Poetry Books

This book lets us see how to be fully alive.I was especaly captivated by all the authers bieng WOMEN. A BOOK YOU MUST READ AND REFLECT ON.ALSO A USEFULL TOOL FOR RESEARCH.

I enjoyed this book so much I bought 2 more to give to friends as gifts.

For anyone who enjoys nature, poetry, women's prose, or all of these - you need this book! Guaranteed to have something in it that will touch your heart.

Naturalists is perhaps too narrow a word choice for the one hundred contributors to this anthology; I suspect only a few would use that word when describing themselves. Their ages span more than a century, so the style of writing varies widely, but each has something quite special to share with a reader looking for a few moments of luminousness or quiet revelation in the midst of a busy day.
Here's one of my favorite bits, and I'm paraphrasing: Men climb mountains to conquer them; women climb mountains to go deeper within themselves, to feel a oneness with nature. When I read that, I lifted my eyes from the page, stared at the horizon and thought how much more poetic and truthful that is than the usual Mars/Venus type of comparison.
Contributors range from regionalist Sarah Orne Jewett to internationalist Diane Ackerman; there are African Americans, Native Americans, Jews, Catholics, mystics, and poets among this mix, with plenty of boundary crossing.
Very lovely. Not, I believe, a book meant to be read cover to cover. Rather, let it rest beside your favorite reading chair or at your bedside, and read a few entries now and then at random. I think you'll be charmed, as I was.

I've assigned Lorraine Anderson's Sisters of the Earth in my nature writing and literature classes since it first came out. I teach at a co-ed college and both male as well as female students identify with its strong sense of place as well as its sincere approach to concerns regarding nature. In course reviews, they tell me, "Assign this book again!" The eloquence of both prose and poetry in this book is as startling as the heron landing just now on the shore of my Mississippi River house as I write this review. In short, this collection touches the soul.

I found a lot more than I'd expected in this book. The editor obviously put a lot of thought into her selection of authors and passages from their works. It seemed to me as if these were the passages I would have marked for rereading had I read those works myself. Pretty much every selection struck me as being beautifully inspirational, poetic, or otherwise moving. I'd forgotten how much simply reading about nature can do to lift and heal the spirit. I also learned a lot: I was unaware that so many women have been writing about nature for so many years -- and it was sobering to realize that much of what the earlier authors wrote about no longer exists in our world today.

The author bios themselves make for fascinating reading. (You can't help but wonder how your own life would be summed up in a paragraph or two.) And of course, as I'd expect from any good anthology, this collection inspired me to add quite a few items to my "to-read" list. The nearly 40-page bibliography includes very helpful summaries, and lists not just the sources of this anthology's selections but many other works as well.

Whatever you might expect from Sisters of the Earth, I doubt you'll be disappointed. There should be something in it for everyone -- and it's a pretty book that would make a great gift.

Alma Schindler was a piece of work who went on to inspire a number of others, notably the first movement of husband Gustav Mahler's sixth symphony and lover Oskar Koskoschka's most famous painting, Bride of the Wind. After Mahler's death and her fling with Kokoschka, Alma married architect Walter Gropius, founder of the Bauhaus. After their divorce, she married novelist and playwright Franz Werfel - an unjustly neglected figure best known today for the novel The Song of Bernadette and the play Jacobowsky and the Colonel - who called Alma "one of the very few magical women who exist."

She continues to inspire, as demonstrated by "Counterpoint," a 10-poem sequence that forms the second part of Skin, April Lindner's debut volume of verse. "Counterpoint" is subtitled "Poems on the Life of Alma Mahler Werfel" and follows Alma from her childhood visits to her father's studio (Emile Schindler was a well-known landscape painter), when she would "practice keeping still... to watch his hand propel the brush," up to 1964 in New York City, when she finds that death "is handsome /... and he, too, needs me /... his whispered proposal... clumsy / but ardent..." The sequence ends with a line so good it would be as wrong to quote it as to tell whodunit in a murder mystery.

