Title: When Love Lived Alone
Author: Jessica Singh
Genre: Contemporary Poetry
A woman falls in love. She finds solace in her relationships—the sense of security to let her walls down, be vulnerable, be transformed by them, and she gives herself wholly to them.
Love then poses challenges, taking her to the deepest pits—unreturned love, unequal love, love lost and found—yet, she savors love itself and willingly accepts the multitude of experiences it offers.
Excerpt:
Love does live alone; it chooses itself. Always. It is a primal emotion. While it is often dismissed as a weakness, it is so powerfully pervasive that it trumps all else. This book is about love that is felt and also about love that is its own being.
I yearned to not part,
I pleaded to remain stark,
I confessed to be a spark.
I was yours and not,
The pain was mine and not,
Blinding love can be binding,
But it was neither blinding nor binding.
Why we love it:
When Love Lived Alone describes the joys and sorrows of love in great depth. It talks about losing oneself in relationships and intense interactions. It describes tales of existential angst and acute self-awareness, of social consciousness and confessions.
The book is an ode to love in three acts—Alliterated Allies is a set of poems that use alliteration as a stylistic device. Shades in Semblance comprises poems that have a strong metaphorical quality in relation to certain colours and forms. Depth of Delusions comprises poems on delusions aggrandized by the ecstasy and despair of love.
The writing is simple and honest, yet the book voices complex ideas and delicate thoughts aesthetically. Each poem is complete with an illustration that helped us relate to the author’s emotions. The themes range from love, prayer, meditation, the vastness of existence, to the inescapable want for experiences that accompany love.
The brevity of the poems and the imagery are great for a quick indulgence. They instantly drew us into the poet’s inner world, took us through a whirlwind of emotions that we were able to relate to. Perfect for light reading.
You will love it if:
You like Le Spleen de Paris by Charles Baudelaire, The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran, Virginia Woolf, Sylvia Plath, The World Doesn’t End by Charlies Simic.
You like films like Dead Poets Society, Poetic Justice, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.
You can find this book on Amazon and our Notion Press Store.