Ed. Elrod, Kaufman, Krawiec
Poems by Marge Piercy, Sam Hamill, Dorianne Laux, Ron Rash, Lola Haskins, Stuart Dischell, doris davenport, Fred Chappell, Kathryn Stripling Byer, Alan Michael Parker, Michael Chitwood, Betty Adcock, Joe Millar, Nancy Simpson, David Huddle, Holly Iglesias, Dannye Romine Powell, and 100+ other poets.
Lovers and spouses. Sons and daughters. Parents, friends, strangers, pets. First love, last love, dying love, passionate love, sad love, wasted love, devoted love; love of body, love of spirit, love of self, love of place, love of time, love of moments, love of love.
Love that shivers, fizzles, shimmers, love that fades, dissolves, grows bitter. Love that races ahead, love that lingers. Comfortable love. Edgy love. Hungry love. Discarded love. Love that can no longer be called love. Love too great to be contained in one word.
Love as sacrifice or companionship. Love as passion, lust, or fetish. Love as angry or kind, controlling or tender. Love that lasts, in spite of itself. Love won hard. Love lost. Twists,turns, calamities, salvation. The sweet, delicious falling in…
We’ve been lucky in love. Love has come to us in abundance. Or love has been withheld, denied, stolen, broken. We’ve stumbled on love, we’ve chased after love, we’ve driven into the storm of it. We’ve courted love. We’ve been stalked. We’ve fallen. We’ve soared. We’ve despaired. We’ve shared love, been lonely in love and been, well, awake-in all the ways that make the breath come quick-all for the sake of three words. Whatever it brings, love is the only thing that makes everything else ring true.