The Penguin Book of Love Poetry
A Poem by Kelsey Edwards
Tonight I can write the saddest lines;
the sisters, two rural sisters, Damned
Women.
[after long silence]
From pent-up, aching rivers to the quiet glades of Eden,
from walking in a meadow green, inseparable, to ecstasy
under the waterfall. Two lips cherry-ripe, two lips echo
the kiss. My pretty rose tree, She came to me
in a gondola, the sun rising under the willow-shades. It was
like
the
touch
of
rain.
The definition of love.
Keep your eyes open when you kiss, she tells her love
while half-asleep. I abide and abide and
abide, until
it may not always be so…
A last confession; the imperfect
enjoyment, the way man and wife
remember. Drunk
as drunk as turpentine. Come, live with me and be
my love. Her reply:
the night has a thousand eyes, quick
and bitter. Talking in bed is the funeral,
not the slice of wedding cake. First love-
love without hope- is a thunderstorm
in town. Damned women
from modern love.
The question- an argument- sick
love- sudden light- the ruined maid- she gave
the kiss- She did not- no use to remain. Seduced girl.
Daybreak.
[after long silence]
I knew a woman in love
when I was one-and-twenty. Dread, dead.
Still, never such love is to remain.
When we two parted, a thousand years an old flame, you said.
Remember? Then two lips, cherry-ripe, a
valediction.
A pity. We were
such a good invention.
A Statement by Kelsey Edwards on her process
I found the 1976 edition of The Penguin Book of Love Poetry in a bookshop in Dorchester. It was meant to be a holiday read but now lives on my bedside table. I turn to it when procrastinating other work or to inspire my creativity. It isn’t the romance that keeps me going back, but the rawness of emotion. The poems differ in content and form- dedications, sonnets, lamentations, unrequited love- but are all united by sincere confession. My poem is a response to the emotions that I encountered and experienced within the anthology. I crafted it using only titles from the original text, trying to encapsulate the rawness that each poem explores whilst staying true to my own voice. The love, which happens to be queer, is an exploration of my own experiences as well as how complex love (and life) can be.