You Drive Me Crazy: Love Poems for Real Life
by Mary D. Esselman, Elizabeth Ash Vélez
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Book Summary Information
Author: Elizabeth Ash Vélez, Mary D. EsselmanEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2005-01-01
ISBN: 0446692727
Number of pages: 200
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Book Reviews of You Drive Me Crazy: Love Poems for Real Life
Book Review: The ebb and flow of love...
Summary: 5 Stars
Love Poems for Real Life seems to have been created for couples in a long-term relationship. The poems are arranged according to how the authors see love's initial passion and then how this ebbs and flows over time.
At first the poems radiate an intimacy that contrasts sharply with a desire for distance later in the book. The lovers express such sweet concepts as in E.E. Cummings "I carry your heart with me."
Later, Dorothy Parker displays her sardonic wit in the last line of a love poem - that feels more like elation and frustration. It seems she is depressed at the time and nothing is bringing her joy, so she writes of the sweetness and then throws in a line or two about how she wishes she had never met her lover who seems to live with sunny skies. After reading about her life, we know there were some storms, but was anyone listening?
I loved Al Zolynas' "The Zen of Housework." It is brilliant in the way it presents visual images for contemplation. Anna Akhmatova's "I Wrung My Hands Under My Dark Veil" is also stunning in beauty and emotional implication. Carolyn Creedon's poem shows great sarcasm and Sylvia Plath takes the cake for misery:
"The moon, too, abases her subjects,
but in the daytime she is ridiculous.
Your dissatisfactions, on the other hand,
Arrive through the mailslot with loving regularity,
White and blank, expansive as carbon monoxide.
No day is safe from news of you,
Walking about in Africa maybe, but thinking of me."
Margaret Atwood's poem "Habitation" seems to define this book as it explores the idea that in love, we are always at the point of "learning to make fire." The passion of the initial poems mellows into a nourishing comfort.
Mary D. Esselman and Elizabeth Ash Velez are careful observers of popular culture and of the daily lives of the seemingly typical love relationship in modern society. In their introductions to each chapter, they explore the ideas of Ecstasy, Stability, Monotony, Uncertainty, Misery and Clarity. Their commentary on the poems makes for interesting reading and makes the book feel more personal and ultimately more emotionally fulfilling. Most of the poems in this collection were new to me, so that was a delicious surprise.
~The Rebecca Review
Summary of You Drive Me Crazy: Love Poems for Real Life
From the editors of the successful anthologies "The Hell With Love" and "Kiss Off" comes a third collection of poetry celebrating commitment, passion, and everlasting love. Two-color text.Criticism & Theory Books
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