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What Is This Thing Called Love: Poems

4.24 of 5 stars 4.24 · rating details · 475 ratings · 47 reviews

From lilting lines about a love that "dizzies up the brain's back room" to haunting fragments betokening death and decline in a suffering world, Kim Addonizio articulates the ways that our connections—to the world, to self, and to others—endure and help make us whole.

Paperback, 128 pages

Published August 17th 2005 by W. W. Norton & Company (first published January 8th 2004)

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Apr 25, 2008 Allison rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: The reluctantly poetic; word nerds

Shelves: the-bleach-can-stay-on-the-shelf

What is this thing called poetry? As a recovering poet, I've devoted no small amount of thought to this subject. The best answer I can give you is tinfoil in the microwave. That's poetry. Unfortunately, most poetry reads more like saran wrap in the refrigerator. Which is why it was such a pleasure to happen upon this collection. While it doesn't quite approach the level of a full-blown kitchen disaster, certainly there are sparks. And it's always nice to find a soul as morbid as I am (see "31-Ye...more

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Feb 04, 2008 Trebro rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: poetry

Now I know it's going to sound weird to those of you who heard me rant about gratuitous sexual comments thrown into poetry that I actually enjoyed this book, which contains poems that have quite a bit of sexual energy charged into nearly every one. Before I even get to the text, I think I need to explain why it works here.

I think the reason is that since the language of the poetry is that of a sexual nature--this is a set of poems that have a lot to say about sex and relationships--the sexual re...more

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Mar 09, 2010 Doug rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: poetry

Another great collection of poems by Kim Addonizio. It has more than the usual number of very successful poems. Certainly not family reading but wonderfully human meditations on love, sex, and aging. Great imagery and passion.

Some favorite poems: "First Kiss," "Muse," "Death Poem," "And Then I Woke Up," "The Work," "Washing," "It," "Knowledge," "The Way of the World," "Dear Sir or Madam," "Bad Girl," "Body and Soul," "Dear Reader," and even "Fuck."

Some bits:

"Sometimes the body
gets so quiet
it ca...more

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Jan 03, 2009 Ken rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: poetry

I was using Barnes & Noble as a library and coffee bar again today. I picked up this book which is Addonizio's fourth book of poems and was surprised to find another paradelle there.

She has a paradelle ("Ever After") in the anthology The Paradelle. I also have a poem in that anthology, but I didn't know she had written any others. If you're not familiar with the form, here's part of Billy Collins' introduction to that collection:

A few years ago, I wrote a poem that I titled "Paradelle for S...more

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Nov 15, 2011 S rated it 4 of 5 stars

Kim Addonizio’s poems in, What is This Thing Called Love, surprised me. I actually liked them. I was first exposed to her poems in my creative writing workshop. I did not really think much of them. I thought that they were leaning toward a feminist “I am woman hear me roar” type thing. These poems were not like that. These poems were erotic. This poems confronted the author’s feminine eroticism. For example, Stolen Moments, had me on completely devoted to every word. I got a split second in to h...more Kim Addonizio’s poems in, What is This Thing Called Love, surprised me. I actually liked them. I was first exposed to her poems in my creative writing workshop. I did not really think much of them. I thought that they were leaning toward a feminist “I am woman hear me roar” type thing. These poems were not like that. These poems were erotic. This poems confronted the author’s feminine eroticism. For example, Stolen Moments, had me on completely devoted to every word. I got a split second in to her life. Kim did such an amazing job pulling the audience into this moment. The imagery was amazing. I could see everything. I could taste the orange. That poem was perfect. I loved it. First Kiss was also very good. The images really make or break poems for me. This poem was just vivid as a picture. She did such a great job with setting the tone of the poem that I actually felt the angst of a first kiss. I felt like I was there- in the situation. Perhaps that was the author’s intent. Kim might have wanted us to feel what she felt on that day. If this was her intent, she did it perfectly. These are the types of poems that I enjoy reading. They connected with me on a personal level. I was there in each situation or moment. These poems will definitely be on my “recommend” list.

