Reading Love Poems I Wrote to You by Yanyi
Reading Love Poems I Wrote to You
YanyiI was happy then.
I am even happy now.
To remember those nights and mornings
I woke up, went to bed, capable
of such feeling.It was not just you. I’m afraid
that I fabricated your light mood
flowing over the telephone,
throwing your hands in the air
without you truly.Let this be the stanza
I allow myself love.
Not expecting an answer
but to have said the thing anyway.
MARGINALIA
1.
The surprise that even happiness can survive its own ending—what I would give to feel all of that for the first time again.
2.
Do you know how remembering is. To wake up capable of such feeling.
3.
I worry feeling was a skill I could lose, that my heart has somehow atrophied going so long without.
4.
Here is probably one of the hardest truth about love: how much of it is us, loving.
KEEP READING
SHARED WITH GRATITUDE
This poem appeared in Brooklyn Rail, February 2025.
DESCRIPTION
“Founded in October 2000 and currently published 10 times annually, the Brooklyn Rail provides an independent forum for arts, culture, and politics throughout New York City and far beyond.
Our journal, in addition to featuring social and political meditations, criticism of music, dance, film, and theater; and original fiction and poetry, covers past and contemporary visual art in particular depth. In order to democratize our art coverage, our Critics Page functions with a rotating editorship, which such luminaries as Dore Ashton, Barbara Rose, Irving Sandler, W.J.T. Mitchell, Ralph Lemon, Joan Kee, Elizabeth Baker, Alice Notley, and Richard Shiff have helmed.” (Source)
ABOUT YANYI
Yanyi is a writer and critic who has published two poetry collections, Dream of the Divided Field (One World) and The Year of Blue Water (Yale). He teaches poetry at the Warren Wilson College MFA Program for Writers and runs the Asian American Literary Archive. He also writes the newsletter, The Reading. (Source)
ENDNOTES
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