Case 5.2

Seltzer, Joanne. Adirondack Lake Poems. Glens Fails, NY: Taft Press, 1985. SPEC PS3569.E58 A62 1985.

Joanne Seltzer’s Adirondack Lake Poems takes full advantage of two artistic mediums: poetry and photography (with photographs by Alan Cederstrom). I chose this page in particular because I thought that the comparison between the “dammed-up river” and the ignorance of the “social war” was worth noting. I feel that the strongest poems not only describe the Adirondacks, but also use their description to represent something more than what is physically there. The metaphor in “The Scanandaga Campsite” becomes most apparent in the last few lines, with the description of the impending waterfall becoming a reference to human disregard of future dangers due to short-term thinking and comforts.

Lifshin, Lyn. The Camping Madonna at Indian Lake. 1st ed. M.A.F Press, 1986. SPEC PS3562 .I4537 C3 1986.

Lyn Lifshin’s poignant similes— “…bag holds like arms,” “pewter light startling as blueberries”— make her short poems memorable. She uses comparisons between seemingly unrelated things in order to make her descriptions of the Adirondacks new. The brevity of her verse paints an intense picture of a single moment, and is almost akin to “flash” literature in that way. I included the cover, because I thought The Camping Madonna at Indian Lake was an exceptional title for a booklet of poems about the Adirondacks.