Arguably America's greatest living poet Sharon Olds enters her eightieth year with a book for
our times: a book of fear fragility and love of life***NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST******AN
OBSERVER BOOK OF THE YEAR 2023***'Sharon Olds is a force of nature... She proves triumphantly
evergreen'OBSERVER'At the time of have-not I look at myself in this mirror ' writes Olds in
this self-scouring exhilarating collection which opens with a section of quarantine poems
followed by her 'Amherst Balladz' honouring Emily Dickinson - 'she was our Girl - our Woman -
Man enough - for me' - and leads to celebrations of lost friends and lovers: her childhood
young womanhood and old age all mixed up together. She examines her white privilege sees her
mother 'flushed and exalted at punishment time' celebrates the human body even in ageing and
looks with wonder at the natural world and how we've spoiled it.Renowned for her poetry of
searing honesty sexual frankness and brave originality Sharon Olds' new book emerges 'at the
eleventh hour of the end of the world' from the time of plague this time of loss where she
can look at the world and her life and tell us plainly 'love is the love of who we are it is a
form of knowing.'
