Stags Leap is stunningly poignant sequence of poems that tells the story of a divorce embracing strands of love sex sorrow memory and new freedom. In this wise and intimate tellingwhich carries us through the seasons when her marriage was endingSharon Olds opens her heart to the reader sharing the feeling of invisibility that comes when we are no longer standing in loves sight the surprising physical bond that still exists between a couple during parting the loss of everything from her husbands smile to the set of his hip. Olds is naked before us curious and brave and even generous toward the man who was her mate for thirty years and who now loves another woman. As she writes in the remarkable Stags Leap When anyone escapes my heart leaps up. Even when its I who am escaped from I am half on the side of the leaver. Oldss propulsive poetic line and the magic of her imagery are as lively as ever and there is a new range to the musicsometimes headlong sometimes contemplative and deep. Her unsparing approach to both pain and love makes this one of the finest most powerful books of poetry Olds has yet given us. show more