Skin is the 11th winner of the Walt McDonald First-Book Poetry Prize, awarded by Texas Tech University Press and named in honor of a former TTUP poetry editor. Lindner, who teaches English at St. Joseph's University, seems well-deserving. She has a sharp eye for detail: "daylight, rationed by Venetian slats," "the white moth of a kiss / blown from a boy's plump lips," "burnt / sienna moustache," "milky way of red freckles" - these are picked at random from just two pages. She also has a well-nigh flawless ear for lyrical phrases graced by the uneven rhythm extolled by the French symbolist Paul Verlaine.

Occasionally, especially in the opening section, she gets a little too personal for my taste. Having no wish to be a voyeur, even if invited, I found the intimacies related in "Condom," for instance, off-putting.

But at her best, what she says of contemporary realist painter William Bailey - "once he's got us, he makes us see / deeper than we'd choose" - is also true of Lindner. The last stanza of "Moving" - from one residence to another - transmits a subtly disturbing frisson:

Last, we'll pierce the wall

to hang the faces we call ours:

bride face, groom face, infant face,

their interiors locked and off-limits,

like rooms we lived in, houses ago.

Robert Fink, the man who chose Skin for publication, has written an introduction that offers a "close reading" of Lindner's texts that borders on parody. Oh well. For those who like that sort of thing, that's the sort of thing they like. Read it, if you must, but do yourself and Lindner a favor and read the poems first.

What is it like to live and work and love from inside a woman's skin? I'm a man so I can never know for sure, but SKIN paints such vivid word pictures that it knocked me out of my own skin for a while, and into the author's. These poems are powerful.

I had the chance to hear this author read, and was moved to buy her book, which now is one of my new favorite poetry collections. Her work is sensuous, full of vibrant metaphor and imagery. Some poems are in regular meter, but most are in very musical free verse. The poems stand well alone, but together they read almost novelistically. The book is split into three sections: the first describes a woman's complex relationship with her husband and children, and the third deals mostly with sexual and romantic love. The middle section is a narrative sequence on the life of Alma Mahler, whose curious marital and sexual adventures play nicely against those of the first person narrator in the rest of the book. Best of all, these poems are immediately accessible, and yet yield up more on subsequent rereadings.

Dr. Lindner is my professor at my college, and I knew that she wrote poetry, but I had never read it. Her poetry is phenomenal. It speaks to the heart, the soul, and the mind.

Until a friend recently sent me a copy of Skin, I thought I had left my poetry-reading days back in college along with things like an all-pizza diet, Macroeconomics, and most of my hair.

As it was, the book sat on the shelf for weeks before I cracked it open to take a look. I'd like to be able to put into words just what sort of effect the contents had on me, but now I have an entirely new appreciation of just how limited my expressive talents really are.

Let's just say that, ever since, I have been searching everywhere for more writing by April Lindner. Join me -- you won't regret it.

Winner of the 2004 Blue Lynx Prize for Poetry, The Sleep Accusations is an eclectic, intimate, and highly recommended collection of the greatest poetry from the intriguing and intuitive works by Randall Watson. A Dog's Life: I love the morning rain./I am like a dog in the street/with my ears up./It's as if I've been out all night/and I am hungry./I can hear the one who feeds me/calling me home.

Winner of the 2004 Blue Lynx Prize for Poetry, The Sleep Accusations is an eclectic, intimate, and highly recommended collection of the greatest poetry from the intriguing and intuitive works by Randall Watson. A Dog's Life: I love the morning rain./I am like a dog in the street/with my ears up./It's as if I've been out all night/and I am hungry./I can hear the one who feeds me/calling me home.

Winner of the 2004 Blue Lynx Prize for Poetry, The Sleep Accusations is an eclectic, intimate, and highly recommended collection of the greatest poetry from the intriguing and intuitive works by Randall Watson. A Dog's Life: I love the morning rain./I am like a dog in the street/with my ears up./It's as if I've been out all night/and I am hungry./I can hear the one who feeds me/calling me home.

