Book Tour: Lust, Poems by Diana Raab

Teaser Tuesday meme courtesy of MizB at Should Be Reading. Share quotes from a current read.

Lust by Diana Raab
Published February 1, 2014; WorldTech Communications
Genre: poetry

"Raab examines the emotional and physical complexity of love, helping readers navigate the risks of intimacy as we move toward the realization that every experience enriches our lives, whether we perceive it as joy, pain, or out of the ordinary. Yet for all their psychological richness, the poems’ simplicity and accessibility will resonate with women and men across all walks of life." (publisher)

My comments:  This collection of love and erotic poetry has several themes, including the various physical and emotional feelings engendered by love, the kindness of the lover, bliss and delight, wondering. The poems also include themes of the wounds of love, wondering about love, illicit relationships, removal from reality, loss, being alone, and jealousy and panic. At the end, there are poems included on love's endings and memories.

A poem of loss that I especially liked:  (p. 24)

SATURNED

Your planet encircles mine
Once a year
when you call
to the phone I once held
and which now sits
in the dark at the back
of my old underwear drawer
in the empty bedroom
where you stayed
on that night you whispered
how I was no longer the fantasy
of all your unmet dreams.

Diana Raab, an award-winning poet, memoirist, began crafting poems at the age of ten. She is the author of four poetry collections, My Muse Undresses Me (2007); Dear Anaïs: My Life in Poems for You (2008); The Guilt Gene (2009); and Listening to Africa (2011). She is editor of two anthologies, Writers and Their Notebooks (2010) and Writers on the Edge (2012), co-edited with James Brown.

Diana has two memoirs, Regina’s Closet: Finding My Grandmother’s Secret Journal (winner of the 2009 Mom’s Choice Award for Adult Nonfiction and the National Indie Excellence Award for Memoir), and Healing With Words: A Writer’s Cancer Journey (winner of the 2011 Mom’s Choice Award for Adult Nonfiction).

 She is a regular blogger for The Huffington Post and writes a monthly column for the Santa Barbara Sentinel, “The Mindful Word.” She lives in Southern California with her family and is working on her doctorate in psychology, researching the healing power of writing and creativity.

For more reviews of Lust, visit TLC Book Tours. I received a review copy of the book for this tour.