The voice of Lynn Strongin
Lynn Strongin’s recent publication, Portraits in Glass and Light, is a collaboration with photographer, Penelope Weiss. We designed it and we’re unabashed fans of Strongin’s poetry. I’m writing about the book because I’ve been asking Strongin for months to make a short sound recording. Words on the page are great. But the spoken word, even with a poor recording, has a different power. Because my recording is not stellar, I’ve included the text below. You can hear Strongin read live on October Third at the Legacy Cafe and Gallery. Here she is reading “It Will Take Maturity & Patience,” from Portraits in Glass and Light.
It Will Take Maturity & Patience
said the latest Chinese fortune. Now no silver spoon. Now no second piece of
cake. Both of us deprived children, before a blackboard in a French provincial
town: children who do not understand the inflection, hands behind backs
standing in the corner because the two girls have a smash on each other.
Yes I had a thing for you from the get-go, a thing hard to bury alive.
Submarine, aqua & teal green buoyed me up, angst my bride.
Beautiful. Indeed there is power in the spoken word.
Such feelings are more readily heard than “read.” But having heard someone once, the voice can then become present in future readings. Very charmed by this piece.