lynn.lifshin

BARBIE HUNTS THRU MEDICAL BOOKS LOOKING FOR WHAT IS WRONG WITH HER WHEN SHE SEES HER BIRTH DATE IN A BOOK, KNOWS SHE IS OVER 30

and feels so
hollow inside,
unfulfilled,
as if all she’s
done is change
her clothes.
She wonders a
bout the women’s
movement, maybe
she frowns it’s
the change and
she hasn’t even
had a baby, had
a period, a
hair that was
not in place.
Perfection that
can be shelved,
one yank she
shivers and I’d
be bald, naked.
She flips thru
chapters on
neurosis, wonders
if it’s hormones
she lacks. Where
she’s been hardly
seems to matter
: the beach, Sun
Valley, Spain.
It’s all facade,
going thru the
motions. What
did a wedding
get me she groans,
I never was free
moving as they
said in 1975
but empty, full
of holes, some
thing just for
someone else
to collect
or abuse

Lyn Lifshin’s ANOTHER WOMAN WHO LOOKS LIKE ME was just published by Black Sparrow at David Godine October, 2006. It has been selected for the 2007 Paterson Award for Literary Excellence for previous finalists of the Paterson Poetry Prize. (ORDER@GODINE.COM ). Also out in 2006 is her prize winning book about the famous, short lived beautiful race horse, Ruffian: THE LICORICE DAUGHTER: MY YEAR WITH RUFFIAN from TEXAS REVIEW PRESS. Other of Lifshin’s recent prizewinning books include BEFORE IT’S LIGHT published winter 1999-2000 by Black Sparrow press, following their publication of COLD COMFORT in 1997.Other recently published books and chap books include : IN MIRRORS from Presa Press and UPSTATE: AN UNFINISHED STORY from Foot Hills and THE DAUGHTER I DON’T HAVE from Plan B Press. Other new books include WHEN A CAT DIES, ANOTHER WOMAN'S STORY, BARBIE POEMS, SHE WAS LAST SEEN TREADING WATER and MAD GIRL POEMS, A NEW FILM ABOUT A WOMAN IN LOVE WITH THE DEAD, came from March Street Press in 2003. She has published more than 120 books of poetry, including MARILYN MONROE, BLUE TATTOO, won awards for her non fiction and edited 4 anthologies of women's writing including TANGLED VINES, ARIADNE'S THREAD and LIPS UNSEALED. Her poems have appeared in most literary and poetry magazines and she is the subject of an award winning documentary film, LYN LIFSHIN: NOT MADE OF GLASS, available from Women Make Movies. Her poem, No More Apologizing has been called Aamong the most impressive documents of the women's poetry movement, by Alicia Ostriker. An update to her Gale Research Projects Autobiographical series, On The Outside, Lips, Blues, Blue Lace, was published Spring 2003. WHAT MATTERS MOST and AUGUST WIND were recently published. TSUNAMI is forthcoming from BLUE UNICORN. Arielle Press will publish POETS (MOSTLY) WHO HAVE TOUCHED ME, LIVING AND DEAD. ALL TRUE, ESPECIALLY THE LIES summer of 2006. Texas Review Press will publish BARBARO: BEYOND BROKENNESS in March 2008 and World Parade Books will publish DESIRE in March 2008. Red hen will publish PERSEPHONE in March 2008. For interviews, photographs, more bio material, reviews, interviews, prose, samples of work and more, her web site is www.lynlifshin.com. She is working on a new collection of selected poems, a collection of poems about the amazing race horse Barabaro as well as other collections.

lyf

by Don Snell

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