Barbaro

Before his career as a champion racehorse, and his death following a devastating injury, Barbaro was a colt like any other. In her traditional poetic style, Lifshin outlines the life of the champion horse before his fame, highlighting the beauty and grace of the young colt from his birth, through his youth, and finally to his time as a champion on the track. The artistic rendering of Barbaro’s life from his early years to his first races culminate in the celebration of his life after his death in this poetry collection.from “Those Nights in the Stall” did Barbaro dream horses galloping? In the dark, starless, did he feel the ground shaking? Imagine the sound of hooves on turf? Was there some thing in the wind? The scent of horses thundering past the barn, of flying manes, the beating of his own heart, louder than hooves?

"Barbaro proved to be the ultimate hero--he died trying. This book of poems provides a fitting and lyrical tribute to the hero." --Sean Clancy, author of Barbaro, the Horse Who Captured America's Heart and Saratoga, "I loved this book! Lyn Lifshin's Barbaro: Beyond Brokenness tells the story of that gallant and tragic champion in words and phrases as soft as a child's tears. Lyn's love for the horse that touched so many so deeply is clear. . . . The book made this reader smile, weep and remember the many wonderful aspects of Barbaro's life. Reading Barbaro: Beyond Brokenness is to once again be reminded of his greatness and his indomitable spirit, how much he touched us, and why we all regret that he wasn't able to complete his journey." --George Rowand, author of Diary of a Dream, "Lifshin has managed to capture the grandeur and heartbreak of this horse, the equine soul in flight--Beautiful! Just like his name, Barbaro." --Laura Chester , "No one has written about race horses as beautifully and evocatively as Lyn Lifshin has done in this book on the tragic career of Barbaro and in her paean to the immortal Ruffian, The Licorice Daughter: My Year With Ruffian. Lifshin has been described by one reviewer as 'frighteningly prolific, ' but, though that is an accurate description to be sure, her prolificacy does not in the least diminish the profundity and charming accessibility of her poems. Lifshin's observations of the unexpected rise and agonizing fall of Barbaro are acute and charged with empathy. These poems imbue the memory of Barbaro with a heroicism that is exquisite and rare, a quality that is sorely lacking in this modern age of prosaic anxiety and despair." --Joe LaRosa

Lyn Lifshin is the author of many books of poetry, including Another Woman Who Looks Like Me (Black Sparrow at David Godine), selected for the 2007 Paterson Award for Literary Excellence. She lives Vienna, Virginia.