A review by bufally47
What We Carry by Dorianne Laux

4.0

I think I stumbled across this by googling “poets similar to Sharon Olds” and it did not disappoint. I slowly broke away from that connection the further I delved into the collection, though, and by the end their similarities seemed rather superficial – white ladies of a certain age who write lines of similar length. Yes, they both write about family and sex, but what poet doesn’t? Laux also has a touch of the celestial in her poems (and not in an empty, new-agey sort of way). A few sort of fizzled out at the end, a few even seemed selfish and pointless, but several sent shivers down my spine, and most had at least some little pearl to offer. I’ve missed reading poetry. Favorites: “2AM”, “The Aqueduct”, “This Close”, “After Twelve Days of Rain”