Musings
an Online Journal of Sorts

By Alyce Wilson

This morning I wasn't sure what I was going to write about.

I thought maybe I would mention the fact that the winter temperatures have returned with a vengeance, a week after it felt like spring. I'm wearing the wool sweater my sister gave me.

But then I went to Center City with The Gryphon to get some breakfast and check my Wild Violet post office box. That's when a remarkable thing happened: I found in my post office box a submission from poet Lyn Lifshin.

Now to give you a little context, in about 1997, I was looking through the Poet's Market, and one of the things magazines list are people they have published. Lyn Lifshin's name came up again and again. She'd been published, it seemed, by a multitude of publications, so much so that it inspired me to write a poem about it.

On Reading the 1997 Poet's Market

Lyn Lifshin the ubiquitous
one woman torrent She fills
her closet with poems, unloads
the harvest every fall Lyn
Lifshin must write sweet
cover letters She must
lock down every word with such finesse
it can shock and please everyone
from the hardliners to the "little press"
Lyn Lifshin must be the goddess
of submissions When she speaks
sparkles shoot out and disrupt
your neurons She'll fiddle
with your head till you know
she's the best

One day I'll infiltrate
her poetry lab, record
all her incantations, steal her moves,
and next year, the editors will all
brag of me, next best thing
to Lyn Lifshin

More recently, a poem of mine, "Forgetting You" was published in the first issue of the Texas Poetry Journal, while another, "Do Something Ultimate!" was one of their online featured poems of the week. Shortly afterwards, a poem by Lyn Lifshin was a featured poem of the week.

So I suppose it's not surprising that she found Wild Violet, perhaps through my bio for the Texas Poetry Journal. It is a big compliment, though, that she felt the magazine was worthy of her attention.

I had to laugh when I found the fat envelope in my stack of submissions. She had crammed so many poems, on onionskin paper, into the envelope that she had to tape it shut. This seems to confirm my suspicions that she's a prolific poet.

Several of the poems would be suitable for Wild Violet, so I simply need to decide whether I want to run a series or one or two that stand well alone.

I certainly couldn't have imagined, back in 1997, that I'd be in a position to receive a poetry submission by Lyn Lifshin. It feels like I've crossed some sort of threshold of literary respectability.

So despite the blustery wind piercing through my gloves as I dictate this into my mini tape recorder, I'm strangely warm inside.

Copyright 2005 by Alyce Wilson

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