The Uses of the Body, by Deborah Landau

 Deborah Landau’s The Uses of the Body is propelled by two unanticipated events—a death and a birth. The irrepressible drives and vulnerabilities of the female body, and its various “uses,” fill these lyrically haunting poems with tenderness and desire. The poems slant and swerve as Landau explores the complexities of marriage, motherhood, and sexuality, conjuring a cherished domestic life beset by ennui and illness, singing often unspoken truths.