Time

In Lyn Hejinian's "My Life", time plays an important, recurring role in her poems. The very beginning of the first poem speaks of a purple moment when Father returns home from war. The narrator says that moments used to be colored, but they are no longer. "So much of childhood is spent in a manner of waiting" (page 9). Time lines trail behind every idea, object, person, pet, vehicle and event, and it seems more normative than place. According to the narrator, "what follows a strict chronology has no memory" (page 16). As such, memory also recurs throughout this collection as an addition to the theme of time, and all memories are gripping thoughts.

Time is also described as pure duration, a compound plenum in which nothing repeats. Adolescence is seen as repetitious with each moment beginning in the middle. Wanting to explain is like having a memory, and a...