Lyn Lifshin has written more than 90 books and chapbooks and is suspended in time with the love, anger, pain, passive and active ego, lady-of-the- evening style that becomes a woman with the virtues of a she-goddess in modern times. She is in a massive amount of magazines and anthologies. With my very first read of a book called Black Apples which Lyn signed for me at a private reading to a correspondence autograph of Tangled Vines(A collection of top women poets) I have adored Lyn's sleek original "hip" style, movement, rich with feel for poetry. Nothing but the best is not an easy cliche to say, but, to be honest, Lyn's got the knack. She asked me by correspondence to be a part of her famous Upper State New York Workshops and even though I could not go, I was thrilled to be ask. Sexuality and Societal Issues are her widest issues, but more so, her development of self-politics for a fragile German-Jewish immigrant who is now living in the States is renowned. Cold Comfort is an equation. It examines the storyline of the poetic journey of a woman's heart and takes on a huge audience caught in the middle of the market with Little Press readers. A composite of poems , from 1970-1996, those selected are already documented in various magazines and reviews. High standard. She swells with talent.

Women's reading lists. Poetry lovers will enjoy the "hip" show that Ms. Lifshin can perform as she examines herself and life around her. True-to-form. I'm luck to have believed in the circle of friends she had, including the Black Mountain Poets, Toby Olson, Sharon Olds, Deborah Tall, Albert Goldbarth, and even a local at one-time, Annie Dillard.

I like Lifshin-style period. She can run right down
the page and never stop breathing. A visionary might be only a guru, but she still takes revelation to heights even though she is a petite, dark-eyed lovely woman.

I liken her to the modern song, "When He Plays Piano
In The Dark" for those who know this jazz tune.

Here is an excerpt:

         "she used to
         leave her hair in
         the sink. Now she's
         more subtle but she
still plays tricks,
         hooks a belt on the
         hole I'd never use so
         I won't forget her





         . . . she may not be recognized"

Alive. Life is with me someone who wants to know
more and more about poetry 'till I pop like a balloon.

Lyn Lifshin tells so much of herself without restraint. A hard thing to do. It is a full match or a good Portfolio in this amount of page-space. Cold Comfort is something you will feel comfortable with and call it a favorite.

If a scientist can come up with a cure or help society be healed, a good poet like Lyn Lifshin can invent form, complete original style, in a beaker for a solvent needed by dedicated poetry buffs.

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Created Jun 11, 2008 at 2:51am • Submit your own review...