There were a few poems that I did not care for. 31 Year Old Lover is an example of one of the less favorable poems. I thought that the scientific terminology used to describe the man took me out of the poem. The image of the butter stick was great. It was perfect for the tone of the poem. If she wanted to make him less human she should have used images. That would have probably been a challenge to write, but very interesting to read. I also didn’t care for So What. This poem did not have a decent amount of images. I didn’t know what to really think when I was done reading it. Who knows? I might not even fully understand the poem. This one did tell a story like the others did. It just seemed like an after thought or quick desire. The other poems seem to have been thought about to great detail. These poems did not have a “story” to them. Nothing seemed to have happened in the poems. The others told a story that brought the reader in. These poems created a distant between the text and the reader. There was not a personal element that the reader could connect to, that I could connect to. This is not what I want in a poem. I want to be able to connect to them. I want to feel everything that is happening. I want to see. I want to taste. I want to hear. Both of these poems did not satisfy my needs within the poetry genre. (less)

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Nov 15, 2011 Mollie rated it 5 of 5 stars

Kim Addonizio captures a few themes in her collection of poem “What is this thing called love?” Most of Addonizio’s poems center on her feelings regarding death and love. The author speaks of the two in a matter that describes them using a bit of dark humor. The collection of poems is broken up into five sections. I’ve taken note that what theme each section focuses on: Section one is about love and sex; Section two takes a look at death; The third section dabbles in life, love, death and misery...more Kim Addonizio captures a few themes in her collection of poem “What is this thing called love?” Most of Addonizio’s poems center on her feelings regarding death and love. The author speaks of the two in a matter that describes them using a bit of dark humor. The collection of poems is broken up into five sections. I’ve taken note that what theme each section focuses on: Section one is about love and sex; Section two takes a look at death; The third section dabbles in life, love, death and misery; Section four focuses on sex, drugs and rock and roll; the last section was on death and loneliness.
I found this book to take a very refreshing look at death. Usually, you find authors simply drowning in sadness and despair over their lost loved ones. She seems to take a step back and looks at the theme in a beautiful way. For example, the poem “Missing Boy Blues” at first seems like a nice poem about sitting in a field of grass observing the landscape around. Then, with a deeper look, you find that it is from the voice of a missing boy who has been buried in a field. The narrator goes off in to a recall of science class and the skeleton that is propped in front. It really is strange to now think of how many bones lay buried underneath the grass.
Another theme that I noticed that popped up a time or two was drinking. Ernest Hemingway was also known to infuse his stories with alcohol soaked characters. For Addonizio, vodka seems to be filling her glass in more poem than one. I appreciate this because I feel that most artists usually drink or something along those lines. It just gave her a real feel to me; that she was actually a real person sharing her life with her readers.
Addonizio uses such brilliant descriptions throughout all her poems. Most of her poems are not in a sing-songy structure that one learns in grade school but there is a definite melody that is weaved through a select few. I think that this is effective in some poems and definitely hers. It gives the dark subject matter a more light, airy edge.
I admire the author’s lack of use of end-stops. She hardly ever ends a line with a full sentence. It’s very effective in her collection to keep the momentum rolling.
Overall, I really enjoyed this collection of poems. I would not suggest them for the light of heart. If your mind is closed then you will not like how these poems open your mind to a different view on life, love and death.
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Feb 16, 2011 Kaylee Poplawski rated it 3 of 5 stars

What Is This Thing Called Love

Addonizio, Kim.
W.W. Norton & Company Inc.
500 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10110
Copyright 2004

“What Is This Thing Called Love” by Kim Addonizio is radiant collection of poems. This is Addonizio’s fourth book of poems; each poem is solely based on love, sex, or death and the aging process. I found Addonzio’s love poems quite amusing and it was easy to engage oneself into the poem. Some poems were quite shocking in the sense of the vivid description, but as I soon...more What Is This Thing Called Love

Addonizio, Kim.
W.W. Norton & Company Inc.
500 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10110
Copyright 2004

