"Flicker is a memoir in verse of a life well lived. Lynn Hansen rightly names the collection for her favorite bird, and for the flickers, or moments, of happenings caught in words, illustrating phases and interests of a lifetime. She carries us through childhood's joys of "forest humus, thick moss / and a bouquet of wild orchids" and woes, "the word move was profane because it frees the rat of anxiety that gnaws on the tight knot in my gut." She rejoices when she declares, "When I retire I'm going to write poetry." Then for a decade or more, that's precisely what she has done. Lynn was...