Nutley Pond

If Monet had read Lyn Lifshin's Nutley Pond, he would have painted it. Lifshin's lush images of Nutley Pond in all its seasons with its kaleidoscope of images as " geese float like ghost ships" and "gold fish glow llike opals"-- where Lifshin herself observes the flow of fauna and creatures, including the rare discovery of one of the "motherless geese" from "Operation Migration." And although this book of poems is a different flight from other books of poems by Lifshin, she proves she is as passionate about our natural world as she is about relationships. Nutley Pond is a book that needs to be in every school library from middle school to graduate school if it prides itself on having the best work on our natural environment as well as the best poetry written.

Review by Laura Boss, poet and editor of Lips Magazine

Last updated: November 13, 2008