Nisha recommends:
My Life by Lyn Hejinian
Lyn Hejinian is a female poet from 1960s San Francisco, whose writing is heavily influenced by the experimental poetics of Gertrude Stein. But don’t let that put you off; Hejinian’s poetry is nowhere near as difficult to read, using poetic-prose sentences that move along the pages with delicate descriptions and a gentle rhythm.
The concept of My Life is an autobiographical work composed of sentences, there are 36 stanzas of 36 lines each, reflecting Hejinian’s age (at the time). Lines like “I am a stranger to the little girl I was, and more–more strange. But many facts about a life should be left out, they are easily replaced. One sits in a cloven space” from My Life remind the reader that our stories are shared, and Hejinian’s memories could just as easily be our own. She is not the most well-known of poets, but her original, thoughtful and affecting work in My Life makes you wonder why not.
