Embodied - by Karen Klein (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

In this accomplished collection, Klein gives us the straight-no-chaser account of what it is like to live in a woman's body, specifically hers-for over 80 years. As a man, it was enlightening to read this vivid poetry, and to realize a woman's physical, sexual, and spiritual journey. Whether writing about her clitoritis, the pains of birth, or the aging body, she delivers with masterful strokes. I always tell student poets to 'bleed' in their work-and I would use this book as a shining example.

-Doug Holder

Co-President of the New England Poetry​ club

With lyrical deftness and searing authenticity, Karen Klein's Embodied charts life in a cis-female body-its social, emotional and physical aspects. From age 7, when the poet feels rejected by her two best friends-boys who suddenly reject her for being a girl, to age 87 when in "Lust in the aged," and the poem asks "...what of dirty old women?" the poet brings us intimately into her world. Dynamic and lyrical poetry at its best!

-Lee Varon