I'm Loving "My Life"

My time in Poetry class is up, but fortunately we had an opportunity to cram in one final book, "My Life" by Lyn Hejinian. I hadn't any idea how I was going to make sense of this book, because it's written unlike any poem I've ever seen. It is 165 pages long and made up of 44 poems, or 44 stanzas of one long poem, depending on how you read it. Furthermore, each stanza is 44 sentences long.

Hejinian had an interesting idea with her formatting, but it is the content of her poetry that made me genuinely love reading "My Life." Hejinian has pulled together people, experiences, feelings, vignettes, and questions from her life and pieced them together to make a messy but genuine portrait of life, her life.

Hejinian's autography was such a fulfilling read, more than most biographies, because instead of touching on the areas of life that everybody thinks need to be addressed (such as where she grew up, what her professions were, who she married) she writes about the smallest details that make her unique and also like everybody else. I was shocked by how many images I felt were taken directly from my own life, or questions that I have felt myself asking as well:

“In the kitchen on the left is the drawer for refolded brown extra-strength doubled paper bags marked with the name of the supermarket in red”(85).

"A beautiful concert or an unusual autumn sunset makes me feel restless if I'm by myself, wanting someone with whom to share it" (40).

"Supper was a different meal from dinner" (30).

"Thinking back to my childhood, I remember others more clearly than myself, but when I think on more recent times, I begin to dominate my memories" (92).

The list goes on and on. I found myself constantly underlining phrases that struck an emotional chord with me. I felt myself wanting to tell somebody what I was reading, so we could share in these small truths that make us human. "My Life" is a book I see myself coming back to many times throughout my own life, and I believe each time it will hold more meaning. It's strange to think that this book is now a part of me, just as the people that Lyn Hejinian has known, the poems she has heard, and the tiny red rocking horse that somehow has earned a place in her memory are all a part of her.