Beginning Polyamory
Poems by Peter Waldor
2024, Kelsay Books, American Fork, Utah

Peter Waldor is a prolific author with 25 books of poetry to his credit, covering a multitude of topics. Several of his books have won prestigious awards, and because I hate poetry and all those scholarly awards sounded pretentious to me, I almost let that stop me from reading this terrific new book.

If you, like me, generally find poetry boring and pointless, don’t let that discourage you from reading this, Waldor’s 25 th , book hot off the presses in Spring, 2024!

“Beginning Polyamory” is anything BUT stuffy or academic. It is a very down to earth, eminently readable collection of short poems. I will emphasize the word “short,” because Waldor is able to say so much in so few words. At the end of each poem, he left me wanting more, which is more than I can say about most poetry I have read. There is always some tantalizing detail that leaves the reader wanting to ask one more question or quickly turn the page in the hope that the poem continues to the following page with even one more juicy line. But alas, almost every poem is less than one page long, and some mysteries remain unsolved. He generates a lot of chemistry and excitement, sexual and otherwise, in a few short lines.

These poems communicate so much of both the promise and disappointment we experience in polyamorous relationships. Any polyamorous reader will recognize in these poems the intense and delightful highs and the desperately despairing lows, as well as the wonderful normality and longevity of our everyday nonmonogamous lives.  He really has his finger on the pulse of the trajectory of nonmonogamous relationships: how they start, what they feel like, what drives us to create and live this nontraditional life that is so different than how we were taught to “do” relationships. And, of course, there are a few poems about how not all polyamorous relationships last forever, and chronicling the “not always pretty” ways that some of them end.

And I never thought I would see a series of five short poems each entitled "Sex Club"!  These five poems somehow manage to be hilarious, exciting, hopeful, anxiety-provoking, and slightly embarrassing, all of which really capture the sex party experience.

You won’t regret spending an evening with these 82 pages of poems. While this book is a very quick read, you will find yourself going back again for another dip in these waters.