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Another
Woman Who Looks Like Me
by Lyn Lifshin
co-published by Black Sparrow and Godine
Press
Here is the title poem . . . and
a reader's response
ANOTHER WOMAN WHO LOOKS LIKE ME
gets on Amtrak, leaves
her suitcase on the
platform. Nobody she
leaves behind has a clue.
She isn't a terrorist,
there's no Anthrax or
fertilizer in it, only
a few explosive
words to someone
dead. She could have
just made a fire,
curled near the etched
glass as if nothing
had happened
yet or revised the past.
But instead, she's coiled
what no one is left
to understand in the
lingerie pockets of a
shattered blue suitcase.
You might think
she's reckless
or lost, in a daze but
first imagine she
sees it as a child too
much for her that
she can't bear to keep
or know will grow
up with strangers
so before it can
belong to anybody
else, she wraps the
words in lambs wool
like someone
putting a new born
in thick wool,
leaving it in a
dumpster with a
diamond anklet to
let whoever takes it
know how much
it mattered
A reader's response:
"I got the chills when I read that, like I do when I hear Ella
Fitzgerald sing."
Joe
Larosa
Review by Laura Boss
Lyn Lifshin's Another Woman Who Looks Like Me is a brilliant
tour de force that mesmerizes the reader. These exquisitely crafted
poems encompass a wide range of subjects that include growing up female,
the heartbreaking beauty of horses, mother / daughter relationships,
erotic love --all interwoven with Lifshin's lyrical, velvet voice that
is at times so daring and candid that the immediacy is breathtaking.
For me not reading Another Woman Who Looks Like Me would be the
equivalent if one were a fan of fiction of not reading the most recent
novel of Philip Roth.
Publisher's information:
DAVID GODINE,
PUBLISHER, INC.
POST OFFICE BOX 450
JAFFREY, NEW HAMPSHIRE
03452 TOLL FREE: 800-344-4771, TOLL FREE FAX 800-226-0934, E MAIL:
order@godine.com
WWW.GODINE.COM
Copyright c. 2002 by Lyn Lifshin. All Rights Reserved.
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