Enid Shomer, Anthology Editor

Poet and fiction writer Enid Shomer is the author of four books of poetry and three of fiction, most recently the novel The Twelve Rooms of the Nile (Simon & Schuster, 2012). Her work has been collected in more than fifty anthologies and textbooks, including POETRY: A Harper Collins Pocket Anthology, Best American Poetry, and New Stories from the South. Two of her books, Stars at Noon (poetry) and Imaginary Men (short fiction), were the subject of feature interviews on NPR's Morning Edition and All Things Considered. In 2013, she received the Lifetime Achievement Award in Writing from the Florida Humanities Council.

ALL WE KNOW OF PLEASURE:

Poetic Erotica by Women

Edited and with an Introduction by Enid Shomer

I. THE DISCOVERY OF SEX

• Woman Reading, KATHLEEN FLENNIKEN
• In Ecstasy, ERIN BELIEU
• She Lays, MOLLY PEACOCK
• Practicing, MARIE HOWE
• Corinna, Deplaning In Pittsburgh, Looks For Tessera, Her Friend from Summer Camp, STEPHANIE BURT
• At Seventeen, ELIZABETH ALEXANDER
• First Sex, SHARON OLDS
• Stairway to Heaven, JILL BIALOSKY
• The Sisters of Sexual Treasure, SHARON OLDS
• Bar Napkin Sonnet #11, MOIRA EGAN
• Have You Ever Faked an Orgasm?, MOLLY PEACOCK
• Fast Gas, DORIANNE LAUX
• My Diamond Stud, ALICE FULTON
• The 4-Barrel Carburetor On a ¿72 Chevy Camaro, LORNA DEE CERVANTES
• ¿What Do Women Want?¿, KIM ADDONIZIO
• Navy, BARBARA O¿DAIR
• Preference, BETH GYLYS
• Your Shower, NIKKI GIOVANNI
• Your Hands, ANGELINA WELD GRIMKÉ
• Fishing Seahorse Reef, ENID SHOMER
• When Man Enters Woman, ANNE SEXTON
• China, DORIANNE LAUX
• The Source, SHARON OLDS
• The French Bed, IDRIS ANDERSON
• Breasts, MAXINE CHERNOFF
• Wet, MARGE PIERCY
• Dream Lover,AMY EDGINGTON
• Lullaby, MOLLY PEACOCK
• Orion¿s Belt, BRENDA HILLMAN
• Attraction, ENID SHOMER
• Space Race, COLETTE LABOUFF ATKINSON
• The Shyness, SHARON OLDS
• Desire, DEIDRE POPE
• Skylight, JAYNE RELAFORD BROWN
• Black Slip, TERRY WOLVERTON
• First Poem for You, KIM ADDONIZIO
• The Lovers, DORIANNE LAUX
• Directions, KATHERINE RIEGEL
• The Discovery of Sex, DEBRA SPENCER
• Desire, JANE HIRSHFIELD

II. THE ORDINARY DAY BEGINS

• Kissing Again, DORIANNE LAUX
• The Ordinary Day Begins, JUNE SYLVESTER SARACENO
• The Knowing, SHARON OLDS
• The Purr, MOLLY PEACOCK
• In the Kitchen, STACIE CASSARINO
• Trying, ADA LIMÓN
• Christ You Delight Me, SANDRA CISNEROS
• The Hummingbird: A Seduction, PATTIANN ROGERS
• Seamless Beauty, WENDY LEE
• Downward, ERICA JONG
• Everything Depends Upon, JANE ANN DEVOL FULLER
• Eros at Temple Stream, DENISE LEVERTOV
• The Best Seven Minutes of My Life, LORNA DEE CERVANTES
• Afternoon, NINA RUBINSTEIN ALONSO
• Curtains of Goldenrod, DIANE ACKERMAN
• Capitulation, BARBARA GOLDBERG
• Buttons, CHERYL CLARKE
• green boy, KAI CHENG THOM
• Housebound, AMY GERSTLER
• More or Less Love Poems #7, DIANE DI PRIMA
• I Love It When, SHARON OLDS
• Floating Islands, ENID SHOMER
• Hold Back, ROBIN BECKER
• I Live My Life by Three Minute Phone Calls, LAURA BOSS
• In Celebration, ELLEN BASS
• Something Like Rivers Ran, SANDRA CISNEROS
• On a night of the full moon, AUDRE LORDE
• This Corner of the Western World, JENNIFER CHANG
• Amazon Twins, OLGA BROUMAS
• The Sad Truth, ELLEN BASS
• 2 AM, DORIANNE LAUX
• (The Floating Poem, Unnumbered), ADRIENNE RICH
• Blindfolds, Ropes, SHERYL ST. GERMAIN
• I Have No Use for Virgins, JANE HIRSHFIELD

III. WHEN THIS OLD BODY

• Gate C22, ELLEN BASS
• What Humans Do, WENDY VIDELOCK
• Kisses, KIM ADDONIZIO
• Your Fingers Are Still, CHRYSTOS
• Wet, CAROLYN CREEDON
• Love Poem, AUDRE LORDE
• Phenomenal Woman, MAYA ANGELOU
• homage to my hips, LUCILLE CLIFTON
• Freed Up, WENDY BARKER
• To Endings, KATHERINE RIEGEL
• Marriage Without Sex, ELLEN BASS
• Four Beginnings / for Kyra, OLGA BROUMAS
• the wounded for healing, KAI CHENG THOM
• The animal kingdom, MARGE PIERCY
• Drowning in Paradise, ADA LIMÓN
• Dulzura, SANDRA CISNEROS
• Ecstasy, SHARON OLDS
• After Love, MAXINE KUMIN
• Afterwards, DORIANNE LAUX
• Watching You in the Mirror, ALICE FRIMAN
• Of Gravity & Angels, JANE HIRSHFIELD
• Integrity, LORNA DEE CERVANTES
• Searching for the Comet, DIANE ACKERMAN
• Us, ANNE SEXTON
• Summer Solstice, STACIE CASSARINO
• Song of the Current at Cape Horn, DIANE ACKERMAN
• We Thought of Each Other as Food, ROBIN BECKER
• mary, LUCILLE CLIFTON
• The Encounter, LOUISE GLÜCK
• Foreshadows, BARBARA GOLDBERG
• The Return, MOLLY PEACOCK
• The Long Tunnel of Wanting You, ERICA JONG
• Making Love to You When You're Far Away, ALISON HAWTHORNE DEMING
• Feasting, ELIZABETH W. GARBER
• God/Love Poem, LENORE KANDEL
• Doomsday, MAURYA SIMON
• Notes on Desire, EVE ALEXANDRA
• autopsky, KAI CHENG THOM
• Untitled (When this old body), GRACE PALEY
• January Vineyards, RUTH L. SCHWARTZ
• There's Nothing More, WENDY VIDELOCK