Everyone I Love is a Stranger to Someone

by Annelyse Gelman

"Look, the future is all telepathy and disappointment and pretending we haven't always been winging it. Every day we're the strongest we'll ever be. What doesn't kill you hasn't killed you yet."

From Greek mythology to Top 40, Pavlov to Sartre, the space station to the zoo, "Everyone I Love is a Stranger to Someone" collides dark humor and unexpected sweetness.

Genres: Poetry, Fiction, Contemporary

80 pages, Paperback

First published April 4, 2014

Reviews

[Emma]

*2.5*

I burned so long so quiet you must have wondered
if I loved you back. I did, I did, I do.

These few sentences are what pushed me to buy this poetry collection. I read them on Tumblr one day and for some reason I always found them very fascinating.
Believe me when I say that I'm really sad to tell you that I didn't enjoy this book as much as I had expected. Maybe it was me who had really high expectations, I don't know, it just didn't click.

[Flor Ana]

A pretty puzzle. A conscious conundrum. A mysterious thing you don’t always understand but somehow always feel.

[Andrea Blythe]

Hello,
my name is Annelyse, I have
chrystalized myself in the liberal arts
and now emerge, grotesque
insect, able to do nothing
but talk about everything.
— from "Ars Poetica"

I learned about Annelyse Gelman's work by attending a Writer's with Drinks reading at which she performed. Although she seemed to not be entirely comfortable with being on stage, she read well and her series of quirky, intelligent poems that had me immediately wanting to buy the book.

After purchasing Everyone I Love is a Stranger to Someone (and getting it signed by the poet), I quickly read through it and then went back to reread many of the poems over again, revisiting and re-experiencing them because I loved them, I really did. But when it came time time for me to sit down and write a review all I could think to say was, These poems are awesome, without really being able to find the words to explain how or why these poems. So, I spent the last two months, planning to write a review and thinking about the review and going back to read a poem here or there and falling in love all over again without being actually able to write a proper review.

We wanted to show you anything is possible.
Forgive us. We were so in love.
In past lives, we were mothers, and you mourned

when we promised you would outlive us.
— from "Hurricane"

These poems are witty, clever, fun with an undercurrent of vulnerability and introspection. They explore the chaotic realm of everyday life, poking fun at its imperfections and drawing out its underbelly. I don't really know what else to say, so I'll just end with, These poems are awesome and you should go read them.

The future has an obscenely happy
ending: one day there you are
then suddenly BANG!
— from "An Illustrated Guide to the Apocalypse"

[Sahil Javed]

I slept there the night you said ‘I think I’m
falling in love with you,’ igniting a great unendurable
belongingness, like a match in a forest fire.

I burned so long so quiet you must have wondered
if I loved you back. I did, I did, I do.

oh i felt so much i should've stopped reading, but i didn't.

[Brian]

There are some bright moments in here, but the collection doesn’t hold a strong identity, and neither do many of the weaker poems. It reads as a string of insights and poetic moments that are sometimes profound, sometimes quirky, sometimes blasé, often random. “Rain is only rain in mid-air” from “How To Be Mysterious” comes to mind: it’s a wonderful thought that stands alone at the end of an otherwise forgettable poem. I was certainly never bored by these poems, and genuinely loved a few, but overall it didn’t blow me away.

[Sababa]

I think she is a good writer. However her poems didn't speak to me directly. May be if I could read her poems at another time I would appreciate it more.

[Kerry]

How to Be Mysterious was worth the whole book.

[Margaret Russell]

I am normally one to highlight/flag/take deep notes on poetry collections. When I finished this collection, I didn’t have a single one. There are odd and interesting poems in here, but none that made me want to return and re-read them except Hurricane. I normally am a fan of poems that move in the scientific detail, but these were just one step too removed from daily life. Lots of pros to this collection - the variety of length and form was fantastic. I enjoyed that the collection ended in a six part series.

I think overall this collection felt like it was building to something, promising a vista that never appeared. I wonder if this collection was just too short and that is what left me feeling unfulfilled by it? At 46 poems, it’s over the edge between chapbook (15 to 30) and collection (30 to 100) yet, I felt a little like there wasn’t enough cohesion for something this short.

