The BlueIris Semi-Nightly Poem Thread, 9/3/07 Bonus

[BlueIris]

"The Couple"

On the way to the country, they fall asleep
in the backseat, those enemies,
rulers of separate countries, sister and
brother. Her big hard head
lolls near his narrow oval skull
until they are crown to crown, brown
hair mingling like velvet. Mouths
open, the rosebud and her cupid’s bow,
they dream against each other, her calm
almond eyes and his round blue eyes
closed, quivering like trout. Their toes
touching opposite doors, their hands in
loose fists, their heads together in
unconsciousness, they look like a small
royal bride and groom, the bride still a
head taller, married as children
in the Middle Ages, for purposes of state,
fighting all day and finding their only
union in sleep, in the dark solitary
power of the dream—the dream of ruling the world.

—Sharon Olds

[BlueIris]

1. Kick.

[BlueIris]

2. Kick.

[Droopy]

3. That really flows

I've read a few of her poems before and I liked them. But I've heard that she is a controversial poet. Is that the case? Maybe I'm thinking of someone else.

[BlueIris]

4. Controversial? It...depends on what you mean by "controversial."

She's written a lot about sexuality, using frank language and graphic detail; she's a feminist, she's (supposedly) a liberal (of the "extreme" pacifist variety) and her poetry is known for what her fans see as its technical originality. She's been an important part of the so-called 'back to the body' movement, especially for women.

She's written one or two poems which I know have been received badly...by those with no taste and less perspective, IMO. A poem from her 1987 collection, "The Gold Cell" entitled "The Pope's Penis" is considered somewhat controversial because, well, uh, it's about Pope John Paul II's penis. (The last time I read an interview in which Olds was asked about it, she said that she is still careful where she reads that piece, but also mentioned during the same interview that she wants to be able to write about any subject.)

Other reasons people dislike Olds' work have to do with her inclusion of references to the Holocaust in early poems in which she describes the childhood experiences of speakers who were neither Holocaust survivors, raised by survivors, or Jewish. (She's also said that she's reexamining these poems and considering rewriting them; I actually think some have been rewritten, but I haven't checked the newer editions of her books to see.) Some of her harshest critics claim that Olds' compositional approach is sloppy, saying her line construction often features poor enjambment and her choice of subject matter isn't "worthy" of poetic examination. One review I read of one of Olds' mature books of poems actually had the gall to declare that what she is doing isn't art.

Occasionally, people have questioned her ethics, because she wrote quite a bit of what she calls "apparently personal poetry," which for a time appeared to some to be about her, not just a fictitious speaker's, extremely detailed experiences in an abusive family, as well as extremely joyous experiences in a healthy one in adulthood. (Even I assumed she was writing about her own life for a few years, despite having been taught to differentiate between a speaker's voice and experiences in a poem and that of the poet who wrote it.) Recently, I read that a couple of decades ago, Olds made a vow never to answer questions about her family publicly, and not to discuss just how closely the poems she has written are connected with her life experience. But I've read a few interviews in which it seems obvious to me that she's admitting she based many of the poems on actual experience, which offended her family members and friends, and she began to regret it early on in her career so she's done her best to try to frame the poetry as being "apparently personal." I think she's quite coy about the question of just how personal the poems are, really, which is one of the only things about her that I don't like.

Oh, and she refused a dinner invitation to the White House in the late summer of 2005, actually writing to tell Laura Bush that she could not "stomach" the thought of "breaking bread" with the Bush family or any members of its administration.

[Droopy]

5. Yeah I was thinking about someone else

But I could see how some people of the conservative persuasion would see Olds as controversial.

I don't have a problem with poets speaking of their own lives in poetry. I think that is often called confessional poetry and I like that stuff.

[BlueIris]

6. The confessional poets are my favorites. And yeah, Olds is considered confessional,

although I've seen her try to distance herself from that label because "confessional" poetry implies that the poems are personal as opposed to "apparently personal."