Book Info
Title: My Body
Author: Joan Larkin
Genre: Poetry
My Rating: 🌵🌵🌵
The Quick Pitch
What's it about?
This collection of poems looks at what it means to live in a body through every season of life. Joan Larkin writes about aging, illness, desire, loss, love, and identity with honesty and tenderness.
The Setting
The poems move through ordinary moments and deeply personal experiences. There isn't one place or time. Instead, the landscape is the human body itself and the life it carries.
My Thoughts
The best part
What stayed with me was Larkin's willingness to tell the truth, even when it isn't pretty. She doesn't try to make growing older sound graceful all the time. She writes about the body's strength, its limitations, and the stories it keeps. Her words feel lived in. They remind you that every scar, wrinkle, ache, and joy has something to say if we're willing to listen.
What could have been better
Poetry is personal, and not every poem landed the same way. A few felt so rooted in the poet's own experience that I found myself reading them more than once before they clicked. That's part of poetry, though. Sometimes a poem opens its door right away. Other times, it asks you to linger on the porch.
A Standout Quote
The bitter
Edge I hated as I grew wild
Was the only weapon of the woman
Who called me Daughter.
Not it’s a current in me
Like the cold river
I take grief swimming in.
Final Verdict
II'd recommend My Body to anyone who enjoys poetry that asks questions instead of offering easy answers. It's a thoughtful read for people who are growing older, caring for someone they love, or simply trying to make peace with the body they've been given.
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