The autobiographical poetess. This is so amazing. I discovered how much I could love being a woman in my poetry through Sharon Olds.

She's so good. Not trying to be "edgy." Just putting together, with raunchy humor, low&hi language, ecology, our biological unity despite all the differences we takes so seriously, life & death - kid & adult level, serious & silliness -- all in under 3 minutes with laughter as a bonus. If you don't like her, fine. Each to his/her own. She's still good - no shit.

Thank you Sharon, added to a playlist...

this is my favorite poem in the world i love it. i am a poet and i would love to write a poem like that someday

loved this. loved her. I Ode to a Composting toilet was hilarious!

@fantasy1775

5 жыл бұрын

Ode to an Idiot

Hi! Does anyone know when "Ode to the Tampon" was published/written and if it's in any of her collections?

Neruda look what you started.

ha ha ha everbody shits LOL

Some people obviously can't handle shit... poor precious little creatures.

i hate to say this - because i love this lady - but she reminds me of ted kooser wearing a wig. thank you and good night.

her poems about giving hed and getting facialized are much better.

hahaha i love this 'nyrfan3093' comment - "poetry is the gayest thing ever and serves no purpose to society." ...because hockey serves such an important purpose in society. it's comforting to know, however, that poets challenge people's beliefs so much that they must spew their self-hate onto the internet. ignorance is the only reason for such anger. if you're comfortable with yourself, then you won't need to hate the honest work of others...stop lying to yourself and admit you're a human being.

Sounds like a female Stephen Hawking to me.

You know it's self-indulgent poetry festival trash when they start writing about shit.

I dear, oh my - what has happened to the noble art of poetry; looks like the "nympho virgin chick shit" has had its way with it.

She is one of the worst poets currently living in the English language. No music, no technical ability, consistently awful line breaks, bathos, cliches. But she's a female writing about female sexuality, so the puffery merchants who make up our literary critics now are too scared in case they seem illiberal to call her out on her awfulness. Christina Rosetti and Emily Dickinson, on the other hand, were also female poets who discussed their sexuality, albeit more obliquely. The first was a very good poet on her good days and the second inarguably great.

@gotf

9 жыл бұрын

Being crude doesn't make you a bad or good poet. She is well respected because of her content. Every poet doesn't need to sound like Dickinson. The technical aspects of a poem is important but it isn't the only thing that matters. Take Anne Sexton. Not the best technical poet but a strong poet nonetheless. Olds is the same. Her kind of confessionalism is very importantant to poetry.

@iainrobb2076

9 жыл бұрын

It isn't important to poetry. Originality is important to poetry. So is technical ability. Those are two of the most important things in making poetry 'poetry'. Olds has neither. The current poetry establishment is an anti-meritocracy that continually overlooks good poets in favour of printing bad ones who all write like everyone else.

@gotf

9 жыл бұрын

Originality and technicality are just two aspects when considering "good" poetry. Language, metaphor, voice, and content as play a huge part in poetry. But every poem will not concentrate on all of these aspects. But "good" poetry is subjective. A similar argument can be made with Gertrude Stein's poetry. Old's style of poetry is just as important as other great poet's style like Plath, and Dickinson. Prose poetry has no line breaks but it is still poetry. It doesn't take away from the poem to not follow a strict form. Think about Howl by Ginsberg. Not a technical poem but an incredible poem.

@iainrobb2076

9 жыл бұрын

The distinction between good poetry and bad poetry is not subjective. Crane and Dante will transport their readers on a far deeper level than those who like mediocrities like Heaney or real bad poets like Angelou will ever be transported by what they're reading. There is an obvious difference in musicality, visual depth, depth of meaning, originality, emotional and intellectual depth, and elegant use of language. You might as well say that there's no qualitative difference between Beethoven's Late Quartets and Justin Bieber, but that would be utterly absurd.

@gotf

9 жыл бұрын

I'm not taking anything away from those great poets. Plath is my favorite poet. Her work is very complex. But I also love Sexton and Louise Gluck who's work aren't complex. They're work is straightforward. But I don't think this makes Plath a better poet than them. If that's the case the more difficult to poet the better poet they are. Poetry is more than that. I'm not trying to take away from the beautiful depth of a Dickinson poem or a Plath poem. But there's still room for simplistic poetry. A poem can be simple and still be good. I think the best example of my argument is Louise Gluck's book "The Wild Iris". It's an incredibly emotional book but the poems don't really follow any structure. What I'm basically saying is you should give Old's poems another chance and try to see why they resonate with people on the level that they do. I do completely understand where you are coming from with your argument. But some poems still hit you in a strong way even if they are technically impressive.