Lyn Lifshin – författare

the only place I said what I meantwas in poems—from “The No More Apologizing, the No More Little Laughing Blues”Lyn Lifshin is a poet who speaks with directness—immediate and accessible, seemingly artlessly, yet conveying complex truths. This collection is like an unforgettable late night, sitting on a porch in the sweet night air and listening to stories told by a very close friend.

Like the mythic Persephone, these poems move between worlds of wild light and onyx darkness. Abducted by Hades, Persephone was kept captive in the underworld until her mother, Demeter, consumed with rage and sorrow, refused to let anything live or bloom. Grudgingly, Hades released her but only after she tasted the pomegranate he offered, a fruit that kept her bound to him for three months of the year forever. These poems move between such ecstatic glimpses of love, sex, family and that underworld of pain, loss and dark coldness between parents and children, siblings, lovers and strangers. The blues and despair in her poems, immediate and powerful as the worlds of any woman who moves from darkness and cold into the green world of rebirth, light and flowers, highlights "the combination of eros, ebullience and triste, or sadness," a Lifshin trademark.

Before his career as a champion racehorse, and his death following a devastating injury, Barbaro was a colt like any other. In her traditional poetic style, Lifshin outlines the life of the champion horse before his fame, highlighting the beauty and grace of the young colt from his birth, through his youth, and finally to his time as a champion on the track. The artistic rendering of Barbaro’s life from his early years to his first races culminate in the celebration of his life after his death in this poetry collection.from “Those Nights in the Stall”did Barbaro dreamhorses galloping?In the dark, starless,did he feel theground shaking?Imagine the soundof hooves on turf?Was there something in the wind?The scent of horsesthundering past thebarn, of flyingmanes, the beatingof his own heart,louder than hooves?

A deeply emotional collection of poems that highlights the filly behind the legend of The Licorice Daughter, Ruffian. With tender care, Lifshin takes her readers through the too-short life of a racing wonder. Beginning before Ruffian’s birth, this collection outlines the anticipation of Ruffian’s greatness. With a grand focus on the days before her fame, from the quiet beauty of the April night of her birth to the brutal separation of the foals from their mares six months after, Lifshin highlights the potential that could be seen in Ruffian’s early days. From the relationships the filly formed with her trainer—Frank Whitely, to her grooms, jockeys, owners, and her devoted fans, this collection brings to life the early days of a racing legend. With excruciating care the last moments of Ruffian’s short life are laid bare before the reader, as the myth is born in the hours before her death.

This collection of poems captures the life and brilliance of one of racings biggest legends. In a lyrical style that brings the tale of Secretariat to life, Lifshin highlights the beauty and wonder of the foal’s early days from birth to the track. As always, Lifshin focuses on Secretariat’s life before the track, outlining the playfully perfect foal who found his way into the hearts of many.Full of emotion and beauty, this collection outlines the life and death of one of the tracks biggest racing legends.from “As The Days Get Longer”the horse dreamsof flying in the airlike a gust of windon an abandonedChristmas tree,red exploding likea spurt of light,flaming wildly likethose boughs ofnorthern lightsout of darkness