The Widow's Crayon Box Paperback by Molly Peacock

Product Details

• Publisher: WW Norton (2026-06-23)
• Language: English
• Paperback: 112 pages
• ISBN-13: 9781324130680
• Item Weight: 368.55 grams
• Dimensions: 0.0 x 0.0 x 0.0 cm

A book-length sequence of poems that dares to affirm the vast variety of emotional colors in loss and rejuvenation.

After her husband’s death, Molly Peacock realized she was not living the received idea of a widow’s mauve existence but instead was experiencing life in all colors. 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 gradually
into that lake and disappeared. Not gone,
but so internalized you’re not next to me.

About the Author

Molly Peacock is the author of eight collections of poetry, including The Analyst: Poems and Cornucopia: New and Selected Poems. She lives in Toronto, Canada.