Spectral Freedom: Selected Poetry, Criticism, and Prose

Lynn Strongin, who has been called the Dickinson of our time, was faced with death at age twelve. Because stopping for death was not an option for this brave young girl, she decided to rise above her diagnosis of polio and sing rather than cry; she has been doing just that her entire life. Lynn Strongin was paralyzed at age twelve by the insidious disease which would be completely eradicated only two years later. But it was too late for her. She would soon realize that her life was going to be very difficult as well as different from other children. She would, indeed, go on to miss schoolroom, adolescence and her first ball gown. The beautiful trappings of womanhood would never happen, yet this woman would never be trapped! She sang songs of rapture, not requiem. Lynn Strongin was the raptor and she rose above her cell. "Spectral Freedom" sings melodies of loss in poetry, prose and criticism, as well as providing the reader the ultimate definition of freedom. She shows how the human condition can be cruelly imprisoned inside of a box nailed shut on all sides and yet the soul is capable of breaking through that prison and rise. Strongin sings the many voices of liberty and like Dickinson prays and knows that the carriage holds "But" the self--and immortality. Faced with death at age twelve, one can either fall back into the corners of despair or cry out with bravado. Lynn Strongin chose life without clipped wings and she is, in fact, still flying!