This book surprised me, but I don’t really feel qualified to write about it. It is by a poet associated with the fabled LANGUAGE school of poetry, an American group of poets in the 60s and 70s. None of the names ring any bell to me when I scan the wikipedia page, even though I have a vague sense that they have had a considerable influence in the world of poetry (not least by inspiring a group of poets from Gothenburg, Sweden who call themselves GTBRG, which include several well-known younger poets in the Swedish literary scene). Lyn Hejinian (who, contrary to my original impression, is not of armenian heritage despite her surname, which she acquired in her first marriage. Her origins are Scottish, and she grew up being called Lyn Scottie, or something or other) has written a formally “interesting” prose poem which original was written at age 37, then comprising 37 chapters about her upbringing and life. Revisited at age 45 she wrote 8 new chapters. I can’t really muster that much interest in this kind of writing. It results in a weird feeling, but I don’t know that I gain that much from that state. I wanted to read it since I’ve been lugging around it for 15 years without cracking it open once. I bought it at a library sale in 2004 or -5.
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Kinship of all Species 