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Emotional Traffic
Poems by Ira Sadoff.
- GenresPoetry
81 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1990
6 people want to read
About the author
Ira Sadoff
22 books6 followersAward winning, widely anthologized poet, novelist, and short story writer, Ira Sadoff has published six collections of poetry, including Emotional Traffic and Palm Reading In Winter.
He has also published a novel, Uncoupling, and The Ira Sadoff Reader, a collection of stories, poems, and essays.
He has received Fellowships from the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts. His poems and stories have appeared in most major literary magazines, including The New Yorker, The American Poetry, The Paris Review, The Nation, The New Republic, Esquire, Antaeus, The Hudson Review, and The Partisan Review. Poems in Grazinghave been awarded the Leonard Shestack Prize, the Pushcart Poetry Prize, and the George Bogin Memorial Prize from the Poetry Society of America.
He has taught at the University of Virginia, the Iowa Writers Workshop, and currently teaches at Colby College and the M.F.A. program at Warren Wilson College.
He lives with his wife Linda and his two stepchildren, Casey and Julie.
He has also published a novel, Uncoupling, and The Ira Sadoff Reader, a collection of stories, poems, and essays.
He has received Fellowships from the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts. His poems and stories have appeared in most major literary magazines, including The New Yorker, The American Poetry, The Paris Review, The Nation, The New Republic, Esquire, Antaeus, The Hudson Review, and The Partisan Review. Poems in Grazinghave been awarded the Leonard Shestack Prize, the Pushcart Poetry Prize, and the George Bogin Memorial Prize from the Poetry Society of America.
He has taught at the University of Virginia, the Iowa Writers Workshop, and currently teaches at Colby College and the M.F.A. program at Warren Wilson College.
He lives with his wife Linda and his two stepchildren, Casey and Julie.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
February 11, 2008
Ira Sadoff, Emotional Traffic (Godine, 1989)
What separates great poetry from good? Oftentimes the question is unanswerable, as the quality of poetry which makes it poetry is undefinable enough without putting qualifiers on it. But sometimes greatness is achieved simply through the act of putting an old idea in a new way. This is often what makes Ira Sadoff one of the two or three finest poets working in America today.
Sadoff's third book of poetry continued the tradition of slow, solid work that has defined his career. This is poetry that demands a leisurely reading, but leaves enough in the open to allow the reader ease of access; much of it is painful, most of it questions incessantly, all of it demands to be read:
Incest
Inbred. Inscribed. Interred. In my house,
the doors locked, the lips
stuck to each other (like glue, she said), languishing--
each seduction is a slash,
an utterance with body parts, a slang
of neck submerged in whispers. What breast belongs to a mother
exclusively? What speech does not imply
withholding union, the little boy
having sex with the past? I'm not stirred
by strangers. Each taboo's a story
ending, bones a dog buried in the yard,
the neatly-pressed negligee set out on the bed.
Someone drew the shades, the eyelids closed,
her finger on his lips
authored the hush. Kiss me goodbye,
she said. Her flesh
an entrance without exit. Shame's
the world's. It's not myself
I hate.
What else can I possibly say? Let the work speak for itself. *****
What separates great poetry from good? Oftentimes the question is unanswerable, as the quality of poetry which makes it poetry is undefinable enough without putting qualifiers on it. But sometimes greatness is achieved simply through the act of putting an old idea in a new way. This is often what makes Ira Sadoff one of the two or three finest poets working in America today.
Sadoff's third book of poetry continued the tradition of slow, solid work that has defined his career. This is poetry that demands a leisurely reading, but leaves enough in the open to allow the reader ease of access; much of it is painful, most of it questions incessantly, all of it demands to be read:
Incest
Inbred. Inscribed. Interred. In my house,
the doors locked, the lips
stuck to each other (like glue, she said), languishing--
each seduction is a slash,
an utterance with body parts, a slang
of neck submerged in whispers. What breast belongs to a mother
exclusively? What speech does not imply
withholding union, the little boy
having sex with the past? I'm not stirred
by strangers. Each taboo's a story
ending, bones a dog buried in the yard,
the neatly-pressed negligee set out on the bed.
Someone drew the shades, the eyelids closed,
her finger on his lips
authored the hush. Kiss me goodbye,
she said. Her flesh
an entrance without exit. Shame's
the world's. It's not myself
I hate.
What else can I possibly say? Let the work speak for itself. *****
May 9, 2023
These poems read like snapshots in a well-worn photo album—picturesque time capsules of moments that have damaged and defined the poet’s life.
Favorite Poems:
“Why It’s Impossible to Cross the Same Ocean Twice”
“Sunrise: Two Artichokes and an Onion”
“Summer Solstice in Praise of the Bourgeoisie”
“The Pink Gardenia”
“Now”
“Mahler”
“Central Avenue Breakdown”
Favorite Poems:
“Why It’s Impossible to Cross the Same Ocean Twice”
“Sunrise: Two Artichokes and an Onion”
“Summer Solstice in Praise of the Bourgeoisie”
“The Pink Gardenia”
“Now”
“Mahler”
“Central Avenue Breakdown”
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews