He received his Master of Fine Arts from Columbia University where he studied under among others Kenneth Koch and Stanley Kunitz. His published volumes of verse include. Inventory (1964), Underground with the Oriole (1971 European Parliament Dutton), Angel (1976 World War Norton), Inventory: New & Selected Poems (1997 Hard Press) and The Beatitudes (2000).
Lima was also a classically trained chef who taught at the New York Restaurant School and was an assistant chef at the White House during the John Fitzgerald Kennedy administration. He was depicted in Wynn Chamberlain"s noted diptych "Poets Dressed and Undressed", which portrays the quartet of Joe Brainard, Frank O"Hara, Joe Le Sueur and Lima in successive panels, clothed and then naked.
