[New-Poetry] Lifshin Syndrome

Fri Nov 2 16:25:17 EST 2007

It's my first post to this list and, unbelievably, I find myself having to defend Lyn Lifshin, a poet I neither know, admire, nor--to be honest--give a shiatsu about.  Still, I don't see why anyone cares how much she writes or submits.  And while the wonder whether she writes down every thought or never edits may or may not be true, that doesn't explain the fact that she's been published so much.  We'd have to rattle a thousand editors' doors about that.  She only submits; they choose to publish.

(Of course, the answer why they publish her is simple if you've ever sat and read a pile of submissions.  Most of it is amateurish, muddled, and unpublishable.  I've read some of Lifshin's stuff, and it's not horrible.  So she gets published because her stuff still in the sifter after some vigorous shaking.)

But please, how could prolific writing be a negative?  For her or anyone?  You write and write and write and then...  What?  Have you emptied the juice box?  Is that all you've got?  No mas?  Mo mas? 

Or is the issue that you wrote all that--took all that time--and it might be awful.  Well, let's tear off the wrapper and look: Yep; it's awful.  Except for that line there...  And maybe that little thought, yes...  And--Oooo--isn't that a nice phrase?...  Next time, let's leap from that verb--and write and write again.

It's not a simple numbers game, no.  But it is a matter of exercise and practice and rummaging new closets.  What effort doesn't improve with repetition?  The music analogy was apt, as would a sports analogy, or painting, or programming, or cooking, or throwing tomatoes at an opera singer.

Okay. I've got to get back to work; all this writing has made me eager to do nothing.

Now, where can I submit this?

John J

P.S., If Lifshin's promiscuous publishing makes people scratch,  any thoughts on Bukowski, who's published about a half dozen books of "new" poetry since his death?  (I almost put those quotation marks around the word poetry in the sentence above:  Does that give away my opinion of Bukowski?)

Anny Ballardini <anny.ballardini at tin.it> wrote: This reminds me of what I read years ago of how Alejandra Pizarnik wrote. 
She practically kept her poems on single papers glue to the walls as if they 
were paintings and once in a while read them over again and added or took 
away, just like a painter.

From: "Suzanne Burns" 
poetry at wiz.cath.vt.edu>

> I'm coming into the middle of this thread, so I hope I am not asking
> something that is obvious:
>
> WTF?  Does she simultaneous submit like a mad demon or is she one of
> those logorhheaic types who writes down EVERYTHING that pops into her
> head and never revises?
>
> Inquiring minds want to know.
>
> For myself, making that leap to sending anything out is a big deal-- I
> find it hard to stay organized and motivated.  I know I can do it-  I
> edit and produce much more complicated things professionally-- but
> when I need to do something like this for myself, pfffffffttt.....
> instant blonde.
>
> My friend Karen Volkman had a real system back when we were studying
> together-- she kept twenty poems "in the air" at all times.  With good
> results.  But those were good, finished, ready to be published poems
> of course.  *Sigh* I need a secretary.
>
> Suzanne
>
> On 11/1/07, jforjames at aol.com  wrote:
>> Jim,
>>  As Tad's post said, "And a lot of it was good." It's not a question of 
>> her
>> merits as much as what are the motives...
>>  1) If I publish 100,000 poems before I die, certainly I'll be certified
>> canonical. (for the future)
>>  2) I like to see my work in print everywhere. It feeds me, makes me feel
>> important. It's the way
>>  I self-actualize. (for the now)
>>  3) It's my obsession. (can't stop myself)
>>  Finnegan
>>
>>  -----Original Message-----
>>  From: James Cervantes 
>>  Bcc: jforjames at aol.com
>>  Sent: Thu, 1 Nov 2007 7:53 pm
>>  Subject: Re: [New-Poetry] Lifshin Syndrome
>>
>>
>> On 11/1/07, jforjames at aol.com  wrote:
>> > Anny,
>> > 100 books, and published in 10,000 litmags. It was kinda laughable to
>> > browse thru Poet's Market or
>> > Directory of Poetry Publishers (Dustbooks) and see so many litmags
>> boasting
>> > 'Lyn Lifshin' as someone
>> > they'd published. It would have been more interesting if one of them
>> > stated: "We resisted publishing
>> > Lyn Lifshin."
>>
>> My previous experience with Lyn Lifshin was pretty much like yours,
>> James, when I edited Porch (print): The monthly assault of Lyn
>> Lifshin poems, all of them rejected.
>>
>> However, I did publish her in The Salt River Review. We don't boast
>> about it but the poems are in the archives:
>> http://www.poetserv.org/SRR27/srr27_contents.html
>> She just happened to send a batch in which I found a couple of solid
>> poems, IMHO.
>>
>> -- Jim
>> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>> ~ Salt River Review: http://www.poetserv.org
>> ~
>> http://www.hamiltonstone.org/catalog.html#temporarymeaning
>> ~ http://www.fieralingue.it/documenti/mr_bondo.pdf
>> ~ http://www.poetserv.org/jvc/home/index.html
>> ~ http://home.earthlink.net/~jvcervantes/
>> ~ http://www.flickr.com/photos/12364573@N08/
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