Blood, tin, straw / Sharon Olds.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Olds, Sharon.

Contributor:

Gotham Book Mart Collection (University of Pennsylvania)

Language:

English

Penn Provenance:

Gotham Book Mart (former owner) (Gotham Book Mart Collection copy)

Physical Description:

x, 125 pages ; 22 cm

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

New York : Alfred A. Knopf : Distributed by Random House, 1999.

Summary:

Sharon Olds has divided her new collection into five parts -- Blood, Tin, Straw, Fire, and Light -- each made up of 13 poems whose dominant imagery is animal, mineral, vegetable, fiery, and luminous. The poems weave back and forth in time, from her own birth and the births of her children, through adolescent sexual awakenings and terrors, to the knowledge of love and oneness in another. Never afraid to confront the hidden substance of a woman's nature, she recalls experiences in language that is alternately casually colloquial, startling in its ferocity, and transcendent in its joy. She loves the play of words and, more than ever, her poems almost demand to be read and savored aloud.

This is a unique and powerful book that can only reinforce Sharon Olds' singular reputation.

Contents:

Blood

The Promise 3

The Gift 5

Animal Music 6

The Defense 8

The New Stranger 10

Bacchanal in Memory 12

After the Rape in Our Building 13

When It Comes 14

The Factors 15

The Babysitter 17

Aspic and Buttermilk 18

Boulder Creek 19

Once 21

Poem to the Reader 22

Tin

The Watchers 27

Know-Nothing 29

The Vision 31

The Makaris 32

The Necklace 34

Dear Heart 35

The Elopement 36

19 38

The Seeker 40

The Day They Tied Me Up 41

Take the I Out 43

After Punishment Was Done with Me 44

Immersion Coil 46

What Is the Earth? 47

Straw

A Vision 51

The Sound 52

Mortal Eternal 53

Outdoor Shower 54

The Remedy 56

Leaving the Island 57

At Home 59

The Bed 61

My Mother's Pansies 63

The Prepositions 64

Tousled Darling 66

The Try-Outs 67

My Father's Diary 69

By Earth 70

Fire

By Fire 75

Warrior: 5th Grade 76

Fire Escape 78

Culture and Religion 80

1954 82

The Burned Diary 84

Cool Breeze 86

Coming of Age, 1966 85

For and Against Knowledge 90

To My Husband 92

The Spouses Waking Up in the Hotel Mirror 93

At the Hospital for the Paralyzed 95

You Kindly 97

Where Will Love Go? 100

Light

The Protestor 105

The Falls 107

Then 109

These Days 111

Electricity Saviour 112

Ssshh 113

The Summer-Camp Bus Pulls Away from the Curb 115

The Talkers 116

Sometimes 118

First Thanksgiving 119

At the Bay 120

The Native 121

The Shore 123

The Knowing 124.

Local Notes:

Gotham Book Mart Collection copy has dustjacket retained.

ISBN:

0375407421

0375707352

OCLC:

41315342