“What Is This Thing Called Love” by Kim Addonizio is radiant collection of poems. This is Addonizio’s fourth book of poems; each poem is solely based on love, sex, or death and the aging process. I found Addonzio’s love poems quite amusing and it was easy to engage oneself into the poem. Some poems were quite shocking in the sense of the vivid description, but as I soon noticed, this is a style that appeals to Kim Addonizio. What is This Thing Called Love has five segments the first talks of love, second talks of death, while the next few segments express Addonizio’s feelings towards both love and death. Specifically, one of my favorite poems within Addonizio’s book of poems is the poem “Ever After: A Paradelle”, which consists of four stanzas. Addonizio repeats the first line in the first three stanzas twice evoking more emotion in the reader. Because the first line of each stanza is repeated irony is created. What I enjoyed most about this poem is how the stanzas as a whole came together in the last stanza; with this knowledge, I believe the language within the poem such as the sentence structure and grammar calls attention to itself. It is almost as if Addonizio is conducting an experiment with words within the poem. Many of the poems within Addonizios book tend to have blues form, quite snug with a bit of melancholy and sadness. Hence, the theme of the poems in What Is This Thing Called Love. You can tell that many of the poems are specific memory of Addonizio herself by the use of her sensory images and description. Most of her poems tend to have endurance; high energy, painting a picture, it isn’t until the last couple of lines of the last stanza where Addonizio tends to let the poem fade out. In the poem “Dear Sir or Madam” someone is composing a letter, of which they regret to inform the reader what this letter shall consist. The person composing the letter may feel sorrow for the receiver “what I’ve started here late to compose/ in just the right fashion, even if it takes/ all night-“. The composer also states that he to has been troubled by burdens, the burdens of a handicapped boy, a deceased wife, which leads to the irony of the composers profession and what news he has to bestow up the receiver. The reader never finds out, as the end of the poem is open-ended, “There is news I must give you./ Lets not speak of it yet.” The language in the poem along with the punctuation used could very well suggest that the composer himself is simply looking for companionship. Some of poems within this book of poems relate to pop culture and movie clichés. The poem “Dead girl,“ discusses the occurrence of a girl corpse in movies and the TV shows. With a somewhat feminist approach, the poem is suspicious as to why this appeals to the viewers. After reading What Is This Thing Called Love I learned that it is okay to be vulgar in writing and more specifically I learned the power of language and grammatical use. The way a poet sets up her stage is an important asset to writing powerful poems that are going to impact a reader. I would recommend this book of poems to anyone who is interested in a more literal view of love and death. This book definitely takes you on a whirlwind of exploration in a modern world.(less)

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Oct 03, 2011 Ryan Steele rated it 5 of 5 stars

“what is this thing called love” by Kim Addonizio.
W. W. Norton & Company Inc., New York, 2004.

Love seems so simple through poetry.

Kim Addonizio explores some of the largest subjects encountered in life, all through short, visceral poems that aren’t afraid to be blunt, abrasive, and sometimes brutally honest. Summarizing a poetry collection is never an easy task, but Kim Addonizio kept her subject matter universal enough so that everyone can relate, addressing things such as: death, love,...more “what is this thing called love” by Kim Addonizio.
W. W. Norton & Company Inc., New York, 2004.

Love seems so simple through poetry.

Kim Addonizio explores some of the largest subjects encountered in life, all through short, visceral poems that aren’t afraid to be blunt, abrasive, and sometimes brutally honest. Summarizing a poetry collection is never an easy task, but Kim Addonizio kept her subject matter universal enough so that everyone can relate, addressing things such as: death, love, love lost, child rearing, significance in the world, lost or wasted youth, depression, and human flaws. More or less, “what is this thing called love” tackles what it means to be alive.

Kim Addonizio uses a standard form and structure in most of the poems throughout “what is this thing called love”, coupled with language that is fairly simple. However, it’s the in your face attitude of the poems, and the concreteness of them that brings out the emotion, and it’s also what helps makes the poems so real and relatable. There is even a poem dedicated to this style of writing. The poem “Fuck” is about some poets disgust with the word fuck in poetry. However, Kim then proceeds to ask “wouldn’t that be the first thing you’d say?” if an anvil were to come crashing down on your dinner table. She then proceeds to relate the poem to life, moving the image from an anvil crushing a table, moving on to discuss how sometimes “there’s only one word that means what you need it to mean.”

Many of the poems throughout the collection take on this approach. Start with a small subject, or one single, focused image, and then expand, and keep going, until the poem becomes almost all encompassing. In a way, it’s almost as if Addonizio is giving a workshop on how to write guttural, instinctive poetry. This is the greatest strength, and yet, it can also be considered the biggest downfall in the collection. Such poems as “Lush Life” address heavy alcohol use, even drug use, and, while being such a down and dirty subject, it may alienate readers who have never battled such demons, or who don’t partake in such activities. They may not understand what it is to be “shaking before a toilet, your hair limp, the sour evening rising up.” It becomes a game of balances that Addonizio does very well, toeing the line between being too specific, and being just specific enough so that any reader can at least picture the scene and think about the position in life that it is relating too, even if they’ve never been there.

