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4.01 AVERAGE
4.01 AVERAGE
emotional
hopeful
reflective
slow-paced
emotional
reflective
sad
fast-paced
Great book of poetry. even though it is about her divorce it doesn't diverge into bitterness and sadness. Though there is sadness there it's tinged with longing and love. It's a great book to read when working through any kind of Loss.
I haven't read nearly enough Sharon Olds, but this is some of her best. Eviscerating.
"When he loved me, I looked / out at the world as if from inside / a profound dwelling, like a burrow, or a well"
"When anyone escapes, my heart / leaps up. Even when it's I who am escaped from / I am half on the side of the leaver."
"When he loved me, I looked / out at the world as if from inside / a profound dwelling, like a burrow, or a well"
"When anyone escapes, my heart / leaps up. Even when it's I who am escaped from / I am half on the side of the leaver."
Just read "Known To Be Left" and you will understand how this honest, heartbreaking book cracks you open.
"and I saw, again, how blessed my life has been,
first, to have been able to love,
then, to have the parting now behind me,
and not to have lost him when the kids were young,
and the kids now not at all to have lost him,
and not to have lost him when he loved me, and not to have
lost someone who could have loved me for life."
"When they say, If there are any doctors abroad,
would they make themselves known, I remember when my then
husband would rise, and I would get to be
the one he rose from beside. They say now
that it does not work, unless you are equal.
And after those first thirty years,
I was not the one he wanted to rise from
or return to -- not I but she who would also
rise, when such were needed. Now I see them,
lifting, side by side, on wide,
medical, wading-bird wings -- like storks with the
doctor bags of like-loves-like
dangling from their beaks. Oh well. It was the way
it was, he did not feel happy when words
were called for, and I stood."
first, to have been able to love,
then, to have the parting now behind me,
and not to have lost him when the kids were young,
and the kids now not at all to have lost him,
and not to have lost him when he loved me, and not to have
lost someone who could have loved me for life."
"When they say, If there are any doctors abroad,
would they make themselves known, I remember when my then
husband would rise, and I would get to be
the one he rose from beside. They say now
that it does not work, unless you are equal.
And after those first thirty years,
I was not the one he wanted to rise from
or return to -- not I but she who would also
rise, when such were needed. Now I see them,
lifting, side by side, on wide,
medical, wading-bird wings -- like storks with the
doctor bags of like-loves-like
dangling from their beaks. Oh well. It was the way
it was, he did not feel happy when words
were called for, and I stood."
"and I saw, again, how blessed my life has been,
first, to have been able to love,
then, to have the parting now behind me,
and not to have lost him when the kids were young,
and the kids now not at all to have lost him,
and not to have lost him when he loved me, and not to have
lost someone who could have loved me for life."
"When they say, If there are any doctors abroad,
would they make themselves known, I remember when my then
husband would rise, and I would get to be
the one he rose from beside. They say now
that it does not work, unless you are equal.
And after those first thirty years,
I was not the one he wanted to rise from
or return to -- not I but she who would also
rise, when such were needed. Now I see them,
lifting, side by side, on wide,
medical, wading-bird wings -- like storks with the
doctor bags of like-loves-like
dangling from their beaks. Oh well. It was the way
it was, he did not feel happy when words
were called for, and I stood."
first, to have been able to love,
then, to have the parting now behind me,
and not to have lost him when the kids were young,
and the kids now not at all to have lost him,
and not to have lost him when he loved me, and not to have
lost someone who could have loved me for life."
"When they say, If there are any doctors abroad,
would they make themselves known, I remember when my then
husband would rise, and I would get to be
the one he rose from beside. They say now
that it does not work, unless you are equal.
And after those first thirty years,
I was not the one he wanted to rise from
or return to -- not I but she who would also
rise, when such were needed. Now I see them,
lifting, side by side, on wide,
medical, wading-bird wings -- like storks with the
doctor bags of like-loves-like
dangling from their beaks. Oh well. It was the way
it was, he did not feel happy when words
were called for, and I stood."
emotional
funny
hopeful
reflective
medium-paced
challenging
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
medium-paced