49 1/2 The first long month, waiting and waiting, I fear I am pregnant. The second long month, a clot appears, ruby-crowned kinglet’s nest. Well – that’s it, I hear myself saying, in passionless wonder. For a moment, I… Read More ›
Sharon Olds
Poem of the Week: The Clasp by Sharon Olds
The Clasp She was four, he was one, it was raining, we had colds, we had been in the apartment two weeks straight, I grabbed her to keep her from shoving him over on his face, again, and when I… Read More ›
Poem of the Week: The Daughter Goes To Camp by Sharon Olds
The Daughter Goes To Camp In the taxi alone, home from the airport, I could not believe you were gone. My palm kept creeping over the smooth plastic to find your strong meaty little hand and squeeze it, find your… Read More ›
Poem of the Week: I Go Back to May 1937 by Sharon Olds
I Go Back to May 1937 I see them standing at the formal gates of their colleges, I see my father strolling out under the ochre sandstone arch, the red tiles glinting like bent plates of blood behind his head,… Read More ›
Open Letter to Laura Bush, by Sharon Olds
This fourth of July, I could not stop thinking about all the men and women who are still risking their lives on a daily basis in the Middle East. I’ve been watching a lot of documentaries on the war, on… Read More ›
Poem of the Week: Late Poem to My Father by Sharon Olds
Late Poem to My Father Suddenly I thought of you as a child in that house, the unlit rooms and the hot fireplace with the man in front of it, silent. You moved through the heavy air in your physical… Read More ›
Poem of the Week: Diaphragm Aria by Sharon Olds
Diaphragm Aria It’s curious and sweet to slip it out and look inside, to see what’s there, like a treasure hunt, small toys and dolls tucked into the root-floor of the woods, or tilt up a stone in the yard… Read More ›
Poem of the Week: Poem for the Breasts by Sharon Olds
Poem for the Breasts Like other identical twins, they can be better told apart in adulthood. One is fast to wrinkle her brow, her brain, her quick intelligence. The other dreams inside a constellation, freckles of Orion. They were born… Read More ›
Poem of the Week: The Solution by Sharon Olds
The Solution Finally they got the Singles problem under control, they made it scientific. They opened huge Sex Centers-you could simply go and state what you want and they would find you someone who wanted that too. You would stand… Read More ›
Poem of the Week: When it Comes by Sharon Olds
When it Comes Even when you’re not afraid you might be pregnant, it’s lovely when it comes, and it’s a sexual loveliness, right along that radiant throat and lips, the first hem of it, and at times, the last steps… Read More ›