Winner of the 2004 Blue Lynx Prize for Poetry, The Sleep Accusations is an eclectic, intimate, and highly recommended collection of the greatest poetry from the intriguing and intuitive works by Randall Watson. A Dog's Life: I love the morning rain./I am like a dog in the street/with my ears up./It's as if I've been out all night/and I am hungry./I can hear the one who feeds me/calling me home.

Winner of the 2004 Blue Lynx Prize for Poetry, The Sleep Accusations is an eclectic, intimate, and highly recommended collection of the greatest poetry from the intriguing and intuitive works by Randall Watson. A Dog's Life: I love the morning rain./I am like a dog in the street/with my ears up./It's as if I've been out all night/and I am hungry./I can hear the one who feeds me/calling me home.

Were Solo Crossing to be one long whine about divorce angst, it would not necessarily be worth reading. What does shine in this book is the author's distinct ability to distill human experience, which in her case does include a painful divorce, into images that are right and relevant for all sorts of readers. Here is another wonderful example why poetry is reaching so many new readers.

On reading her poems my heart resonated. At some I cried. I did not want to, but she plucked that exact string and I was transported instantaneously into the feelings of my own divorce. What more can you ask for in an author?

The strength of these poems goes far beyond the all-too-human experience of divorce and betrayal. Here is a rich poetic voice, fresh in metaphor (from Crocuses: Synchronized/as infant birds straining gullets), and fearless in romantic honesty (from Airborne: My mother, 72,/turns to the handsome man seated beside/her on the plane./I bet you were hoping to sit next to/an attractive young blonde./Smiling, he replies, I am.) These poems are ringingly lyrical and unselfconscious, sometimes a bit spare and clipped, but always redeemed by their music.

Solo Crossing is the original book by Split Verse editor Meg Campbell. Here poems touch on all topics, though many are framed by Campbell's divorce. "Ode to a Single Mother" and "Leavetaking" address Campbell's experiences in single motherhood. Many poems on childhood as well. These poems are stunning in their portrayal of a woman's life.

Ms. Campbell's imagery is evocative and yet accessible. While maintaining a distinctly imaginative voice throughout the collection, the poems are etched deeply in a life which could be anyone's. Whether young or old, in love or out, we all know loss, and this poet tells a story which is important to hear.

what a fun book of poetry! all ages will enjoy the poems as well as the illustrations.

I waited for this to arrive and now it has. It is one of the most totally beautiful books I've bought. The illustrations are wood cut and water color. I love them. The poems just pull you into the pictures. The subject matter is new to me and now I realize what I have been missing.
Can't wait to read this a million times to my grandchildren.

This book is an absolute delight, and the 'pairing' of poet and artist is inspired. Beckie Prange's woodcuts are reminiscent of the genius of work by Gustave Baumann (1881-1971: Chicago, Brown County INDIANA, & New Mexico).

"Song of the Water Boatman" is given its wider readership just as psychologists are announcing concerns about "nature-deprived" children." Blessed be all educators who use this book to plan units & field trips that open eyes and hearts to the natural world so greatly in need of future protectors.

Joyce Sidman packs as much information per square inch as there are microorganisms in the drop of water showing off the "water bear," or "tardigrada." There are favorite segments on every page. In southern Indiana we already are being 'lullabied' by Spring Peepers, grateful for our woods and pond setting. Children are responding with glee to the repetitious "In the Depths of the Summer Pond" - - a musical chant in a four-page spread with 'lessons' about survival and the food chain. Not as beautiful as the dragon fly, the remarkable metamorphosis of the caddis fly, described as a "fashion story" of transformation, will nonetheless fascinate all. Other revelations include the water boatman, and its not-quite-mirror-image, the back swimmer which always swims on its back; both carrying their own bubbles of air with them.

This reviewer will never venture out-of-doors again without more finely tuning my senses to these wonders. We will definitely be exploring our creek with increased enthusiasm. Reviewer mcHAIKU urges that we not allow "nature-deficit" to creep into our souls, and allow our minds to limit periods of hibernation! LET'S THRIVE ON LIVING & LEARNING !

