Satan Says

In Satan Says, Sharon Olds peels language down to its red, thudding heart. Olds gives us heat, shadow, and the strange, sweet bloom of daring the body to speak its truths.

When I moved back to California in 2006 to begin teaching in the Creative Writing Department at San Francisco State University, my office was just steps away from the Poetry Center. ‘These are the folks who saw the genius of Satan Says,’ I thought, and I remember visiting the Poetry Center to sit in their comfy chairs and re-read this remarkable book by Sharon Olds. So direct and honest and unflinching it never fails to take my breath away, Satan Says was one of the first grown-up books of poetry I ever loved.

It is hard to state the importance of this book to me as a poet. It not only shows me what can be said in a poem, but it shows me how one might go about saying it, how one might live in the difficult spaces necessary for speaking truth to power. Diane Seuss’s introduction reinforces the enduring importance of Satan Says in our divisive, contemporary moment.

In Satan Says, Sharon Olds convincingly, and with astonishing vigor, presents a world which, if not always hostile, is never clear about which face it will show her.

The poems are constructed with craft and care; the volatility of childhood seemingly is tempered with controlled retrospection and craft. . . . Olds's voice is original. It is even savage at times, but always controlled. Recommended for all colleges and libraries.

Sharon Olds's poetry has the intensity and power to move the reader, whether her subject be personal family life or political events.

This is a powerful and impressive first book.

Olds's voice is consistently intense. In one poem after another, the spareness and bluntness of the language emphasize the violent sensuality of the images.