Loves You: Poems

by Sarah Gambito

In Loves You, Sarah Gambito explores the recipe as poetic form and a mode of resistance. Through the inclusion of real recipes that she and her family have cooked from, she brings readers to the table—not only to enjoy the bounty of her poems but, slyly, to consider the ways in which Filipino Americans, and people of color in general, are simultaneously consumed and starved in this country. Gambito’s poems have always been full zest and bite. Now she literally invites us to dig in with this long-awaited new book: Kain Na Tayo! (Let’s eat!).

Genres: Poetry, Food, Asian American

96 pages, Paperback

First published January 22, 2019

Reviews

[Leslie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I kind of just keep reading poems from this over and over again...!

[Rebecca · Rating 5 out of 5]

Poignant as it is delicious! I really enjoyed the recipes thrown into these short, sensory-rich poems. At times, the tone felt just a little one-note, I'd give it 4.5 stars if I could.
Some lines were absolutely gorgeous and heady, like "We went to the beaches and we were in pink bathing suits. Salty and fatty things were in the cooler and the belly of the sky was managed with stars."
Or "I don't care about the inert mint of the myth.
The glass citizenship of the myth.
The myth with is SSL and irritated house guest.
The blanket I yanked off of you this morning."

Wonderful! it's a tasty and quick read, like a little snack to tuck away on a train or car ride :)

[André Habet · Rating 5 out of 5]

This poetry book is tender and warm like a good long meal on a chilly day with three of your favorite people where few words are exchanged initially as flavor splosions set off things. Not only are there incredibly rich poems herein, but there's also legitimately tasty recipes for some of Gambito's favorite dishes that I'm definitely gonna be making.

Favorite poem 'Marriage' whose final lines are
'Trying to see splosions of wild thyme in summer grass,
I fell asleep next to you.
Or, I was stirring pots of wonderful things next to you.'

[alyssa]

Will revisit and cook the recipes in this one

[Adz · Rating 4 out of 5]

This one was a little tough for me because I expect poetry to be a lot of things and recipes are not one. I also at times struggled with my position as the reading, consuming the book. It's not so much that I felt like guilty about reading a book so intensely engaged in a culture and life experience different from mine. I just didn't always know where or how to grab on. I'm personally a huge fan of genre, especially sci-fi and horror bc there's always something familiar and when there isn't I can appreciate that as well. As someone new to poetry and someone relatively new to trying to really engage with other perspectives this was often a difficult read. I'm also not much of a cook and found the recipes to make me reflect on my own lack of familial lineaged cooking which was a bummer.

Even though my readerly experience wasn't having a great time I think it gave me a lot to think about and that can be just as helpful as sitting down to something I enjoy. I also found the idea of just pure reproduction of the every day (in this case recipes) to be really cool and something I'd like to work into my own poetry in a way that's equally as direct.

[Andrew Squitiro · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful. I heard Chen Chen read the final poem, “Brave, Brave, Brave,” and knew I wanted to read the whole thing. Didn’t come for the recipes, but appreciated them deeply. Looking forward to making, “Take Your Time.”

The poems are sentimental, but not in a overly private way. The door is open just enough that the reader feels welcomed in. Certain poems blew me away, and certain lines even more.

Gambito has a talent for saying what she means, but in a way that I don’t think would originally make sense. “This blood would weld us to the chair and I’d let a crowd in.” This doesn’t make sense without the shared context, the affect of the poem itself. Maybe that’s what I’m getting at—Loves You is a world of affectation, and deals deftly in it.

[Aaronlisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

I hate rating poetry books because they are so personal to the reader. What I like may be something that you hate. And so on.

I found this volume eclectic. It connects food (with actual recipes) to the topics that Gambito writes about. I did appreciate her poems about identity but overall this book just didn’t do it for me. I found the recipes to be jarring and the style of the poems not one I enjoy.

I think Gambito has a good voice but her work is just not for me. That said I would probably try another collection of her work.

[Nathan Ethridge · Rating 4 out of 5]

A searing take on the immigrant experience. Sarah Gambito interweaves poems with recipes throughout to create an interesting and congruent theme that's not always found in poetry collections. Different works are placed into separate sections that start with Umami and work their way through the rest of the taste senses: Sour, Salt, Bitter, Sweet. Wonderfully challenging, not only for the subject matter, but also for the abstract and original prose.

[Clara Biesel]

What a great batch of poems. Many of them are recipes (or are partially recipes), and the book is arranged around the tastes. A lot of it is about Filipino culture or coming to a new culture, and the poet has a direct style that is quite lovely. New this year! If you're looking for more fresh poetry I recommend it.

[tegan · Rating 3 out of 5]

“crashing across cousin stars with deep listening holes. because we’re related and every wren that has nested abroad would like to become my mother. i’d like to lie flayed open upon her twelve breaking torsos. this blood would weld us to the chair and i’d let a crowd in. i’d always thought that crowds were created in a panic. a great anti-system of people fleeing fire. rather, crowd dynamic is cultivated because you run towards. you want concert tickets or something to do the day after thanksgiving. they’re almost giving it away. this is what she says as the gold metal hits the outline of her. she says i want you to find me. i want that you never give up and you find me.”
—holiday

“i weep in the pew because i want to cradle you
and i want to be cradled.
i weep now writing this to you.
i see the scrollwork of the song we are writing.

what if i was an ordinary person.
and i loved
only you.

and i moved over the bay, over the inlet, over the lake,
over the sea to be with you under the eaves.”
—brave, brave, brave

[Sara Shocks · Rating 4 out of 5]

4/5 stars

Moving and delightful poems, and the structure of the book around the five flavor categories plus the recipes included were unique & additive choices. My favorite overall section was Sweet, which shouldn't be a surprise to people who know my sweet tooth.

[Leslie (updates on SG) · Rating 2 out of 5]

It is interesting to consider the recipe as a poetic form, and the few included describe lesser known Filipino dishes. The rest of the poems, however, did not engage me very much because the imagery felt random.

[Sam Wein · Rating 5 out of 5]

Never have I devoured a poetry collection like I did with "Loves You." The magnetic pull of every poem, the tender recipes offered so beautifully, and the way the book kept making me hungrier and hungrier, for food, for language, for magic. Sarah shines once again. Love love this collection.

[Abner · Rating 2 out of 5]

Yes, the juxtaposition of images and language were powerful and unique. Just not my cup of tea.

[Mela · Rating 4 out of 5]

Brave, Brave, Brave; unbabies; marriage; bilingual; cento

will read again, the way she says to. with a room full of people and all the recipes. xo

[Haley Hope Gillilan · Rating 5 out of 5]

ADORE!

[Amanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved the recipes in between poems.

[carolyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

reread this bc my professor recommended it to me. i appreciated and enjoyed it a lot more the second time bc i accepted that this is the kind of poetry that isn’t meant to be fully understood - it’s too personal for that. still, the collection didn’t leave much of an impression on me. however, on the sentence level, i loved the imagery in “cento” on page 39 and “bilingual” on page 40.

some lines i particularly liked and resonated with:

“in my country, we didn’t eat meat like you eat meat. / we ate vegetables, and the juice from vegetables / meat was like parmesan cheese. / just sprinklings on top.”

[Jingyi Wang · Rating 2 out of 5]

There's like a 3 (4 maybe??) paged lychee macaron recipe in here that I am going to try !