Since I had a baby this past summer, I have been looking for great books to read to her that are educational and just plain fun to read. She is now 5 months and I read her "The Song of the Water Boatman," and her eyes light up and she laughs and smiles. This is not only a whimsical little collection of poems about pond life, it is beautifully illustrated and informational on a pond's wild inhabitants.

Take it from one who grew up -- and still lives -- across the street from a pond, Joyce Sidman knows pond life! With the beautiful, strong first poem "Listen to Me" about the peeper frogs waking in the spring, SONG OF THE WATER BOATMAN introduces readers to all aspects of pond life, from cattails to painted turtles to the food chain. In addition to poems written a variety of styles, Sidman also includes a paragraph of interesting facts about the subject. And it's all capped off with the Caldecott-honor-worthy woodcuts created by Beckie Prange. All in all, a wonderful read-aloud for kids grade 1-4 studying ponds, ecosystems, or poetry...or just for fun. "Listen to Me" joins my personal list of all-time favorite poems. 2006 Caldecott Honor Book.

Sarah Freligh is a keen observer of both life and baseball, and she weaves words together in ways that clarify both. This is a beautifully written book, one that would do James Joyce and Ernest Hemingway proud. If you enjoy literature, read this.

There seems to be a trend now in writing baseball poems. This is another good collection. It's fun.

There is a trend these days to publishing short fiction collections which collectively tell a novelistic story, but Sort of Gone is one of those rare poetry collections which achieves the depth and scope of a novel. In these poems, Sarah Freligh creates an entire world of characters and employs multiple points of view to tell the story of the rise and fall of a baseball player. The stories told in the poems generate enough tension and suspense to qualify this collection as a "page turner" -- you will read it quickly to see what happens to Al, and then you will read it again to see how Freligh pulled this off. I'm not a baseball fan and yet I still could not put this book down. Brava, Ms. Freligh!

Sarah Freligh's poetry collection, `Sort of Gone' is as subversive as it is sublime. To say it takes such American icons as Baseball and the 50s American family and turns them on their ear is understatement. She explodes them, and the shrapnel tears the reader apart. It is worth the ordeal to experience the complex lives of these fascinating characters. To Al Stepansky, baseball is salvation. It is an escape both figurative and literally from his sad and abusive household. Playing baseball gives him lofty goals to pursue, then the fame he thought he craved and toward the end of life, his only moments of true happiness. The poetics of baseball is not sort often seen on film and heard from orgasmic sportscasters. Baseball for Al and his father is order in a world that is often cruel and crushing. It is a connection between a parent and child in a fractured relationship. Sarah makes the reader understand how fans and players can lose themselves in the intricacies and rhythm of the game. Even if the reader has never watched a baseball game, the importance of the sport to its fans is easy to see and understand. Sarah accomplishes this with sparest use of words. Her economy and fluidity in driving her love of the game and her keen insight into family, sex, aspiration and disappointment home would be the envy of Al Steapnsky and perhaps to Mickey Mantle himself.

I'm not a baseball fan. In fact, I'm not a sports fan at all, but I am a huge fan of SORT OF GONE. I'm sure if you're a baseball lover you'll pick up on nuances that I missed, but even without a love of of the game, this book hits home (pardon the pun).

The story of Al Stepansky is relevant to anyone who's pushed hard for a big dream, who's been let down by their family, or even worse, let down by themselves. All together, the poems tell an amazing story, but every one stands on its own as well.

The characters are vivid and feel like people you know -- people you see in every day life, people you've heard stories about -- and the imagery and rhythm and color in these poems is stunning. Sarah Freligh has done an amazing job in finding the humor in every day life, in human nature, and even in the dark spots.

If you haven't read this book yet, you're missing out.

Here is where Ginsberg's brilliance is perhaps best shown. In conversation, he revealed his passion and sharpness for all topics. His "poems" should probably not be called poems, but instead exercises in poetic freedom, which is ultimately a futile task, especially when approached for the mere sake of asserting more freedom. One is baffled at the mere badness of his poems, which are not in the Whitmanian vane at all, but in the vane of bloated mounds of words. Nonetheless, Ginsberg, the "excitable visionary Jewish Budhist," is beautifully and swiftly rendered in these interviews.

