Emily Ramser has published three chapbooks and one collection. U-Haul: A Collection of Lesbian Love Poems is her most recent. The twelve poems in U-Haul span twenty six pages and are accompanied by lovely illustrations (Sara Tolbert.) You can purchase it here.
I don't usually read love poems. I don't tend to write them, either. I find it hard to write about love without making it sound incredibly cliched. I also find it very hard to read about love, because a lot of the works seem to be cut from the same mold. There are a few poets and poems about love that I thoroughly enjoy, like Pablo Neruda and Edgar Allen Poe. Emily Ramser is another poet that I have come to admire.
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Emily Ramser, in my opinion, is a modern day Sappho.The way that she writes is simultaneously visceral and eloquent. Her works awaken the passion brimming within the soul and bring forth the admiration of the mind. She mixes everyday moments with genuine, unadulterated love to create fantastic imagery and emotion. I had the privilege of listening to her read the last poem in the book firsthand (which just so happens to be my favorite) at an open mic night last year. (That's probably when I fell in love with her writing, to be perfectly honest).
I've read all of the poems at least a handful of times while writing this review, and quite a few before. Each time, I find something new that I never noticed before, whether it be the way the words flow together or the rhyme at the end of stanzas. Some of my favorites lines are in "Gardening In Your Flesh", about halfway through: "when I tell you that reciting poems to plants / helps them grow, / you let me whisper / fragments of sonnets". The first line is rather long, but the succeeding are shorter, providing a wonderful contrast. It flows so well, like a passionate monologue that slowly tapers off into a whisper.
The tone of her pieces are extremely cohesive, but unique, as well. The fire is still there, teeming throughout the book, but at varying levels. When I read "Under Your Eyes", it was in a much softer voice than "The Lyrics to the Mixtape I Left in Your Mailbox Last Summer". At the same time, both of these are different to "I Write You Love Poems When I Visit You", which is a very simple, clean expression of the narrator's love for their partner.
I will probably read these poems a few more times before putting them down, only to open them up a few weeks from now and fall in love with them all over again.
