After her husband’s death, Molly Peacock realised she was not living the received idea of a widow’s mauve existence but instead was experiencing life in all colours. These gorgeous poems–joyful, furious, mournful, bewildered, sexy, devastated, whimsical and above all, moving–composed in sonnet sequences and in open forms, designed in four movements (After, Before, When and Afterglow)–illuminate both the role of the caregiver and the crystalline emotions one can experience after the death of a cherished partner. With her characteristic virtuosity, her fearless willingness to confront even the most difficult emotions, and always with buoyancy and zest, Peacock charts widowhood in the twenty-first century.From “Touched:”After you died, I felt you next to me,and over months you entered graduallyinto that lake and disappeared. Not gone,but so internalised you’re not next to me.
