The Widow's Crayon Box: Poems

by Molly Peacock

A book-length sequence of poems that dares to affirm the vast variety of emotional colors in loss and rejuvenation.

After her husband’s death, Molly Peacock realized she was not living the received idea of a widow’s mauve existence but instead was experiencing life in all colors. These gorgeous poems—joyful, furious, mournful, bewildered, sexy, devastated, whimsical and above all, moving—composed in sonnet sequences and in open forms, designed in four movements (After, Before, When. and Afterglow), illuminate both the role of the caregiver and the crystalline emotions one can experience after the death of a cherished partner. With her characteristic virtuosity, her fearless willingness to confront even the most difficult emotions, and always with buoyancy and zest, Peacock charts widowhood in the twenty-first century.

From “”After you died, I felt you next to me,and over months you entered graduallyinto that lake and disappeared. Not gone,but so internalized you’re not next to me.

Genres: Poetry, Grief

112 pages, Hardcover

Published November 5, 2024

About the author

Molly Peacock is a widely anthologized poet, biographer, memoirist, and New Yorker transplanted to Toronto, her adopted city.

Her newest biography is FLOWER DIARY: IN WHICH MARY HIESTER REID PAINTS, TRAVELS, MARRIES & OPENS A DOOR (ECW Press). "In prose as subtle and enchanting as Mary Hiester Reid's own brushstrokes, FLOWER DIARY paints a compelling portrait of a talented and unjustly neglected paiter. Molly Peacock is unfailingly sensitive and intelligent, and at times deeply moving, as she shows how, despite the shade of domestic life and the unfavorable climate of the times, MHR brought forth her bright blossoms," writes Ross King.

Molly's latest book of poems is THE ANALYST (W.W. Norton & Company) where she takes up a unique task: telling the story of her psychotherapist who survived a stroke by reconnecting with her girlhood talent for painting. Peacock’s latest work of nonfiction is THE PAPER GARDEN: MRS. DELANY BEGINS HER LIFE'S WORK AT 72, a Canadian bestseller, named a Book of the Year by The Economist, The Globe and Mail, The Irish Times, The London Evening Standard and Booklist, published in the US, UK, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand. “Like her glorious and multilayered collages, Delany is so vivid a character she almost jumps from the page,” Andrea Wulf wrote in The New York Times Book Review.

Molly ventured into short fiction with ALPHABETIQUE: 26 CHARACTERISTIC FICTIONS magically illustrated by Kara Kosaka, published by McClelland & Stewart. Her memoir, PARADISE, PIECE BY PIECE, about her choice not to have children, is now an e-book.

Molly is featured in MY SO-CALLED SELFISH LIFE, a documentary about choosing to be childfree by Trixifilms, and she is one of the subjects of Renee McCormick’s documentary, A LIFE WITHOUT CONVENTION, https://vimeo.com/178503153. As a New Yorker, she helped create Poetry in Motion on the subways and buses; in Toronto she founded THE BEST CANADIAN POETRY IN ENGLISH. Molly is the widow of Michael Groden, a James Joyce scholar.

Reviews

[Davina · Rating 4 out of 5]

I just finished reading The Widow's Crayon Box - Poems and I have to say, it's beautifully written. 


The poetry is easy to understand, which is something I really appreciate. The way it flows from one event to the next makes the whole story clear and cohesive. I didn't struggle to figure out the meaning it was trying to convey and I think that itself, for a poetry book, is a success. It's the balance of having pretty words to form a stong story. 


What struck me most was how well thought out the poems are. There are so many moments that felt quote-worthy, capturing deep emotions and experiences. The collection tells the story of Molly watching her husband pass away from cancer, her experience as his caretaker, and how she continues to live without him. This again, was all successful captured in this short poetry book.


Overall, it's a moving and accessible read that captures the complexity of grief and love with simplicity and grace in a small but powerful package. I highly recommend giving this a read.

[lissa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gosh reading poetry at the right time is the perfect matchup. Normally I take my time with each collection, but this one flowed naturally and demanded my continuation. Absorbed, I dove straight in, heart first.

This was a love ode full of raw before and afters. A stark combination of emotional brilliance and colorful writing. It was splendor in all its facets of a life now gone into the wind. If my body seizes to continue, I wonder if someone will be able to define my life as beautiful as this book was.

