Blue Tattoo, by Lyn Lifshin
Event Horizon Press, 1995
Lyn Lifshin is one of the world's most prolific poets, with more than 100 published books of poetry. Following a workshop that Lifshin put together for the New York State Museum called "Writing Through the Holocaust," Lifshin was asked if she could put together a group of poems to be published to coincide with the 50th anniversary of Victory in Europe Day. Blue Tattoo is the result of that request -- 200 poems on the holocaust, beginning with the rise to power of Hitler and the Nazi party.
The poems in Blue Tattoo are powerful, often overwhelming, and I found that I could not read more than a few pages at a time. Lifshin's poems have the ability to make a loaf of bread poignant, a young girl's diary entry uplifting, and a shoe enigmatic. At times, the poems are straightforward in their descriptions of the ugly horrors of the concentration camps, like these lines from "That Sunday":
When he doesn't move
they hoist the victim
into a sitting position,
splash gasoline into his armpits,
lift his arms high
and strike a match.
At other times, the poems provide a more subtle commentary, as in "Sounds of Glass":
The woman
who cannot see
hears what sounds like
branches slapping
into a frozen lake,
sounds like glass
under her husband's
foot at the wedding --
musical as wind chimes.
I am impressed that Lifshin manages to keep her poems from becoming trite or excessively 'ranting.' What she does is create a beautifully vivid depiction of Germany during the thirties and forties, in a voice that drips with authenticity.
For a full listing of other books available by Lifshin, visit her web site at www.lynlifshin.com.
