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Rules from Love Poetry

Will I perish without the love of my life?

“So dear I Love him that with him, all deaths I could endure. Without him, live no Life.”~William Shakespeare from Romeo & Juliet

It’s three hours into my five-hour flight to Hawaii with my sisters for our annual getaway. We just finished watching the movie Letters to Juliet about a young writer, Sophie, who travels to Italy with her fiancé. He turns out to be extremely passionate about his restaurant business but not so attentive to her. While they’re in this beautiful, romantic town of Verona, the place of Romeo and Juliet’s ill-fated love, Sophie’s fiancé immerses himself in work and leaves her alone most of the trip. Sophie finally decides that she didn’t miss him that much (the cute guy she met influenced her a tad too). She dreamily concludes that any woman who believes a man is the love of her life would want to spend “every moment with him”. I flinched. (more…)

The Truth in Love Poetry

Romantic fantasy fades into love poetry

What is it about love poetry and quotes that fascinate and deeply impact us?

We’re enticed by love, devastated by love, angered by love, addicted to love, longing for love, bursting with love, blinded and fooled by love. Love profoundly affects our lives like nothing else can. Does love poetry allow us to eavesdrop into someone’s heart and share the camaraderie of our emotions? Is the truth of love poetry the commonality of our shared empathy and intense obsession with love?

The Oscar Wilde quote above says so much in so few words. For me it means there’s a cycle to love that is flawed from the beginning—called romance. (more…)