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Rating:  - Poetry That Cuts to the Core
I am not usually a poetry reader but many of the poems in this book stopped me in my tracks. Marge Piercy knows how to get to the core of the matter and fully describes feelings and experiences I have had.
Here is an excerpt from Morning Athletes
"It is not the running I love, thump
thump with my leaden feet that only
infrequently are winged and prancing,
but the light that glints off the cattails
as the wind furrows them, the rum cherries
reddening leaf and fruit, the way the pines
blacken the sunlight on their bristles,
the hawk flapping three times, then floating
low over beige grasses,
and your company
as we trot, two friendly dogs leaving
tracks in the sand. The geese call
on the river wandering lost in sedges
and we talk and pant, pant and talk
in the morning early and busy together."
Rating: - Picked it up and Never Put it Down
My copy is the one dog-eared, worn volume always where I can find it on the bookshelf. Usually poetry volumes contain some winners and some losers, but I've read every poem cover to cover repeatedly, had favorites, sent copies to women who inspired me, and loved my copy in some rough times. Piercy's poems raise the bar for what women can be in poetry- hers are real- warts and all. And nevertheless, her first-person poetry makes those flaws both recognizable and even at times endearing. The tragedies are laced with revelation, the lovers are never perfect, and even Piercy's piece devoted to lost luggage evokes those little moments which become laughable and yet epic in their betrayal.
Rating:  - Poetry as I like it!
I like poetry with imagery that resolves into a shift in vantage point; this is something of which Marge Piercy is a master. The poems are in some aspects raw and gutsy, others are lyrical and meditative. I read "The Doughty Oaks" outloud to someone who also admired its tight imagery of a miser in rags, and the contradiction at the end of the poem. The last set of poems in the book are based on the Celtic Lunar calendar (in name only, this isn't Wicca) as a way for Piercy to celebrate the lunar calendar of the body and of the Jewish religion as well--whose festivals fall on lunar dates and account for our shifting Easter holiday. Well worth reading if you like poetry. This is one book I will be pulling off the shelf from time to time, to find new aspects of meaning.
Rating: - Never really put this book up!
I bought this book about 18 years ago. For a little while it was on the shelf after I first read the poems. Then it came down. It's been unshelved for casual reading most of the remaining years. There are witty funny silly poems here. There are deep poems. There are honest revelations of different aspects of life. There are deep penetration into the nuts and bolts of love, into the politics of men and women. There are tears and laughter. There are mirrors to see and shar eyour own life and known you aren't alone, and neither is Marge.
Hope you can get the joy, the understandingt, the laughter and the humanity I got when I bought this book so long ago!
Rating: - With Piercy and soul-sisters, women are strong
And not only that, but they are powerful and smelly and they MAKE MISTAKES. There is nothing more empowering than finding out that making mistakes is alright, and that was the strongest message I got from this book when I read it at the tender age of 15. It changed my life, ensuring that I would grow to tell boys "NO", and that I would tell myself "YES", and more than that, that I would be able to forgive myself for both of those answers. "Cats Like Angels" and "For Strong Women" should be required reading for all women, and everyone who LOVES women.
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