"Spontaneous mind," a collection of interviews, is an uncensored perspective of Allen Ginsberg's life, work and the events of his time. The poet felt the interview was an art form, an opportunity to discuss and teach about writing, music, spirituality and whatever topic may surface. Although some celebrities may shun the interview, Ginsberg clearly held a passion for the medium which is quite palpable throughout this collection. In fact, Ginsberg does not flinch at any of the questions, but instead attacks them with fervor and honesty.

The editor, David Carter, includes several vigorous and worthy spars. A conservative William Buckley begets a heated discussion about America in 1968 concerning drugs, censorship and the Vietnam War. A stoic Christian confronts the Buddhist devotee with God's Word. Ginsberg patiently reaches for truth and understanding with compassion in every interview. He is generous with his thoughts but at times the interviews are long-winded. This is the inherent danger of being spontaneous, the cliche of beatniks being free-spirits who spout non-sequiturs off the top of their heads seems eerily true at times. However, the text is a lucid portal for the reader to glimpse the beatnik world through the eyes of one of its gods. Ginsberg's history is an indelible part of beatnik culture. William Blake, Walt Whitman, Jack Kerouac and numerous other notable influences are also discussed.

Bohdan Kot

Brilliant, transformative and mind expanding like Allen himself. The freedom he sought and found and shared is here. A most generous heart. I also recommend Beat Writers at Work, especially for the chapter on a semester in one of Ginsberg's classes.

This book is loaded with information and after almost 600 pages later; here I am with an overview. Most of the books I read tend to be around 200 to 300 pages, so this book is like two or three books put together, consisting of different interviews from the 1950's to the 1990's and a very mixed bag, packed with intriguing thoughts of poetry, prosody, prose, Ginsberg and the Beatific scene that emerged from the late 1940's that subsequently influenced the psychedelic generation of the 60's.

There is some real insightful information on poetry here, very educational and foundational to the beatnik poetic movement, and poetry in general. Ginsberg relates his influential poets that inspired him, molding his thought processes and way of life. From Ezra Pounds, Walt Whitman, the painter Cézanne, William Carlos Williams, Gertrude Stein, Rimbaud and from 1948 a mystical experience with the words of William Blake, whose voice appeared to him after masturbating and subsequently experiencing some other mystical visions and awareness. Blake, although not a living person from our time era, became Ginsberg's guru upon the advise of an Indian teacher. In some cases of poetry and linguistic teaching of stanzas and crescendos, I was reminded of Peter Eckermann's, Conversations of Goethe and their discussions.

There are great explanations of the spontaneous style of poetry, the Buddhist flashes of thoughts that come from the spaces between thoughts, that spring up in the perception of the moment, the present flash to be written down in that precise way, the style of momentary thought speech converted into writing and there you have Kerouac and Ginsberg and Burroughs, except with Burroughs it is with flashes of mental pictures converted into words. This is not the conventional style of sitting down and organizing formal structures, nor a laid out novel or rhyming poetry, no, it is spontaneous and attempts to capture the sudden flash of idea - "first thought, best thought" as Ginsberg's later teacher the Tibetan Buddhist Lama, Chogyam Trungpa shared with him, or visa versa, and it was Trungpa's school that also endorsed the Kerouac School for Disembodied Poets. Even Shakespeare was the spontaneous poet, "every third thought will be my grave," unlike the mechanical, arid, conformity of what was taught in the Universities when Ginsberg attended in the 40's. So I say to this, hey, I guess Kerouac wasn't a babbling, rambling madman, but instead he was actual, solid, writing real bits of consciousness, at least according to Ginsberg. His words were like the jazz, the bebop of bits of everyday sudden speech, spontaneous.

Also are some great stories of the crew: Ginsberg, Burroughs, Kerouac, Cassidy, Snyder, and Orlovsky. Some of this gets rather explicit. Ginsberg was gay and I don't think that should be censored from this amazon review. In this book he is explicit in describing the love acts of himself and Kerouac, Orlovsky, Cassidy and others, including his acknowledgment of Walt Whitman homosexuality. Interestingly, in one interview, Ginsberg relates the highest love as a nonsexual male relationship - this sounds like Socrates at the Symposium.

