Body Work

Opening a copy of Body Work is like lifting the lid of a jewelry box to discover each gemstone carefully carved, polished, and sparkling. These poems resonate with intelligence, authenticity, delicious irony, concise and biting images, and deep empathy. The work in this insightful and unforgettable collection rank as Stephanie K. Cohen’s finest. And there’s not a faux jewel among them.
— Pat Carr, author of The Death of a Confederate Colonel, and winner of the Iowa Fiction Award, Southwest Fiction Award, Library of Congress Marc IV Award, the Porter Fiction Prize, and others

In Body Work, Stephanie Kaplan Cohen tells us, “It’s okay to love life”... and “to sing off key,” and “Forever is a lie.” Enter her world. Visit with this wise woman and her words, an intoxicating distillation from an evolved, loving, intelligent, and earthy woman. Accept Cohen’s invitation to explore the layers of her life: you will not be disappointed! Expect to laugh, learn, be moved and forever changed.
— Linda Leedy Schneider, author of Some Days: Poetry of a Psychotherapist

Stephanie Kaplan Cohen’s poems are indelible because they are incredibly funny, genuine and are rooted in a complicated sympathy for herself and all those she thinks about and loves. She blurts out unspeakable truths that will make you laugh and cry in solidarity with her all too human and honest poems.
— June S. Gould, Ph.D., Workshop leader for The International Women’s Writing Guild, author of The Writer in All of Us and published poet

Body 9
Anatomy 11
Clitoris Talks to Umbilicus 12
A Gut Feeling 13
Haiku for Menopause 14
Heart and Soul 15
The Organ Players 16
Toilet Tissue Issues II 17
What Every Girl Wants 18
Weigh-In 19
The Cross Dressing Cantaloupe 20
Family 21
A Bedtime Story from a Grandmother 23
Body Jumping 24
A Chair for My Mother 25
For Charles 26
Child of My Child 27
Forecast 28
Grandfather 29
Hits and Misses 30
I Used To Love 31
The Late Late Show 32
The Moon 33
Mother Love 34
My Father Taught Me 35
My Mother Never Taught Me 36
Of Late I Dream Correctively 37
Photography Lesson 38
Rachel at Almost Seven 39
Silence 40
A Telephone Call 41
Time Warp 42
Valentine’s Day 2002 43
Yearly Visitation 44
Nature 45
Bigoted Nature Lover 47
Don’t Say One Bad Word 48
Every Autumn 49
Hummingbird 50
I Know Rivers 51
Misbegotten 52
The Morning Is Awash with Angels 53
My Field of Flowers 54
Procreation 55
Sandy 56
To Spring 57
Life 59
The Chinese Summer 61
The New Year 62
Good Old Friend 63
Failing Jewelry 64
Feast of the Cafeteria 65
I Am Moving Out of Grief Street 66
I’d Like to Kick the Glitter 67
Instructions for Any Room You Enter 68
It’s All a Matter of Taste 69
Ladies and Gentlemen 70
Look at Me 71
Love, How the Hours Accumulate 72
Mathematics Must Be True 73
On a Perfect Sunday 74
Terrible Things 75
The Poem of Knowledge 76
Vacuuming Heaven 77
What Not 78
When History Enters My House 79
For Sale Signs 80
Written in Stone 81
Age 83
Testing for Age 85
Never Mind the Mirror 86
Life Is a Trade Off 87
At Our Age 88
It’s All Relative 89
A Proper Lady 90
Socks 91
Eighty-Year-Old Woman Attends Conference 92
Eighty Four 93
Enough Already 94
Fifty One Years and Still Counting 95
Hotsy Totsy 96
One Hundred Years from Now 97
Senior Marathon 98
Visibility Zero 99
The Old Woman in Two Shoes 100
What They Never Told You 101
What Time Is It 102
Scaladune 103
Writing 105
Age Is Only a Number 107
Eagle 108
Sometimes a Poem Jumps Out at Me 109
Writing and Love and Love and Writing 110
Yes, We Have No Poems Today 111
God 113
The Endless War 115
Everything Shall Be Known 116
God, Are You Angry? 117
God, Are You Really An Anti-Semite? 118
God Is Depressed 119
God Is Going Crazy 120
Feast on Your Life 121
I’ll Tell You a Secret 122
Law and Order 123
Looking at the Moon in Autumn 124
Six Thousand Body Bags 125
Count Me Out for the Recycle Bin 126
About the Author 127