We Have Time

by Cheryl Seely Savage

In this brand new collection of love poetry, Cheryl Seely Savage has carefully captured the feelings of real love. We Have Time explores the yearnings of teenage romance, the wisdom of long-term marriages, and the heartache of unrealized relationships. Every poem appeals to the reader to remember the passion, hope, comfort, and pain in their own love stories.

From the
"Throughout this collection, I have tried to include the highs and lows of romantic love. As real and wonderful as it can feel, the heartbreak of losing (or never having) romantic love is just as potent! I didn’t want to create a saturated thus, a variety of emotions that accompany the vulnerability of pursuing passionate, romantic, loving relationships."

Although filled with new poetry, We Have Time also includes love poems from the author's first two Give Me a Fragment and Carve a Place for Me.

73 pages, Kindle Edition

Published January 21, 2023

About the author

Cheryl Seely Savage is a professional musician, piano teacher, and mother of eight. She has three published poetry collections: “Give Me a Fragment,” “Carve a Place for Me,” and “We Have Time.” She was shortlisted for the 2022 Lascaux Prize in Poetry and will be published in the Fall 2023 issue of “Exponent II.” Her work was the focus of “A Million Ways,” a four-movement musical composition commissioned by the Égide Duo and composed by Dr. Alyssa Morris. It premiered on July 6, 2023 in Denver, CO.
When Cheryl isn’t writing, she’s performing, traveling, reading, teaching piano lessons, dreaming, scheming, and managing chaos! Cheryl and her family currently reside in the Flint Hills of Kansas.

Reviews

[Rachel · Rating 5 out of 5]

I took some soul-time during a stressful, spirally week to read Cheryl Seely Savage’s entire collected poetry!

WE HAVE TIME was just released, and it is ripe with love. She wrote this in commemoration of her 24th wedding anniversary, and though it is unabashedly romantic, it also dips into childhood crushes on a teacher, past relationships, difficult marriage moments, and the role of memory and presence throughout it all. There were so many moving moments, but “Real Love Story (Haiku), dedicated to her grandparents and their 70-year marriage, caught me in the gut. “When they passed away, Only nine short months apart / It matched their story / No need for fanfare / Only the longing to be / Together again.” I also enjoyed the moments when the speaker celebrated love for herself, such as in “Love Notes to Me.” It was lovely to see quiet and everyday love captured in this way. Because “some of our / Stories have happy endings (it’s allowed).”

I was also grateful to read her earlier works, GIVE ME A FRAGMENT (2019) and CARVE A PLACE FOR ME (2020). What an honor, to see the speaker evolve and journey through mental health struggles, motherhood, marriage, agency, and spiritual yearning. It is relatable to see the speaker reckon with over-watering an orchid, a hiking trail that doesn’t look how it used to (and should!), dishes in the sink, the bugs in Kansas, and wondering if she is “refracted light or broken pieces.” I enjoyed immersing myself in the Jane Austen references, the significance of Tres Leches cake for the speaker, and the onion smell of her grandmother’s kitchen. Through the contrast of dark and light, I could feel the “lump-in-the-throat joy,” hard-earned.

Thank you for sharing your journey with us, Cheryl. Poetry was just what I needed this week.