An ode to what the aftermath is like for those who remain once another is gone. Grief, ghosts, memories, pain and longing. What’s left is the haunted.

[Clover · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5/5
Raw, tender, and full of love.

I love how poets can make so much from the simplest moment. This collection didn't do it for me. It's heavy on married life and death, which I can appreciate but it didn't resonate with me. I can see this hitting harder for people who have lost someone before. Her writing is clean and clear, I did appreciate her style.

I'm sad this didn't move me, but it's not her fault. Poetry is so subjective, this one just isn't for me at this point in life. I'm sure plenty of people will love this!

I'm glad my library has this and I suggest you put it on hold, its quite short, or ask your library to purchase a copy!

[Steve Boyko · Rating 5 out of 5]

I feel a little bad for saying that "The Widow's Crayon Box" is a joy to read, but there it is. I loved it.

This moving collection of poems documents Ms. Peacock's thoughts about her deceased husband in such a beautiful way. Arranged in four parts - After, Before, When and Afterglow - "The Widow's Crayon Box" is a beautiful expression of her feelings.

It's warm, it's achingly sad, it's sometimes sexy, it's mundane, it's deep... and it may win an award for the most uses of the word "whiff" in a book.

Highly recommended. Thank you to River Street Writing for the ARC.

[Tina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sad
Thank you to the publisher for my ARC!

[Libby Gerdes · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting concept w crayon box. Strikethrus and lots of exclamation points annoyed me in poems I otherwise liked. Good examination of love, grief and medically assisted suicide

[Joseph · Rating 5 out of 5]

Breathtaking in its vision and execution. A book that couldn't be written until later in life, masterful in sorting through the author's grief, love, and vision over the loss of her husband. In my opinion, this is what love poetry is, as Jack Gilbert writes, "...The marriage,/not the month's rapture. Not the exception. The beauty/that is of many days. Steady and clear./It is the normal excellence of long accomplishment." Here are a few lines of "Love Letter In The Storage Locker": "All the papers cram-dumped in boxes in haste/ unstuffed, unpacked, uncrunched, unwedged this late/ in life strikes the lover still./... Which one is realer? Then, when so much younger? No,/ it's now, warm for a moment, in the arms of a folder." Or, here are lines from "The You-Spot:" "But now that you live in my mind we're more even/than even we were; your ghost hand's the sympathy/ I yearned for but couldn't humanly have before." Just think: the concept of being more now with absence than presence! Praise Molly Peacock for demonstrating that as we age, we don't have to become apparitions when it comes to love. If you are an aspiring poet, or a lover of poetry who wants to better understand how poetry "works," study this book.

[Dorothy Mahoney · Rating 5 out of 5]

Having heard Molly Peacock read some of these poems at her book launch at Biblioasis bookstore in Windsor, her explanations and her voice came clear while reading the poems. The sonnet sequences are particularly moving as the last line of one, is repeated as the first line of the next, creating an echo and resonance. The book consists of four parts: After, Before, When and Afterglow with 'touch' being
a highlighted sense beginning with the first poem, "Touched" in which "everything touches me" and the poignant ending "now that I'm not touched, but moved." As she works through the grieving process and her emotions, Molly reaches a calm in the last poem "Honey Crisp" in which she addresses the apple she has been unable to discard in the fridge as it was the apple her now-deceased husband would have eaten except for "911, hospital, hospice/ and ten days later...died." There is new life, new groceries and moving forward. A strong collection that holds forth knowledge that life continues despite the deepest heartache. "Routines are destiny... you stumble along." Molly does it with grace.

[Vanessa Shields · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another stellar collection from master-poet Molly Peacock. Vulnerable, reflective, spicy, provocative, and profound...this sonnet-led poetic journey is an illumination into widowhood - but as much about life as it is about death...about the light in the shadows...about the apple in the fridge that continues to give! Well done!

[Holly Woodward]

What an amazing book of love and life.
The courage of this poems will help give strength to others.
Molly Peacock is a master poet who uses all the brilliance of classic poetry to give power to the modern experience of love.

[sprouty · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars rounded; I loved the concept of this poetry collection, and definitely felt the grief and sorrow intertwined with many of the poems, even though I myself am not a widow.

[Sonali Toppur · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such a poignant reflection of loss - was a very emotional read but somehow so joyful in her celebration of life