Description
Poetry. This diverse anthology includes work by more than 80 poets, both well-known (Ruth Stone, Maxine Kumin, Marge Piercy, Lisel Mueller, the late Lucille Clifton, and more) and relatively unknown, all over the age of 60. These poems speak of love in particular lives and details. Some loves can be categorized--the eros of falling in love, the philia of close friendship; the affectionate bonds of family and familiars; agape's compassionate loving-kindness--and these are all explored here. There are also poems about a passion for a calling; plain old-fashioned lust; sensual delight in life's pleasures; tenderness, devotion, and concern. Each poet in this collection writes out of her real experience, belonging to this historical time, from a vast array of loving (or nonloving) exchanges--and so each reader will find individual patterns, nuances, and voices. The whole contributes to defining and refining that elusive word, love, in our time, caught in language and breathed into the poems.