Milk

by Dorothea Lasky

In her latest collection, Dorothea Lasky brings her signature style—a deeply felt and uncanny word-music—to all matters of creativity, from poetry and the invention of new language to motherhood and the production of new life. At once a personal document as it is an occult text, Milk investigates overused paradigms of what it means to be a creator and encapsulates its horrors and joys—setting fire to the enigma that drives the vital force that enables poems, love, and life to happen.

Genres: Poetry

96 pages, Paperback

First published April 3, 2018

Reviews

[jen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am learning to be stubborn again, Max
i have been chewing through this since may of 2018. this last read was littered w highlights from 18 year old jen dancing around breastfeeding metaphors

i have a big soft spot for domestic dread and so i admire the tone,, when it is good, it is good. that being said, a good fraction of the collection felt a little gaudy or perhaps over done,, not enough trust in the reader or maybe just rancid for the sake of.
i suppose i just like my breastfeeding metaphors a bit more coded.

but when it is good, it is good.


When a person dies
They usually find the body on the floor
It's true
All things fall as low as they can go
I know I too have gone
Thud in the last bit
Not from carnal knowledge
But from my love of you
Which is vast and unknowing
~
I know the body is a corpse and text
But is also a possibility
~
I was another person
Actually
When I opened the door and said
This is new
And it was
And it's new
It's new again"

[Tracy · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Nothing more unnerving than being a thing”

Repetition Repetition Repetition !

[Luna Miguel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Decía que hay poetas que te acompañan toda la vida. Literalmente. O a las que tú acompañas desde que apenas publican en un blog y diez años después son una de las voces más significativas de la literatura estadounidense. Dorothea Lasky lo es. Lo lleva siendo desde hace todo ese tiempo. Y este libro lo confirma, incluso si el anterior, 'Rome', me pareció un juego algo repetitivo. En 'Milk' no hay repetición sino confirmación de un estilo y de una voluntad. Lasky toma el testigo de autoras como Olds y Myles, y lo empapa en su generación y en su tiempo hasta convertir 'Milk' en un relato de lo arisca que puede ser la vida en la gran ciudad, del dolor mental que pueden causarnos las redes sociales, y de la necesidad, sin embargo, de esa soledad con la que tenemos que aprender a convivir, porque tal vez sea lo que nos cure.

[Kate · Rating 4 out of 5]

For more of my book content check out instagram.com/bookalong
•
"No sex, just milk
is all we have to show for it
and if I am insane
And if I am
then let me be so
let this skewed vision of the world always be so
moon man
you will always be the nothing of the Fall
let it be
so let the others run rampant
let it be so
dark eyes
and if I am insane
let it be so"
•
I really enjoyed this collection! Lasky has a way with words that catches you. With nods to women, motherhood, life, sex creation of life, death, blood and birth. It was raw and blunt at times. I haven't read any of her other work but I am intrigued after this one.

[Jared Levine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dorothea Lasky whaaat?!! This was the MILKIEST collection of poems I've read all year. MY BONES ARE NOW STRONG! The rhythm in my head has been enchanted by the milk of these poems. The visceral odes to motherhood, the bloody creation of life, of me and you (a motif), and here we are—enchanted by the words that pour out of Dorothea Lasky.

—Jared, City Lights Bookstore

[Anna Suh · Rating 2 out of 5]

they better let germ into columbia… cuz she can write about the perils of motherhood way better than this

Update: she’s in

[Christine · Rating 5 out of 5]

These triumphant poems are the stickiness of mothers milk after it has been spit up on your heart

[lia 🐩 · Rating 3 out of 5]

en principio me gustó menos que thunderbird? es más triste quizá. acá escribe sobre la maternidad y el aborto, los hospitales la sangre etc. se reconoce mortal y frágil

“save your sadness and your leads of love / your love won’t hold me (…) save your chrysanthemums and lilacs / roses and tulips / save your winter buds, and sun yellow weeds / i won’t need them where i’m going”

“in my dirty leopard coat it will be 1992 forever” (esto sí es MUY ceci pavón)

“if babies are ghosts then have many of them / then make the new new again / if you are a ghost then let me kiss you / and feel your faintest undertone / if spring is ghostly then take me in it / then leave me in the fields until i’m eaten / by bees and breads”

“no really i would / rather sleep in a bed with a corpse / and meet the horrendous spirits in the house / than be here alone / in the middle hour”

“you get to a point where you forget all the people that loved you / where all you can do is cry”

“go on, go on / go on, have your life / i won’t look for you anymore”

[Mary · Rating 4 out of 5]

I started reading this under the Flower Moon on the evening of May 6, the day after my due date, with my son still snug in my womb, trying to distract myself from a day of trying to induce naturally. I finished it nearly a month later with my son breastfeeding in my arms. This book has a magical, raw quality surrounding the physicality and surrealities of the beginning stages of modern motherhood. Yet there is also something animalic and primal about Lasky’s writing that makes many poems Milk timeless. This took me awhile to get through partly because of how close I was to many of the elements at the end of my pregnancy, and partly because the book was somewhat dense and might have done better to be broken up into two separate collections.

