Lonely Women Make Good Lovers

Kuipers’s wickedly erotic and ingenious fourth collection (after All Its Charms) explores identity and how the body is invested with meaning that is continuously shifting. Among other topics, these poems address coming to terms with one’s evolving sexuality (notably in “The Magician’s Woodpile,” which depicts the speaker setting fire to a pile of penises), the adrenaline of new romance, and the steady simmer of attraction to a long-term partner. Kuipers expertly mixes frank expressions of sexual desire with the domestic, subverting common preconceptions and breaking arbitrary boundaries surrounding the body. “In the Outdoor Shower with My Pregnant Wife” is a rapturous ode not only to a woman’s pregnant body but to the ways in which it is permanently altered by pregnancy: “I want already/ the body scarred by stretch marks, the extra flap/ of skin to hang soft at her waist, the feet/ that will never again be quite so small.” Kuipers is exceptional at setting the scene with a carefully chosen detail, as in “The Wound,” which begins, “It was the winter the dog swallowed// a sewing needle.” This wide-ranging collection tackles love in its varied forms with originality and hard-won wisdom. (Apr.)