[Abi Mott]

This book wanders a lot, and the subject matter wasn't always interesting to me. However, I think there are people who will identify with it, and if I met this person at a party I feel like we'd have a good time, but then I'd have to lie about how much I liked the book if asked. The poem about the Giraffe felt like a drunken rant that would be fun to watch at this make-believe party. There's a coming-of-age vibe/search for voice that feels honest & earnest, and I'm curious to see how much the author's writing has grown since this was published.

[akela]

(4.5) i really want to get into more poetry and i think this was a great book to read for it! i wouldn’t start with this book if you’re just getting started but it’s def worth a read.

i think my fav poem was ‘love poem’ (the first one bc there’s a few). i just think it was so beautiful.

my fav lines would be “i have a fear of being misunderstood” or “ we are already cursed to ruin what we love and yet to love”. these lines really made me feel something.

[maxine]

1.5
disappointing because i clung to "the pillowcase" in the early stages of falling in love for the first time, but reading the other poems in this had me questioning if i lost the ability to comprehend the english language.

how can you have "i burned so long so quiet you must have wondered if i loved you back. i did, i did, i do." in the same poetry collection as "missing you, there’s some muscle i can’t untense. it’s not even a vagina muscle – it’s my heart." 💀💀

[Cherish DeGraaf]

Annelyse is a wonderful author with a creative mind and a big heart. Everyone I Love Is a Stranger to Someone is one of the most beautiful and moving collections of poems I've read in a long time. I return to it often.

[Tom Wein]

Very polished poems, none of which have left a mark on me. Comparable perhaps to Emily Berry, but with none of the latter's deep weirdness. A poem from the perspective of an apologetic hurricane was pleasing.

[Ely]

I think this is the first poetry collection I've genuinely laughed at. There were some pretty dark moments, but there were also ones that made me laugh and others that were super accurate.

[Shiz]

After all the hunting in the world I managed to find an online copy of this book and asked my parents to get it for me as a grad present! loved loved loved the collection of poetry!

[Julianne]

She took the thoughts right from my head

[Vivian]

Si "An Illustrated Guide to the Post-Apocalypse" no es su poema de cabecera, I don't know what is.

[Kiara]

Loved this collection! My favorite was definitely Hurricane because it made me feel some sort of indescribable way but the last poem... I really felt the love bleed through the pages

[Samantha]

Most poetry i have read have been 5 star reads and this one is no exception.

[Mila]

There's potential, but unfortunately one of those cases where the title is more interesting than the content and the book has one or two really good lines.

[karolina]

don't read this it's bad

[kelsey]

3.5

[untitled no. 9-1]

this walked so cairo sweet from miller's girl could run

Exploded View, Diegesis, Hurricane and The Who's Who of Ballooning were my favs

[Lauren]

I think this just really wasn't my thing. I am not well-versed enough in poetry/the poetry world to articulate what, exactly, makes it not my thing. I just didn't feel it 🤷‍♀️

[Alexandra]

Don't get my wrong, there were a few gems in this collection. There were some great lines and stanzas. However, I didn't find these poems to be relatable. Somehow this falls into the category of, "If I were 18, I would have probably loved this." I seem to be having this problem more as I age. The things I cared for in my early twenties are not the stuff of my present life- and these poems struck me as being written with that early adulthood angst and discovery (or maybe concession). Many of the poems seemed like the whining of recent post-grad, upper-middle class white millennial woes. Maybe I can't be enchanted by this kind of writing anymore. Have I reached the dreaded cynical mid-life stage?

As a separate critical note, I did think some of the poems were grasping for "uniqueness." They seemed written with an air of being clever or pretentious before just being poems.

[Sasha]

I love this book. I love this book so much I bought it half-way through reading my library loaned copy. I bought a second copy for a poetry loving friend of mine. It is rare for me to find a poetry collection that is so consistently good. Confessional without feeling schmaltzy, experimental without feeling pretentious. Refreshing.

[Peter Rock]

Raw and full of energy, this work really pushes the language. I like the use of the word "janky" in "Readymade" and I'm really into the Hypothetical poems.

So fine when a young writer really lays it all out.

[Leigh]

It's obvious Annelyse Gelman is a gifted writer. While I enjoyed this collection and getting a better sense of Gelman as a poet, I don't think it's my favorite. At times, she is simply too abstract when describing emotions and themes, to the point I begin to find myself not paying attention.

[Brooke Dilling]

Meh

[mia maria]

3.5

Not impressed with the first half, but the second half was incredible.
Hurricane & Six Reconstructed Dreams.