[Spencer · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've read this book twice. Once before becoming a mother and another after. As a parent, hearing Lasky's experience with having a miscarriage is tormenting. The precision and detail that she describes the grief and horror she experiences will stick in your brain forever. I will say, reading this book before becoming a parent felt like it was up for interpretation. I didn't quite grasp the depth until years later. If you have experiences with child loss or fertility issues, please read with caution. Lasky's writing is uncanny and will have you feeling uncomfortable and nauseous at times, but the growing pains are necessary. I adore the author's honesty and motivation to be raw with the audience. As a reader, you have to open yourself to leaving your comfort zone, even if it's temporary.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have read Dorothea Laskey before because she seems like she's writing the kind of poetry I should like, and the poems I've read have been OK. But this book stole my heart. I fucking loved this book. I didn't know I was walking into a world of miscarriage and medical institutions and bodily fluids--and that is pretty much my homeland--so this book was as surprising to me as it was needed.

[tasteoftypewrite · Rating 1 out of 5]

If one could give negative stars, I would. Of course something for everyone, but this style of poetry composition is not at all for me. Poems felt nonsensical, disconnected. I am a mother and I could not find meaning or relation in any of it. Worst book I think I have ever read, and I have read a lot of poetry.

[Chris L. · Rating 3 out of 5]

There was some beautiful imagery and word play, but it got to be too much after a while. This is a book that I would recommend reading a poem or two at a time because I became numb after a while to the poems' beauty.

[Pie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dense, primal, instinctual - Lasky’s lenses are so colorful, everything has a tinge. Motherhood, milk, oily rats, modernity versus timeless institutions and practices. She taps into something deeper than consciousness. Will be seeking out her other work.

[Emma · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 stars
I know people have different preferences but most of these poems had me thinking, "huh?" "what does that mean?" and yet the average rating is four stars. Sometimes I feel beneath certain poetry.

[F.M Papaz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Talk about a poet with Voice - hard to compare Lasky to anyone else. Her mind, her turns of phrases, I was wide-eyed through my whole reading of this collection. I will not be able to look at rats the same way.

[Jordan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Milk, cum, blood, water. White, yellow, pale green, red. When it's good it's really good but there were moments where it drifted away and lost some power.

[Samantha · Rating 4 out of 5]

Milky.

[Megan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Blood, milk, moon, mothers, birth and death and baths

[Crystal · Rating 4 out of 5]

To be honest, I think a lot of these poems went over my head. But there were several that really got me in my gut.

[Yian · Rating 3 out of 5]

Definitely enjoyed the second half a lot more. (3.5)

[C. de L. · Rating 4 out of 5]

“The young they suffer
For all eternity
Suffering
Is a green light”.

[Mas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love Dorothea Lasky! Funny, witty, she does it all. Highly recommend.

[Zuleyha Ozturk Lasky · Rating 5 out of 5]

So fucking good. Every poem is a witchy surreal trip.

[Nicholas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Visceral: full of fluid…milk, blood, etc. Full of life & death. Full of suffering in technicolor.

[ciera dakota · Rating 2 out of 5]

cute from a graphic perspective though even being a woman i struggled to connect with some of the dialogue

[Lindsey · Rating 4 out of 5]

I discovered Dorothea Lasky and Milk looking for poetry to cope with the late loss of a pregnancy. I was deeply moved by some of the poems relating to her own difficult pregnancy and motherhood, and they definitely helped in healing from that. Highly recommend on that front.
For the rest of the collection, many were enjoyable and good though many are so obscure they’re just confusing. After reading 3 collections so far (Milk, Thunderbird, and Rome), I really find Lasky to be a mixed bag. Some of my favorite poems I’ve ever read and some I’ve read over and over and still have no Fing clue what they’re trying to say.

[Kelsey · Rating 1 out of 5]

I admittedly skimmed the last half of this book. WOW. Rarely do I read a book of poetry where I so vehemently dislike the author's style. This is like...the opposite of what I want my poetry to sound like.

[Kyle]

"If I die and all I have are these fucking poems"

[Hannah Woodside · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved this collection of poems for the most part but a few poems were super out there and absurd and didn’t quite work for me.