Levin, L: Minor Virtues

The Minor Virtues, Lynn Levin’s fifth collection of poems, begins with celebrations of small everyday practices—among them, fixing broken things and buying produce from the marked-down cart—which, when fancifully contemplated, branch into deeper appreciations of life. Levin’s outlook is eclectic and occasionally very funny. Her moments are not without griefs and worries, yet, in these lyrics and narratives, she addresses them with good humor, respect, and abiding affection. As Willard Spiegelman observers, Lynn Levin’s “many virtues, variously presented and contained here, are more than minor. Maturity, wisdom, and wit are among them.”