All of the poems are thought inducing, if not completely relatable. Such poems as “Romance” and “Miniatures” question what life is all about, and if there ever really is any sort of discernable destination. It’s the honesty and sincerity of all of the pieces that make it such a testament to the power of poetry. Addonizio shows that it’s not just up to novels and long theses to tackle the larger issues of life. Poetry can do it just as well. She also dispels the notions of poetry having to be lofty and elegant, going for a more “meat and potatoes” style of approach, a refreshing refrain from so many intricate, transcendental poems. Anyone interested in reading about the grittiness and complications of life should give “what is this thing called love” a chance. As a writer, Kim Addonizio’s punchy, real style has inspired me and reinforced my love for dirty, direct poems.
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Nov 15, 2011 Elizabeth Buckeye added it

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. What Is This Thing Called Loved: Poems by Kim Addonizio was published August 8, 2005 by W.W. Norton & Company as a paperback 128-page collection. Addonizio’s poems are brash and to the point, not worrying about the kind of language she uses or whose feelings she may hurt with her words and it is what drew me to the collection in the first place. Her poem “Dead Girls” was by far one of my favorite poems from the entire book. The lead in title grabs the reader’s attention and the constant enja...more What Is This Thing Called Loved: Poems by Kim Addonizio was published August 8, 2005 by W.W. Norton & Company as a paperback 128-page collection. Addonizio’s poems are brash and to the point, not worrying about the kind of language she uses or whose feelings she may hurt with her words and it is what drew me to the collection in the first place. Her poem “Dead Girls” was by far one of my favorite poems from the entire book. The lead in title grabs the reader’s attention and the constant enjambment through the stanzas push the poem through a quick and fluid motion. Her juxtaposition of calling the dead girls beautiful in the fifth stanza, which continues into the sixth where she also calls them plain, worthless as a clod of dirt and broken, is a device that I attempt to implore in my own writing as well. Her subject matter ranges from sex, to death, and the relationships between all of it and the language she uses is basic and even crude in some instances, but those are what make the collection work as a whole.
One of my favorite “love” poems Addonizio has in this collection is “Stolen Moments” because the feel of the poem is a 180-degree turn when compared to “Dead Girls”, and actually had I not known the two poems were written by the same woman I never would have believed it. The images Addonizio paints in “Stolen Moments” are lighter both in feeling and context and it is a poem in the collection that allows the reader some breathing room, for if all the poems were about sex and death, while still well written, would turn many readers away for feeling too heavy as a collection.
But my number one favorite poem in her entire collection was “Fuck”. It implored the basic enjambment and end stops that poetry is known for, along with very colorful and detailed images, but it is the language that really allows the poem to flow. Many would call it brash, rude or even vulgar, but they are wrong. This poem shows language is a powerful thing, and so is poetry in its dying art form to bring ones feelings to the table. Addonizio breaks the mold for what is considered fine, elegant and proper in poetry and tells the world that they can “fuck off”, one giant middle finger towards all the critics who will turn her away because she does not follow the unwritten rules. That is the main reason I love her poetry and something I hope to begin using in my own writing. While my language choices may not be as extreme, breaking outside the mold through language, themes, structure or content is what will allow me to stand out as a writer and not allow my name to be thought of only fleetingly. I can use Addonizio’s ideas about writing in all of my own writings whether it be poetry, fiction or non-fiction and I believe that writers need that something special, that something that is only them to be remembered through time and not become forgotten.
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Nov 29, 2011 Chelsea rated it 5 of 5 stars

What is This Thing Called Love, poems by Kim Addonizio. W.W. Norton & Company, New York, 2004.

Kim Addonizio is a fantastic poet. This book absolutely portrays her talent. What is This Thing Called Love is a collection of poems for young adults – I’d recommend 18+ as some poems could be too mature for younger individuals – divided into five sections. The first two sections are very clear: the first is about love and the second about death and aging. The final three sections are a mixture of...more What is This Thing Called Love, poems by Kim Addonizio. W.W. Norton & Company, New York, 2004.

