Lyn Lifshin's is a reader's poetry immediate and accessible, seemingly artless, conveying complex, womanly truths with an everyday vocabulary. To describe it as a kind of feminine folk art is not to condescend; it is instead to recognize in it the naked power of a Bessie Smith blues lyric, the stirring eroticism of a burley-q fan dance, even, on occasion, the simple, balanced beauty of a Shaker quilt. Before It's Light is Lifshin's latest collection, and her largest and strongest to date.
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Editorial Reviews
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These direct, spare, autobiographical poems evoke memories of an unlovely girlhood...a stormy marriage...the pain of losing a mother...the struggle to regain self-sufficiency after bad relationships. As always, Lifshin trawls deep waters of submerged passion beneath the surface of everyday life, coming up with a teeming, glistening catch. --Tom Clark
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Sum Total Of Human Experience!,
By Mary McKinnery (Woking, Surrey, U.K.) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Before It's Light: New Poems (Paperback)
After finishing Lifshin's latest book of poems, I felt as if I'd lived a thousand years and travelled a million miles. The gamut of human experience covered in "Before It's Light" runs from the innocence of childhood through the slings and arrows of maturity, and unveils almost everthing, divine or evil, that can possibly happen in a human life. Lifshin weaves an enchanted fabric from a stark realist's thread of narrative. A "Must Read."
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Lifshin, the sensualist,
By A Customer
This review is from: Before It's Light: New Poems (Paperback)
I love Lyn Lifshin's poetry -- I have for years and years. She's a genuine original and a true maverick. This book is special -- Lifshin at her finest. Definitely read this if you love sensual, edgy poetry.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Brilliant.,
By
This review is from: Before It's Light: New Poems (Paperback)
Lyn Lifshin, Before It's Light: New Poems (Black Sparrow, 1999)Lyn Lifshin is one of those poets who just keeps getting better as she gets older. She spent years, it always seemed to me, trying to be a sort of imagist Bukowski; she outgrew that a ways back and rounded into her own style. Her work since has gained a rare and delicate power, and with every passing book, it gets more all-encompassing. There are few words to say about Lifshin that have not already been said; I'll just let the images speak for themselves. Now cliff swallows High in these white cliffs that they walked Pure, simple image, with all the power vested inside, and no annoying blocks of message to dilute the power of the words. Lifshin reiterates her worth of being placed alongside Hayden Carruth, Ira Sadoff, and the rest of the modern poets who will someday make up the canon. An easy entry on this year's best-of list. **** ½
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