Synopses & Reviews
Obsessive love has never been so much fun! What She Wants: Poems on Obsession, Desire, Despair, Euphoria is a powerful tribute to the intensity of obsessive love, told through the trademark humor and heartbreak of bestselling poet Kim Dower.
Following the commercial and literary success of her bestselling poetry collection, I Wore This Dress Today for You, Mom: Poems on Motherhood, Kim Dower delivers What She Wants: Poems on Obsession, Desire, Despair, Euphoria — turning her keen eye, vibrant imagination, trademark insight, and humor to the intensity of obsessive love. These steamy and provocative poems, combining humor and heartache, run through the four phases of Limerence, the state of being infatuated or obsessed with another person: Infatuation, Crystallization, Deterioration, and Ecstatic Release. From the opening poem, "She'll do anything for food," to the sexy title poem, "What She Wants," the painfully funny, "His Other Girlfriend," to the longing in "Visiting Baudelaire," and the sad, sweet final poem, "Fish's Lament," Kim Dower captures the essence of what it means to be stuck on someone — even on a squirrel! Her eclectic, growing readership will savor these poems that can be read in one sitting, like a story with an arc, or separately, each one recalling the moment of falling in or out of love, the moment our hearts skipped a beat.
Review
"Desires, both feral and mundane, are slung across these pages in a crescendo of sexual longing and urgent vitality. There's something gleeful in the undercurrent of darkness that runs through these verses." Amanda Youngman, Store Manager, Barnes & Noble at The Grove
Review
"Psychologically astute and playfully resolute at evoking the irrevocable desire for love, attraction, seduction, and yes, companionship, What She Wants belongs on every bookshelf: not just for poetry lovers. But the poetry is there, singing its echoing delight through the lines, like desire itself, and enticing, resolving, and picturing the myriad ways we are compelled by desire and all its fruits." John Evans, Diesel Bookstore
Review
"Kim Dower captures the timeless art of storytelling through verse with raw and unfiltered emotions, lyrical language, and vivid imagery. With every turn of the page, readers will find themselves drawn deeper into a world where words hold the power to inspire, delight, and transform." Julie Slavinsky, Director of Events, Warwick's Bookstore
About the Author
Kim Dower, born and raised on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, is the former City Poet Laureate for West Hollywood, California. She is the author of five highly acclaimed collections of poetry, including the Los Angeles Times bestseller and 2023 Eric Hoffer Book Award Finalist, I Wore This Dress Today for You, Mom¬; the 2020 Gold IPPY Awards winner, Sunbathing on Tyrone Power's Grave; Air Kissing on Mars; and Slice of Moon. Dower's poems have been featured on Garrison Keillor's The Writer's Almanac and Ted Kooser's American Life in Poetry, as well as in many anthologies and journals, including Ploughshares, James Dickey Review, Plume, and Barrow Street. She teaches poetry workshops for Antioch University, UCLA Extension, and the West Hollywood Library. Kim lives with her family in West Hollywood, California.