Here’s a post-Valentine look at romantic love and its opposite through poetry….Kathy Jacobs writes in response to Elizabeth Barrett Browning. Jacob’s poem first appeared in SWWIM (Supporting Women Writers in Miami) which was co-founded by Jen Karetnick and Catherine Esposito Prescott. This is my third shout out to SWWIM. It’s about time I tell you that you can sign up to receive daily poems from SWWIM at https://www.swwim.org
A Sonnet to Mad Men with Apologies to the Woman Poet (Who Requires No Definition)
How do you love me let me count your ways
With an uppercut, a kidney jab, a backhand slap
Hair by the roots, jammed to a barricade, slugged
To the ground, to the depth your fist can reach
Freely, as men are left to do; purely, from jealousy and spite
With passion driven by monstrous ego, with hands and words
And knives and knees and covetousness of my body,
My choice, my dignity, my liberty, my land
With boots and bullets, tanks and airstrikes, with need
To prove your dominance, your excuses, your entitled rage
On court benches and my kitchen floor, in senate chambers
And through cities’ streets, on every step and stage
Seizing my smiles, my pleas, my breath
Despite all tears I’ll love you better after death
Kathy Jacobs (first published in SWWIM, January 9, 2023)
How Do I Love Thee? (Sonnet 43)
How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of being and ideal grace.
I love thee to the level of every day's
Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.
I love thee freely, as men strive for right.
I love thee purely, as they turn from praise.
I love thee with the passion put to use
In my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith.
I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
With my lost saints. I love thee with the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my life; and, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death.
Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806-1861)