Love Poems

by Brian Patten

unwin pbk,1986

Genres: Poetry, Poetry Plays

96 pages, Paperback

First published September 12, 1991

Reviews

[Maria]

Really enjoyed these! Bought for me as a gift on my first date from a secondhand bookshop. My favourite poem is definitely ' A blade of grass'.

[Deb]

My favourite poetry book from when I was a teenager in the 80s - thrilled to find it again recently in a charity shop. Will treasure it!

[erris]

for a book about love poems ~ there was just a lot of love
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my favourite poem was 'A few questions about Romeo' because jesus christ! yeah! that poem gets me so badly
what if what if what if what if
"what if he'd had a revelation from which Juliet was absent? ... what if, unromantic as it seems, her mouth, eyes, cheeks and breasts suddenly became ornaments on a frame common as any girl's?" because I love romeo and juliet. i will defend it to the death. romeo - what if it's not what we think. we guess so much. humans guess so much. and as unlikely as it seems there is always another possible explanation. we know so much and we know literally nothing

other favourite poems were:
-song for last year's wife
-on time for once
-someone coming back
-a blade of grass
-in your turning against the walls
-angel wings
-one another's light
-no taxis available
-forgetmenot
-reading between graffiti
-near the factory where they make the lilac perfume
-sometimes it happens
-and heart is daft
-the stolen orange
-hesitant
-road song
-you go into town

[Suzanne Cohen]

It could almost be re-titled The Heart’s Aphorisms.

Patten dissects the heart with a surgeon’s skill, laying bare its vulnerability, pain, beauty, translucency and triumphs - and giving the almost ordinary: grass, dust, a fingernail - quiet elegance.

I gave myself the New Year’s resolute gift of beginning each day with a page of poetry. But this beautiful rhapsody was finished in a single sitting.

In the meantime, I’ll “keep my eyes open in case I miss the moment of the dust’s rebellion.”

[learnedHamster]

I was as near paradise as I am likely to get again.

The atmosphere of autumn, the end of a summer, the return of memories and being in the rain. This is that other style of love and enormity of feelings and complication. I figured these would be best shared with those that have lived these fully, and to remember those that left and I no longer speak to, keep them as a remnant and enclosed atmospheres of living amidst these styles of love I cannot recognize in myself, but have loved regardless.

[Catherine Hepple]

Beautiful, moving poetry. Discovered this collection in my twenties and have treasured it ever since 💜

[Kristin Elsdon]

Heartbreaking and warming all at the same time. Missing pieces, not found here, but acknowledged.

[Lysergius]

Perhaps its my age, but these poems don't strike the spark that his earlier work did. This is a collection culled from other publications, maybe that is it. It lacks anything other than a unifying theme...