There are also interviews relating to the Chicago Seven and it's political opposition to the conformity of the masculine police state mentality. Great thoughts on censorship, sacredness, hippie flower power, LSD, Yage, peyote, prosody, Bob Dylan, the Teton Mountains, Buddhist conceptions, the Cabala's ultimate science of ZimZum, detachment, karma, Ezra Pound, Dionysian orgies, the Berkley Renaissance, explicit sex (censorship), belly breathing, anger control, Visions of Cody, Hinduism and Woodsworth.

Of course there's a lot said of Ginsberg's poems such as Howl, Kaddish, Wichita Vortex Sutra, Fall of America and their influences and styles. There are also scores of book references that would take years to read, but nevertheless, great leads to book buying and increasing comprehension and insight into poetry, Ginsberg, Kerouac, Snyder, McClure, Corso, Ferlinghetti, Snyder, Burroughs, and the beatnik frame of no-mind.

This book teaches a lot and I am impressed at the amount of insight Ginsberg had, intellectually, emotionally, and poetically and if I can use the word "spiritually."

i am a ginsberg fan and so i am biased but this book of interviews is really an enjoyable read. sure some of the interviews are dated but they really show the great intuitive thinker and off the cuff debater the allen ginsberg really was.
especially fun is his debate with john lofton who attempts to bury ginsberg in his born-again brand of conservativism. also fun is allen's transcripts from the chicago seven trial. i actually found this a hoot.
also his discussion on poetics is quite enlightening.
we miss you allen; your shining mind, intelligent wit and your shaman boddisattvic spirit

I bought this book from my grandson aged 6 - He is so into it - just loves it and has taken it to school to show his teacher and class. I am delighted - it has encouraged him to draw - tell stories about the drawings he does - he wants to write a book about his own stick kid now.
Thank you.

The most wonderful book for any parent and/or Stick Kid! Every mom I know has cried just a little when reading this sweet book!

I bought this book on recommendation of our montessori pre-school teacher and both of my girls (ages 2 and 4) just love it.

It's simple verses are 'catchy' to my little ones and I have to say it's every bit a hit as 'Good night Moon' ever was around here at bedtime!

A really little treasure!

My son and I were lucky to stumble on this book by chance at our local library. I have read it to him every night before bed for the past two weeks and it is still adorable and captures his attention. Not a small feat for a 3 year old.

Adorable book. Great for fun read alouds with children and also a great example of rhyming text. Illustrations are simple, but fun. Any child or adult can relate to this book because we have all drawn stick figures before, the only difference is that this one Stick Kid gets a back story.

This book can also be used in the classroom, or at home to get children to draw a picture, whether it be their own stick person and get them to write or tell you a story about it. You can even have them make a series of pictures and have the kid(s) make their own book.

Incredibly personal poetry of strength, love, self discovery and womanhood, that worked it's way straight into my mind and pulled some of my most intimate memories. Bringing me closer to understanding that I'm not alone in my experiences. Helping me take a closer look at who I am, and how wonderful the journey has been, however good or bad.

This a Great Debut for Ms. Coleman!! A wonderful book -- one that is profoundly interesting and thought-provoking.Good Work!!-Rick Worthy

Shonnese's book is excellent! The poems are thought-provoking, convicting and beautiful...wow...what a gift...brilliant job, brilliant work...however painful waking up can be, I appreciate any wake-up call and the poems in this book have that effect on me...thank you.

This book of poetry was such an inspiration to me. I'm not a fan of poetry normally but I went through this like it was a novel. I really got a feeling for the writer through the short comments she makes about her life in the book. It gives a three dimensional understanding of it. I enjoyed getting to know the writer a little bit. It gave me an understanding of where certain pieces came from, why they were written and out of what circumstances. I highly recommend this book not only to people of color, but all people. Ms. Coleman deals with life, love, the search and discovery of God and oppression. Oppression as a woman, as an African-American woman, and as a person. I believe everyone can identify with her work.

