Balladz

"No poet has any business writing this well this much. Balladz is the third in an extraordinary sequence of books – following Arias and Odes – in which Sharon Olds alights on seemingly every topic under the sun – sex, abuse suffered in childhood, whiteness and simple everyday pleasures, to name a few – casting off every pretense and protection. “Someday,” she writes, “I will run out of tears.” But not yet, nor out of joy, or anything else that can be got into words."