Lynne Savitt Relics of Lust New and Selected Poems

  
Lynne Savitt

Relics of Lust

New and Selected Poems

NYQ Books

New York, NY

© Copyright 2014 by Lynne Savitt

Softbound, $18.95, 256 pages

Review by Zvi A. Sesling

Sex. Forty or more years of it.  One would think there’s too much of it.  Forget the thought. There’s not enough!  Lynne Savitt, as the blurbs say, has been writing poetry since the early seventies, mostly about women and their sexuality.  In this book, as well-known poet A.D. Winans states, “Savitt is the queen of sensual poetry, with a sense of humor second to none.”   He must have been reading Everything I Know About Life.

Everything I Know About Life

can be summed up

in just one sentence

he forces her legs

open with his knee

and before she can

fantasize about tahiti

it’s over

Or, if you prefer something a bit different, perhaps from someone who is a bit more mature and doesn’t particularly consider herself a cougar but still sexy in a poem try this one:

Your Lover Is Too Young For You If

he puts your pantyhose on his head

doesn’t know the words to You Made Me Love You”

thinks Jack Nicholson is old

drinks any light beer

uses inexpensive condoms

lass as long as you do

was born the same year as your son

Savitt’s view of writing is also a bit different than some might expect, but leaves the reader with plenty to fantasize about, in fact it goes the reader something to write about.

Writing

my friend leo says

it’s okay to get

old & fat

to be remembered

as a blonde

dream carrying a rose

a pink velvet

ass bent over

a car fender

a warm mouth

wet as the tropics

all you need

to write, he says,

is the memory

he continues through

the phone wire

as you put yr

fingers under

the elastic of my

mauve lace panties

memory blazes

poems poems poems

There are also poems entitled “For My Pals, Penises, Poets & Penitents Who’ve Passed In The Nineties,” “No Good Deed Goes Unpunished,”  and many more whose titles belie the serious aspects of her poems.  Take for example

What Do I Tell My Granddaughters

About The Movies & Real Life

husbands punch their wives after beers

with the boys losing at cards or racetrack

the come home smelling like sachet from

lingerie drawer not yours checkbook lost while

kayaking glue themselves to their glasses

cheaters, brutes, idiots, sissies they kiss

or beat the crap out of their respective

spouses who are all unfaithful blondes

with great tits & ass acting cool as blue

plastic ice cube trays or brunettes in

pale pink cashmere & nylon stockings

cheeks peaches as produce from augusta

get grade A education love your limbs like

branches of the weep willow write poems

in linen clouds dance like a vengeful rain

hump like sweet bunnies paint canvases big

as arizona canyons travel the world ten times

over paint yr lips 7 cheeks with pomegranate

kiss the lover back of any human who shares

yr joyful pain & macro photography don’t ever

care what others think of yourselves as warrior

princesses deserving of the universe & own it

Undoubtedly there are those who will (or do) not like Savitt’s poems, but I for one have become a fan of someone who can mix the serious with humor and make sex into the kind of something we can experience through her.  Men are the all-conquering heroes of their sex while Savitt bares the truth.  Her poems can be funny or touching. Playful or serious.  You don’t last some forty years successfully publishing poems unless you have something say.

_________________________________________

Zvi A. Sesling

Reviewer for Boston Small Press and Poetry Scene

Author, King of the Jungle and  Across Stones of Bad Dreams

Publisher, Muddy River Books

Editor, Muddy River Poetry Review

Editor, Bagel Bards Anthologies 7& 8