teleport with Lifshin through pivotal moments in the lives of poets who have touched us as well, imagining with her what well might have been.
Read Melusine's interview with Lyn Lifshin in our debut issue here.
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