required reading: romance

i'll be the first to admit that this is not the most imaginative list ever, but when it comes to romance in poetry, i tend to turn to the poems and poets i've spent the most time with.  perhaps it's because i was falling in love with my husband as i immersed myself in their lyric lines, but creeley, cummings and neruda occupy a large space in my heart.

creeley in 1983 via nyt

before we began dating, joel and i spent evenings together memorizing robert creeley. so poems like our oft-quoted, "the rain" and "the warning" seeped into our dreams.  little did we know that each poem ingested would multiply until we were overwhelmed by love.  

"The Warning"

For love -- I would

split open your head and put

a candle in

behind the eyes.

Love is dead in us

if we forget the virtues of an amulet

and quick surprise

love that tie and vest

and always e. e. cummings. a little racy ("i like my body"), a little precious ("to be thy lips is a sweet thing/and small") , a little raw ("it may not always be so"). and sweet - "i carry your heart with me (i carry it in my heart)"

get neruda's sonnets here

joel practiced his spanish while reading 100 love sonnets to me.  i later gave him a mixed media piece i'd made based off XXIX for valentine's day. this is how i feel now, missing joel each day, from XLV

Don't go far off, not even for a day, because -- 

because -- I don't know how to say it: a day is long

and I will be waiting for you, as in an empty station

when the trains are pared off somewhere else, asleep. 

our poets (t.s.) eliot and ezra (pound)

i would be remiss if i didn't add my favorite romantic poet, joel ("and writing/ the poem/ for you/ in which/ love's hard measure/ is won").  over the past twelve years i've been lucky enough to have quite a few poems written for me. and of course eliot and ezra - the little poets of my heart .  love: j