The Old Woman, the Tulip, and the Dog

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Poetry “‘Without contraries there is no progression,’ wrote William Blake. To his examples—reason and energy, attraction and repulsion—Alicia Ostriker’s singular sequence adds restraint and splash, tenderness and ferocity, naked hunger and the fine garb of style. The Old Woman, the Tulip, and the Dog could only have been written by a poet who’s both lived and written her way to this marvelously idiosyncratic, urgent, no-holds-barred book, a masque and pageant not to be missed.” —Mark Doty “The informal mastery of these poems is marvelous. Ostriker has devised a style that is offhandseeming , a voice that is effortlessly concise, and a subject matter that has leapt far past the personal . Bawdy, ruthless, insightful, and compassionate, these poems feel like play, even as they take you through configuration after configuration of the mortal condition. Reading them, I feel like I’m encountering poetry translated from Eastern Europe, or written by some unknown brilliance in Argentina. Everyone should read them; they’re beautiful, and universal.” —Tony Hoagland “In a voice absolutely her own—wild, earthy, irreverent, full of humor and surprise—Ostriker takes on nothing less than what it feels like to be alive. Her three memorable characters ache and revel and insist on our many-sidedness. God, sex, song, and more are up for discussion, but the pleasure-loving dog has the last word.” —Joan Larkin “Ostriker has composed a spirited theme and variations for an uncommon trio: a woman endowed with the candor and wisdom of age; a sultry tulip, tossing her dark red skirts; and a dog, all bounding uninhibited energy. Their interplay is filled with surprises, enlivened by Ostriker’s shrewd psychological insights and sure comic touch.” —Chana Bloch Alicia Suskin Ostriker is one of America’s premier poets and critics. She is the author of fifteen poetry collections, including The Book of Life: Selected Jewish Poems, 1979–2011 and The Book of Seventy. She has received the Paterson Poetry Prize, the Paterson Award for Sustained Literary Achievement, the William Carlos Williams Award, the San Francisco State Poetry Center Award, the National Jewish Book Award, and has twice been a finalist for the National Book Award. Ostriker is professor emerita of English at Rutgers University and teaches in the low-residency MFA program of Drew University. Pitt Poetry Series University of Pittsburgh Press www.upress.pitt.edu Cover art: Peter Pitzele, The Dog’s Tulip, 2012 Cover design: Ann Walston Photo by J. P. Ostriker ISBN 13: 978-0-8229-6291-5 ISBN 10: 0-8229-6291-8 $15.95 ...