Love Poems: #1

So. If you're interested in having the best Valentine's Day of your life, work in an elementary school. Between the hours of 7:30 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. today, I've gotten more hugs, handwritten notes, stuffed animals and boxes of chocolate than I ever got in all of my previous February 14ths combined and quadrupled. I'm super impressed with myself for not turning into a mess of tears and snot every time one of those kids told me "La quiero mucho, maestra!" (usually pronounced mayestra) 

Beth Ann Fennelly's "Poem Not to Be Read at Your Wedding" isn't as loud or as cheerful about the subject matter at hand as the kids in my classroom, but it makes just as big of an impact on me each time I read it. 

Love Poems: #2

Each of the past three poems manages to leave its own uniquely shaped pit in my stomach, but most of them more or less resemble the same Dysfunctional Relationship sort of silhouette. "I Don't Buy It," by Wendy Videlock is like a gentle, fortune cookie-sized reminder that there's more to love than emotional abuse and disappointment.

Had this been published before the summer of 2011, you can bet that it would have replaced those 1 Corinthians verses at my wedding ceremony. If anyone has any experience engraving beautiful words onto a living person's bones, give me a call. 

Love Poems: #3

There are numerous times I've been left breathless over the course of my life. There was the time in the third grade when some punk kid kicked me in the gut at a soccer game in Miami. There was the time my family and I had our eyes superglued to the tv screen as Johnny Damon hit a grand slam at Yankee Stadium on Game 7 of the 2004 ALCS. And there was the first time I read "All That Glitters" by Bianca Spriggs. 

I'm always a little bit hesitant to re-read it, like I'm afraid that I've unconsciously been building up a tolerance to its effect and this will finally be the time that this poem doesn't work on me. No worries - it always does. 

Love Poems: #4

I generally try to suppress most of my creepiness, but it is especially hard to do that while talking about people I am obsessed with. Take, for instance, Jon Sands, the Brooklyn based writer whose abridged biography I have more or less memorized. 

When I heard Jon Sands recite "A Working List of Things I'll Never Tell You," I felt a little bit less alone in the universe, and I think that sort of reaction is a good indicator of something being worth my while. In my calm and objective opinion (ha!), this poem is worth your while, too.

Love Poems: #5

Contrary to what you might believe after perusing through the God-awful material that makes up this blog, I'm a big fan of good writing (which includes Stephen King and anybody who says otherwise needs to gtfo). In an honest attempt to be a less terrible person (i.e. to use this blog to write about something other than my love affair with food and Ryan Gosling), I thought I could go for a change of pace this Valentine's Day and spend the first half of the month sharing my favorite contemporary love poems I've read in the past year. 

Coming in at number five in this countdown is "The Elements of Solid Relationships" by Jesse Manley, who grew up in Fort Worth (DFW FTW!). I wish I could wear the poem around my neck or something so that I could carry it around with me all day, dayum.