Sex Without Love, How Do They Do It?

Sharon Olds writes a poem entitled, Sex Without Love. This poem uses comparisons throughout the verses. The reader takes the first line; “How do they do it, the ones make love without love?”; “The ones” being mentioned the reader an assume are the professionals. The ones who are good at blocking emotions and feelings and don’t make love. These are the ones who perfected the art of sex and not love making, perfected this with practice. The author uses symbols to express and signify the idea of practice. One of the sentences the author uses is a good example of this; “Beautiful as dancers, gliding over each other like ice skaters over the ice”. We as readers know that to be as beautiful as a dancer and glide over the ice it takes a lot of painful practice sessions. Olds also uses example of great runner, which to the reader could signify the skill accomplished from practicing to be great.

Sex without love isn’t good; the individuals need to have meaningful encounters with love involved. There are some cultures and religions that say love making and sex is the same thing. I feel the opinion will vary from reader to reader. It is also said that women view love making and sex as having two different meanings, and men view it as sex being love making. As a reader I feel sex is meaningless, no emotions much like a lifeless obligation of fulfilling needs. Love making is meant to be with an individual where there is a connection, a bond with lots of emotions and feeling involved. This includes the individuals’ minds, bodies, and souls. Like everything else in the world sex and love has its gray areas of interpretations. Areas of doubts and misconceptions, again this is for the individual reader to decide. Based on individuals up bringing, thoughts, and morals would allow them to draw the conclusion how they do it without love. Practice is what the author implies. Lots of painful, heart-breaking practice sessions, such as that as ice skaters.