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Overview
With poems that project a fresh spirit, a startling energy of language and counterpoint, and a moving, elegiac tone shot through with humor, Sharon Olds takes risks, writing boldly of physical, emotional, and spiritual sensations that are seldom the stuff of poetry.
These are poems that strike for the heart, as Olds captures our imagination with unexpected wordplay, sprung rhythms, and the disquieting revelations of ordinary life. Writing at the peak of her powers, this greatly admired poet gives us her finest collection.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9780307548597 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group |
| Publication date: | 12/05/2012 |
| Sold by: | Random House |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 144 |
| File size: | 2 MB |
About the Author
Read an Excerpt
The Unswept Room
By Sharon Olds
Knopf
Copyright © 2002 Sharon OldsAll right reserved.
ISBN: 0375414894
Bible Study: 71 b.c.e.
After Marcus Licinius Crassus]BRK defeated the army of Spartacus,]BRK he crucified 6,000 men.]BRK That is what the records say,]BRK as if he drove in the 18,000]BRK nails himself. I wonder how]BRK he felt, that day, if he went outside]BRK among them, if he walked that human]BRK woods. I think he stayed in his tent]BRK and drank, and maybe copulated,]BRK hearing the singing being done for him,]BRK the woodwind-tuning he was doing at one]BRK remove, to the six-thousandth power.]BRK And maybe he looked out, sometimes,]BRK to see the rows of instruments,]BRK his orchard, the earth bristling with it]BRK as if a patch in his brain had itched]BRK and this was his way of scratching it]BRK directly. Maybe it gave him pleasure,]BRK and a sense of balance, as if he had suffered,]BRK and now had found redress for it,]BRK and voice for it. I speak as a monster,]BRK someone who this hour has thought at length]BRK about Crassus, his ecstasy of feeling]BRK nothing while so much is being]BRK felt, his hot lightness of spirit]BRK in being free to walk around]BRK while others are nailed above the earth.]BRK It may have been the happiest day]BRK of his life. If he had suddenly cut]BRK his hand on a wineglass, I doubt he would]BRK have woken up to what he was doing.]BRK It is frightening to think of him suddenly]BRK seeingwhat he was, to think of him running]BRK outside, to try to take them down,]BRK one man to save 6,000.]BRK If he could have lowered one,]BRK and seen the eyes when the level of pain]BRK dropped like a sudden soaring into pleasure,]BRK wouldn't that have opened in him]BRK the wild terror of understanding]BRK the other? But then he would have had]BRK 5,999]BRK to go. Probably it almost never]BRK happens, that a Marcus Crassus]BRK wakes. I think he dozed, and was roused]BRK to his living dream, lifted the flap]BRK and slowly looked out, at the rustling, creaking]BRK living field-his, like an external]BRK organ, a heart.]BRK
Sunday Night
When the family would go to a restaurant,]BRK my father would put his hand up a waitress's]BRK skirt if he could-hand, wrist,]BRK forearm. Suddenly, you couldn't see]BRK his elbow, just the upper arm.]BRK His teeth were wet, the whites of his eyes]BRK wet, a man with a stump of an arm,]BRK as if he had reached behind the night.]BRK It was always the right arm, he wasn't]BRK fooling. Places we had been before,]BRK no one would serve us, unless there was a young]BRK unwarned woman, and I never warned her.]BRK Wooop! he would go, as if we were having]BRK fun together. Sometimes, now,]BRK I remember it as if he had had his]BRK arm in up to his shoulder, his arm]BRK to its pit in the mother, he laughed with teary]BRK eyes, as if he was weeping with relief.]BRK His other arm would be lying on the table-]BRK he liked to keep it motionless, to]BRK improve the joke, ventriloquist]BRK with his arm up the dummy, his own shriek]BRK coming out of her mouth. I wish I had stuck]BRK a fork in that arm, driven the tines]BRK deep, heard the squeak of muscle,]BRK felt the skid on bone. I may have]BRK met, since then, someone related]BRK to one of the women at the True Blue]BRK or at the Hick'ry Pit. Sometimes]BRK I imagine my way back into the skirts]BRK of the women my father hurt, those bells of]BRK twilight, those sacred tented woods.]BRK I want to sweep, tidy, stack-]BRK whatever I can do, clean the stable]BRK of my father's mind. Maybe undirty]BRK my own, come to see the whole body]BRK as blameless and lovely. I want to work off]BRK my father's and my sins, stand]BRK beneath the night sky with the full moon]BRK glowing, knowing I am under the dome]BRK of a woman who forgives me.]BRK
Excerpted from The Unswept Room by Sharon Olds Copyright © 2002 by Sharon Olds
Excerpted by permission. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.