Olds, Sharon <br/><br/>
The gold cell  : poems 
/ by Sharon Olds 
 - 1st ed. 
 - New York  : Knopf  : Distributed by Random House  , 1987. 
 - ix, 91 p.  ; 22 cm. 
 - The Knopf poetry series  ; 25 .
<br/><br/> Beneath the surface of life Olds discovers ``what all of us want never to know''her own sexuality. Her obsessive descriptions of sex are too candid to be erotic: ``the condom/ripped and the seed tore into me like a/ flame.'' With evocative imagery (``We think about bones twisted like white/ saplings''), Olds searches through ``all the eloquence of the body'' for the means to assess her roles as daughter, lover, wife, mother, and woman. Despite a too-easy solipsism (``I looked at you and I tell you I knew you were God/ and I was God''), the best poetry occurs when Olds presents moments of awakening as though they had just happened--her baby's arms ``bent like a crab's rosy legs, the/ thighs closely-packed plums in heavy syrup.'' For poet and reader such moments are purifying. 
<br/><br/><label>ISBN: </label>9780394747705 
<br/><br/><label>LCCN: </label>86045511 
<br/><br/><label>Subjects--Topical Terms: </label><br/>Poetry, American
<br/><br/><label>LC Class. No.: </label>PS3565.L34  / G6 1987 
<br/><br/><label>Dewey Class. No.: </label>811.54 OLD