Wonderfully written. Incredibly personal poetry of strength, love, self discovery and womanhood, that worked it's way straight into my mind and pulled some of my most intimate memories. Bringing me closer to understanding that I'm not alone in my experiences. Helping me take a closer look at who I am, and how wonderful the journey has been, however good or bad.

Sharon Olds is an incredible poet, and should be read by anyone interested in current poetry. The poems in Strike Sparks are powerful language evoking clear visuals and strong feelings. The seeming simplicity of her writing style, coupled with her focused attention, leaves one wanting to turn each page and absorb yet another. At the same time, she has a wonderful sense of humor--the first page that flipped open when I first picked up the book was "The Pope's Penis." How can you not explore further after that?!

After reading her letter to Mrs. Bush, I'm supporting Sharon Old's rejection of Laura Bush's invitation to participate in the National Book Festival and breakfast at the White House by buying one of her books. Thank you, Sharon Olds for making this brave and costly stand. I hope others will buy your books to support you and your honesty. I look forward to becoming acquainted with your poetry.

I have to admit I was not familiar with the work of Sharon Olds before today. Today I read her moving letter to Laura Bush explaining why she was declining her invitation to the National Book Festival in Washington.

If her poetry is one tenth as moving, heart-felt, and true as that letter, she's gotta be one terrific poet, and I look forward to the volumes of her work I ordered from Amazon this evening. If you've not yet read her letter yet, I urge you, do so.

As one of Olds' fans for many years, I am the owner of most of her books. Her book The Father still brings me to tears. I want to buy this additional one in support, as are others, of her letter to Laura Bush--and of her ongoing brilliance and honesty as a poet.

Her father is dying, and her plane's been cancelled, but there's another, leaving in just a few minutes, not in this terminal, but it will get her to her father before he dies, and so Sharon Olds runs --- I swear to you, she runs as no woman has ever run before.

She's making love. Though it looks like she's having sex, because the writing is so specific. But as much as Sharon Olds revels when he does [redacted] to her and she [redacted], she's clear what's really going on. ("How do they do it, the ones who make love without love?" she wonders.) And so, after, she knows what women know after.

Her son, he's so big now. And her daughter --- brushing her hair, Sharon Olds can't help thinking: What does it all mean?

Parents, lovers/husbands, children. Sharon Olds deals mostly --- I could almost say: deals only --- with the big topics. At least, the big topics if you have parents, husbands/lovers and kids. And she deals with them so directly, so bluntly, that it may come as a surprise to those who do not know her writing that she is a poet, and, for my money, the best we have.

The subject of a lot of poetry is poetry: the poem taking its place --- or wanting to --- in the great chain of literature. Sharon Olds has done her reading. And she has her influences. But the beauty of her writing is that you see none of that. All you get is a woman, looking and listening, and then talking. "Do what you are going to do, and I will tell you about it," she writes at the end of a poem about her parents, and that's the strength of her work --- it's just the facts she thinks you need, plus her take on them.

Sharon Olds can go this deep because she lives this deep. She does not read newspapers or watch TV. "The amount of horror one used to hear about in one village could be quite extreme," she explains. "But one might not have heard about all the other villages' horrors at the same time." Also, she doesn't drink coffee or smoke, and she limits her wine. Her life is marriage, kids, work. Which, she says, accounts for accessibility of her poems:

"I think that my work is easy to understand because I am not a thinker. How can I put it? I write the way I perceive, I guess. It's not really simple, I don't think, but it's about ordinary things -- feeling about things, about people. I'm not an intellectual, I'm not an abstract thinker. And I'm interested in ordinary life. So I think that our writing reflects us."

"Strike Sparks" is a selection of her poems from 1980 to 2002. It tells a story, though that wasn't her intent along the way. ("I'm just interested in human stuff like hate, love, sexual love and sex. I don't see why not.") In these poems, we follow the dying of a father, the growth of children, the deepening of love through sex. And more. Because Sharon Olds mostly does what the greatest poets do: She knows what you feel, but can't find the words to say.