Kim Addonizio is a fantastic poet. This book absolutely portrays her talent. What is This Thing Called Love is a collection of poems for young adults – I’d recommend 18+ as some poems could be too mature for younger individuals – divided into five sections. The first two sections are very clear: the first is about love and the second about death and aging. The final three sections are a mixture of these themes, also including poems about the world, drinking, relationships, and sometimes talking about poetry itself. Addonizio takes such broad topics and gives us her unique, fascinating view of them. Using both concrete and abstract language throughout, she immediately engrosses the reader with her quirky and interesting style of writing. Just the opening dedication, “For Robert – lightning twice”, shows how she has a way with words and using her imagination. She takes universal feelings and gives readers relatable, honest poetry.
Kim Addonizio’s poems are the epitome of what poetry should be: they are full of emotion and imagery. A great example of both of these elements in one poem could be “Eating Together”, where she vividly describes the act of eating with a dying loved one whom she is visiting in the hospital cafeteria. Reading her poems is like running a knife through warm butter (excuse the cliché but it fits), because they are easy to read and flow wonderfully. They fill you with passion and insight you didn’t know you could feel. Her poems are straightforward in her own eccentric way. Her poems also offer a variety of structure and form; she writes sonnets, a paradelle, blues, lead-in title, slant rhyme, free verse, and more.
The collection begins with what is perhaps the easiest topic for Addonizio to talk about – love and death. I say easiest because these sections were my favorite to read. Addonizio talks about being with young lovers, moments with current lovers, past loves, loving you. Her stories are a mix of strange and true. Then in death, she writes depressingly beautiful poetry, such as in “Washing” where she describes giving her aged and helpless mother a bath. These tender moments I believe are what make this collection of poems so wonderful. They are stirring and real. Addonizio goes no holds barred and it is what makes her poems stay with you even after you’ve put the book down. Exactly what a review on the back on the book says: “They [the poems] go down easy and then, moments later, you feel the full weight of their impact.” I believe this is a great sentence summary of this collection.
These poems are not for the light at heart; if you want to view the world and all of its aspects in a new light, then I highly recommend sitting down with this book. It will leave you feeling like all of the words on the page are feelings you have had in your lifetime that you couldn’t put into words yourself. Her imagery, occasional metaphors, and honest words will have you wanting to reread these poems under any number of circumstances. I find myself turning to this book now whenever I need inspiration or an eye-opener.
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Oct 26, 2012 Kristy rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: poetry

Like Anne Sexton and Sharon Olds, Kim Addonizio digs into sex, heartbreak, and grief. This was a darker collection than I expected, being that most of my experience with her have been some sexy and fun pieces. Addonizio's not as brutal as Olds, but she doesn't flinch away from violence either.

Best Poems
"Stolen Moments"
"You Don't Know What Love Is"
"Dead Girls"
"Round Midnight"
"This Poem Is In Recovery"

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Sep 14, 2008 Ian rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: own, poetry

Reading Kim Addonizio is sort of like reading a slutty, less dorky Billy Collins. By that I mean this: It's enjoyable, even sometimes touching, but in the way that hearing from your slightly obnoxious drunk cousin can be entertaining. You get tired of them.

Most of these poems are fun, sometimes even funny, and there is a certain charm of her ability to write about things that most people would simply refuse to turn into a poem; for instance, the crappy computer game "Bugdom" turned out to be whi...more

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May 23, 2009 Brian Fanelli rated it 5 of 5 stars

What interests me most about this particular set of poems is that Addonizio is mostly a formalist throughout this book, and yet, she writes about sex, rock 'n roll and other gritty subject matters throughout this collection. I found it brillant that she captured the right language for those subject matters in such tight, restrictive poetic forms.

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Mar 06, 2008 Steven rated it 4 of 5 stars

Kim Addonizio is one of my favorite contemporary poets and her work speaks to me without much effort needed to figure it out. This is not to say that Ms. Addonizio’s craft is elemental; it simply comes across as effortless. She has forsaken the stigma imbued on “confessional” poetry from the current literary world and unabashedly plays with readers’ insatiable need to figure out what is “real” and what is “imagined” in her work. If this boldness grips you, as it does me, then there’s not a more...more

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Jan 16, 2011 Steve rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I'm hesistant to call any kind of poetry collection "negative" because, in a certain sense, all good poetry is in some way "negative." In the case of What is This Thing, it sort of applies, although a better word would be bitterness. Bitterness towards the way women's bodies are perceived in old age. Bitterness towards loneliness. Bitterness towards lovers. Bitterness towards this thing people call "love."

