If There Is Something to Desire: One Hundred Poems

Now in paperback, the widely acclaimed collection of one hundred poems of extraordinarily elegant simplicity by one of the best-selling poets in Russia, whose presence on the American poetry scene is increasingly strong. Pavlova writes about love (both sexual love and the love that reaches beyond sex); about motherhood; about the memories of childhood that continue to feed us; about our lives as passionate souls abroad in the world. Sensitively translated by her husband, Steven Seymour, Pavlova's poems are highly disciplined miniatures ("I broke your heart. / Now barefoot I tread / on shards"--a whole poem in ten words). Pavlova is a poet who storms our hearts with pure talent and a seemingly effortless gift for shaping poems.