aaduna contributor Lifshin pens a new book of poetry!

OK...we have been dormant for the past few weeks...sorry about that...but we are now back and encourage you to watch for all the updates that will start to flow your way.

First up...Lifshin!
Lyn Lifshin’s new poetry book titled “Malala” is now available. 

Lyn Lifshin   (photo provided)

aaduna featured Lyn’s work in its Second Anniversary, winter/spring 2013 issue.   Click Here

Here are some comments pertaining to Lyn’s new book and then enjoy complimentary poems from “Malala.”



Once more Lyn Lifshin, the American queen of the small press scene for the last forty years, makes her voice heard, this time in support of Malala Yousafzai, an innocent Pakistani school girl who in 2008 at a press conference in Peshawar asked why the Taliban was taking away her right to basic education.

What religion or ideology can justify the attempt to murder a l5 year old girl who speaks out for education? This new book by Lyn Lifshin is both brave and innovative. The poet somehow teleports herself to Pakistan and reaches across the oceans to enter the mind of l5 year old Malaya. The reader sees the moment as Malaya does. The poems are a breath of fresh air in a world that is filled with poison. Malaya’s voice is the voice of hope and innocence.


—Toni Ortner has 13 books and has been published in over 100 literary magazines


With the fervor and passion that only a true poet can wield, Lyn Lifshin writes about Malala Yousafzai’s near-tragedy as the “Dark birds of her dreams plung- ing/in flame onto hillsides/that once looked as if they’d been dipped in beauty” in a paean to hope, innocence, and the rights of all females everywhere. In this book Lifshin becomes the essence of Malala, the great longing for a future that each person builds with their own characterizing spirit. She, along side Malala, cries out for the justice that should allow all of us to individualize and love life so much that “each day could unravel new mysteries.”


— Christina Zawadiwsky is Ukrainian-American, born in New York City, is a poet, artist, journalist, critic and TV producer.

Poems from “Malala” by Lyn Lifshin


RUSHING TO THE METRO ALREADY A LITTLE LATE ON MY WAY TO BALLET I NEARLY SKID ON ACORNS, CATCH MYSELF


I think of Malala, maybe rushing, never
wanting to think her name means "grief
stricken," as I've written a poem about
becoming what you’re called. Maybe
she was humming a song she heard once
on TV before the Taliban made it a crime.
Or she was watching leaves drift from the bus
or giggling with girl friends. Maybe
she was thinking of being a doctor and
coming back to treat young children
in her region, her swat. Or maybe she
was hoping to see a certain boy with
licorice eyes and a smile who always
made her giggle. No longer able to wear
school uniforms, told to wear plain
clothes, Malala wrote in her blog,
"Instead, I decided to wear my favorite
pink dress." Maybe the last beautiful
thing she saw as the bullet entered her
mahogany curls until later she woke
up in the hospital's cone of light

MALALA'S THIRD DREAM OF MILITARY HELICOPTERS

no longer throwing toffee
from the sky but filling
the air with darkness.
She could hear artillery
fire. By morning only
half the girls kept coming
to school. On her way
home she heard a man
say "I will kill you."
It sounded like a
requiem . Withered
leaves fell thru
her hair as if she was
still dreaming. Dark
birds of her dreams
plunging
in flame on to hill sides
that once looked as if
they'd
been dipped in beauty

SHE SAID SHE COULDN'T SEE TO WALK EASILY



in her long gray drab
berka. Some times it
was hot. It was as if
she wanted to bring
color, not the
source of the storm,
wanted to walk
into life like it
was her house. She
wanted to wear pink
because
it was her favorite
color. There are songs
she wants
to sing. She wants
to feel as if each day
could unravel new
mysteries.
She wants the school
to receive her in quiet
calmness the way the
lake
opens to receive
a flock of swans


BEFORE THE TALIBAN CLOSED DOWN HER SCHOOL IN THE SWAT FAMILY


the war
displaced
her
family,
her
friends.
Nights in
a house
with no
books,
only
the stars
for
company.
Lying
alone in
the dark
not able to
sleep, she
must have
listened to
night birds. If
there were
dreams,
they were
dreams of
those girls
screaming,
acid thrown in their face.
Then waking up in
a house she
no longer
knew where
everything
stood,
terrified
about her
school, her
two
pet
chickens.

Malala

by Lyn Lifshin



Paperback 148 pages, $17.00 (list)

ISBN: 978-0-986600-2-1
(January 20, 2014)


Available from Amazon and
Poetic Matrix Press
www.poeticmatrix.com



WATCH FOR UPCOMIMG INFORMATION ON THE WINTER/SPRING 2014 ISSUE AND CONTRIBUTORS STARTING LATER THIS WEEK.