Original Love: Poems (Paperback)

by Molly Peacock (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
Peacock (Take Heart) moves away from her well-crafted formal poems, many virtually indistinguishable from those of a dozen other poets, to speak here in a voice uniquely her own. Explicit eroticism rivals that of Sharon Olds, while the angst welling up in some innocent rhymes echoes Sylvia Plath's "Daddy." As Peacock says in a poem offering instructions for suicide: "you feel pain,/ my darling thing, because you feel warm." The woman narrating these poems hates her body and its demands as much as she hates her mother and her needs, especially the care required by her parent in her dying. Frequent sexual references seethe with undertones of sadomasochism. Exploring three loves-for lover, mother, self-Peacock presents a highly charged portrait of a woman moving out of a dysfunctional family, needing to be safely cherished by another before coming to terms with her past, and finally learning to love herself. Although burdened by knowledge of human fallibility, Peacock's relentless search is deterred by neither illness nor death.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal
Readers of Peacock's poetry will recognize in this fourth collection a familiar motif: the need to articulate difficulties with familial, interpersonal, and sexual relationships. Peacock is most imaginative when she's describing a painful experience, one that endangers "throttled love." Mixing the cerebral and the raw, awareness catalyzed by trauma, her language is raised to explicitness. Exploring boundaries between men and women, mother and daughter, and one's mind, body, and senses, she wonders whether anything is still inviolable; in this mental landscape, it is difficult to distinguish between desire and suffering. Peacock's tough redemption is for pleasure and selfhood to have meaning. Accomplished and witty, this anatomy of "original" love is not for the fainthearted; it's for those who believe that is is still possible to feel deeply.
Frank Allen, West Virginia State Coll., Institute
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 92 pages
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company (June 1, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0393314669
• ISBN-13: 978-0393314663
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.5 x 0.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #349,375 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Poems which are personal and universal at the same time, January 4, 1998

By	[e-mail] "[e-mail]" (US) - See all my reviews

Original Love contains 91 pages of intensely personal and universal poems. The author divides these poems into three sections; First Love, Mother Love and Other Love. In 'So What If I'm In Love', a poem in the first section, I felt as if I were the one who accidently left "... the penguin sweatshirt ... smelled both of him and time ..." on the subway. I felt the pain of loss along with her as the subway doors closed and his scent went with it. Poems dealing with her mother's life and death comrpise the second section. In 'Raptor', Peacock accepts her mother's death on its own terms while imagining how her own death will happen. "Foolishly I'd imagined for you your mother's death, not your own ... who knows what death I'll get exactly, being daughterless, the line begetting neutralized, in hands beyond love". In the final section, poems like 'Simple' address her spiritual side; "When the wafer dissolves on my tongue I wonder what part of the Lord I have eaten," while 'Forgiveness' verbalizes finding peace with her past ..."the felt lightness of existence self-created, forgiveness". Something in each of these poems spoke to me as I were their narrator. I wish I had written them. I recommend this collection to anyone who wishes to dig into the heart and mind of a woman.

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5.0 out of 5 stars Some soul whispers me a love poem in early evening., February 4, 1998

By	[e-mail] (Japan) - See all my reviews

It's a lovely and beautiful song. Shall I speak to you? Mind It's a secret! Next time......