A wise looking woman wearing sunglasses inside Spencer Art Museum takes her place behind the podium. Flowing black clothes drape her body, hiding her tiny frame. She looks fragile, even more so when her high-pitched voice quivers into the microphone. She clears her throat and takes in her audience that can't be contained in the chairs set up for the reading. People of all ages spill onto the floor around her, and after she begins reading her first poetry, coincidentally called "The Beginner", it is clear that she may look frail but her poetry is strong. I loved her idea that everything in life eventually starts over again.
I had never heard of Lyn Hejinian until I heard the words "extra credit." I must admit that is that was my main motivation to see her speak at first. After hearing her one of her poems I was intrigued. What she wrote about just so unexpected for an older woman. I was waiting for poems about flowers or the good old days. Instead she read from poetry called "The Fatalist" and became the first to ever attempt to sing American Philosophical poetry.
The ADD in me started to kick in but I remember snapping back to reality when she read the words "I, too, am an asshole." I'm almost positive she also dropped an F-bomb at some point. Obviously in a college environment cussing is nothing new but I was just not ready to hear it come from Lyn. It is probably for this reason that her works are so popular: her words are unpredictable. Part of this is because of her style of writing poetry. After you hear her read her first poem it's apparent that the standard rhyming poem is not going to cut it with her.
"It's ok if you laugh but you don't have to," these are the Lyn's opening lines as she dives into sharing some of her current work with us. She talks about the defiance of death and how death has no logic. Both of which are the two main themes of her new poems. Because as Lyn puts it "death has not logic," she figures that her poetry shouldn't either. Therefore no two lines in this set of works are the same. None of them even follow any of the same patterns, which as she expressed to us, is very difficult.
Lyn told us about how one of her friends died from heroin and all these experts were talking about how she needed closure. She tells us how she was disgusted by this idea; she feels that death should not bring closure it should bring pain. She also states how acceptance and closure are two very different concepts that are often used interchangeably. "I didn't want death to get the last word," Lyn said that her was her motive for writing the poems are such a morbid topic.
I thought the most interesting part was at the end of the reading when people from the audience questioned her. At one point she said something along the lines of "I am a big fan of thinking." I also found it interesting that she doesn't think about the readers at all when she writes her poems. My favorite quote from her, though, had to have been when she said, "For me poetry has been a median for staying conscious," Lyn said. I found this reason so fascinating and yet so brilliant. Poetry is a safe, peaceful and satisfying outlet that is often overlooked. Our world wouldn't be half as violent if people followed in Lyn's footsteps.
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