Love and poetry are as old as, well, love and poetry. Since Biblical times with the Song of Solomon, extending through the poems of Ovid and Catullus in ancient Rome, poetry has been used to express love and desire right up through our own times.
Sometime in the 20th century, likely with the rise of the Modernist poets in the 190s and 1920s, love poetry fell out of fashion. It’s never really regained its footing. That’s not to say it’s disappeared; love poems continue to be written and published. But it’s unusual to see a love poem published in the well-known literary and academic journals and magazines.
Gifts Without Wrapping by Michal Choiński is a collection of love poems. The publication is what Americans call a chapbook and the British call a pamphlet. An ultra-slim volume of 10 poems, it won the 2019 White Label Deux competition sponsored by The Hedgehog Press, based in Britain. The competition, now in its 10th year, is for first-time pamphlet or chapbook publications (current deadline is Oct. 31, 2022).
To continue reading, please see my post today at Tweetspeak Poetry.
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