Customer Reviews

The Book of Seventy (Pitt Poetry Series)

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In "The Book of Seventy," Ostriker's twelfth book of poetry, she returns to some of the themes of her earlier poetry as well as themes that have shaped her prose, but in "The Book of Seventy" her language, her thinking, her images are more distilled, more urgent. That is what makes this a necessary book. Whether writing about mortality, the closely observed quotidian, or reconsidering the voices of Kali, Persephone, and Gaia, Ostriker renders poems in this collection that are breath-taking in their exactitude and density. This is a collection of a commanding poet demonstrating the excellence of her craft and her intuition.

I own this book and loved reading it....it's tender and tough and honest about the later years (which I'm in too). And the news it carries about life, about our lives, is vital for all ages.

One of these days Alicia Ostriker will take home the recognition she deserves--a Pulitzer or the National Book Award feel long overdue. Poignant, funny, pithy, wry--her poems create memories that you're almost sure were yours before they were hers--so much a part of your brain do they become. She also spins fables and prayers. One of my favorites oddities is this.

The Blessing of the Old Woman, the Tulip, and the Dog

To be blessed
said the old woman
is to live and work
so hard
God's love
washes right through you
like milk through a cow

To be blessed
said the dark red tulip
is to knock their eyes out
with the slug of lust
implied by
your up-ended skirt

To be blessed
said the dog
is to have a pinch
of God
inside you
and all the other
dogs can smell it

An unflinching look at the human and spiritual questions we face in this decade. Ostriker tells the truth as it resontates thought myth and memory.