Lynn Levin
1999 Poet Laureate
Poet, writer, and translator Lynn Levin is the author of six books, most recently: Miss Plastique (Ragged Sky Press, 2013), a 2014 Next Generation Indie Book Awards finalist in poetry; as co-author, Poems for the Writing: Prompts for Poets (Texture Press, 2013), a 2014 Next Generation Indie Book Awards finalist in education/academic books; and a translation from the Spanish, Birds on the Kiswar Tree (2Leaf Press, 2014), a collection of poems by the Peruvian Andean poet Odi Gonzales. Her other books include Fair Creatures of an Hour (Loonfeather Press, 2009), a 2010 Next Generation Indie Book Awards finalist in poetry; Imaginarium (Loonfeather Press, 2005), a finalist for ForeWord Magazine’s Book of the Year Award; and A Few Questions about Paradise (Loonfeather Press, 2000).
A native of St. Louis, Missouri and a Bucks County resident since 1982, Lynn Levin holds a BA in comparative literature from Northwestern University and an MFA in writing from Vermont College. She teaches creative writing at the University of Pennsylvania and Drexel University.
Sublunary and All
You are my bubble tea.
You are my knobby knee.
You are my cell phone and my skeleton key.
You are my praying mantis.
You are my lacey panties.
You are my Nowhere, my Atlantis.
You are my book.
You are my match.
You are my Trader Joe’s, my T. J. Maxx.
You are my upper and my last,
as well my heel, my tic tac toe,
my soap, my nasal spray, my radio.
What I am to you I’m shy
to ask. I may not be
the caffeine in your Coke,
your pair of dice, your cryptoquote,
your corned beef special,
your bowl of borscht.
Baby, there are days you’re not
my profile or my two-eye shot,
my mic, my makeup, or my token for the bus.
Not all is equal in the coupled world
or fair or right. One may love more,
the other less. But in the well of night
beneath the sickle moon,
I know you are my bling, my jelly bean,
my medicine, my spoon.
(From Fair Creatures of an Hour)