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Aug 19, 2012 Stephen Kiernan rated it 5 of 5 stars

I already raved here about one of her books, but this one is better. Edgy, courageous, vivid, accessible, unflinching, beautiful in surprising ways. You will devour this book of poems, then find yourself going back to reread the best of them.
Excellent.

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Jul 20, 2008 courtney rated it 4 of 5 stars

totally accessible and entertaining. she writes about sex and death, you know, the biggies. but her approach is refreshing and totally sincere. i loved a lot of the individual poems, "kissing" and "romance" -- and with titles like this, the poems have to be strong. i like her ease with form. and the line in one poem -- i don't have it in front of me -- something about the man who drank rainwater out of the hollow of my neck... floored me. i read that and thought that i would have written 3-5 lin...more

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May 14, 2013 Cory rated it 3 of 5 stars

loved the first section, especially "Stolen Moments" and "What Was." Some of the poems about death and writing feel a little redundant toward the end.

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Oct 09, 2009 Opskar01 rated it 5 of 5 stars

there are 4 poems that are my new favorites.

very powerful stuff in here. I need to give it a second read.

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Feb 10, 2010 Alisha Hanson-Glatzel rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2010, poetry

I think Fuck was my favorite poem and i've known Bad Girl. Addonizio is an interesting poet.

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May 24, 2012 Brit rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is why I read poetry. Her poems are vivacious, they sting. This collection left me gasping. Love her.

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Apr 07, 2012 Jan rated it 5 of 5 stars

Blew me completely out of the water. Now I want to read everything she's ever written.

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Sep 21, 2010 Robert Beveridge rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2010-goal-list, cuy-co-pub-lib, finished

Marguerite Marceau Henderson, Small Plates: Appetizers As Meals (Gibbs Smith, 2006)

An intriguing idea for a cookbook, this; appetizer-style recipes quirked into meal form. I'm not sure it's entirely successful, concept-wise; too many of these seem more like scaled-down entrees than scaled-up appetizers, which makes me wonder how it differs from your basic cookbook. But the recipes themselves are solid, so I can't be all that hard on it. Pick it up from the library and give it a look before decid...more

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Nov 29, 2009 Julie rated it 4 of 5 stars

I learned that hearing poetry read is an amazing experience

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Dec 29, 2011 Michelle rated it 5 of 5 stars

My favourite poetry discovery of 2011.

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Aug 19, 2011 cassandra rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: poetry

favorites: what was, you don't know what love is, sonnenizio on a line from drayton, ex-boyfriends, knowledge, chicken, lush life, body and soul, fuck, miniatures, kisses.

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Apr 17, 2010 Michael rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: poetry

A few good ones but mostly self-indulgent, narcissistic and crass.

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Jan 03, 2010 Sean rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: favorites

Addonizio became my favorite poet after I read just three of her works. It is very rare but I actually get to say that "What is This Thing Called Love" changed my life... my poetic life that is. Her work is so real world but nonetheless maintains a depth of poetic quality that is astonishing. I have never seen anything like it and in my mind, she is by far one of the best modern poets.

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Jan 07, 2010 Reese Thompson rated it 5 of 5 stars

"I show up like money on the sidewalk." Genius.

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Feb 09, 2012 Dayna rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: poetry

I love Addonizio's gritty, down-to-earth style. I especially loved her poems "February 14" and "Kisses" from this collection. Some of her poems are a little dark for me, good in small doses but difficult (as in emotionally taxing) to read.

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About Kim Addonizio

Kim Addonizio is the author of four poetry collections including Tell Me, A National Book Award Finalist. Her fifth collection, Lucifer at the Starlite, will be published by W.W. Norton in October 2009.

Addonizio has also authored two instructional books on writing poetry: The Poet's Companion (with Dorianne Laux), and Ordinary Genius: A Guide for the Poet Within, both from W.W. Norton.

Her first no...more

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Books by Kim Addonizio

The Poet's Companion: A Guide to the Pleasures of Writing Poetry

Ordinary Genius: A Guide for the Poet Within

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BBCode	[url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/411247.What_Is_This_Thing_Called_Love?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1368418442l/411247.jpg[/img][/url] [url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/411247.What_Is_This_Thing_Called_Love?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]What Is This Thing Called Love: Poems by Kim Addonizio[/url]

What Is This Thing Called Love: Poems

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