Imaginarium by Lynn Levin

Imaginariumby Anonymous

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July 26, 2005: Who could imagine a book that begins with 'How to do it' and ends with 'Sundry blessings'? Indeed, these are the bookend poem titles in Lynn Levin's smart, sexy collection, 'Imaginarium.' In the poem, 'How to Do It,' Levin offers her own conflicted version of carpe diem: 'Moderation in all things,/ sighed the wise. All the sweetness you can seize, laughed the thief.' The conflict between thoughts and feelings, and also a passionate quest for everything sweet, are just two of a number of recurring themes. Others are sexual violence, social injustice, the trials of love, and the struggle to discover one's own truth. The book's epigraph draws a distintion between 'exactitude' and 'truth,' stating that exactitude is often mistaken for truth. Levin's poems are imbued with language where image, sound, and sense are crafted with an exactitude that can be nothing but truth. Not the Truth with a capital 'T,' rather, thuths which sound the bell of mindfulness. I found myself discarding a few of my old truths and acquiring a few new ones - no small feat for a book of poetry. Seldom is the unity of sound and sense so deftly presented as in the following line, 'O life of elemental purpose. O unexamined life.' These are ambitious poems that lay life open and attempt to make bearable what Levin calls the 'unbearable vigilance of living.' Levin has her own answer to Rilke's admonition that 'You must change your life.' She discovers and bravely writes in the poem, 'North,' 'that I did not have to change my life,/ that I could go on perfectly well as I was:/ gaveling the air for justice, forcing my heart/ toward mercy, bending before all branches/ so as to walk humbly: for I have heard/ that is all that is required of me.' A personal and poetic manifesto to be admired. 'Industry in spite of sorrow!' writes Levin. Industry, indeed! 'Imaginarium' is the compelling and intelligent work of a talented and noteworthy poet. Discover for yourself its 'Sundry Blessings.'