Love Poems in Quarantine

by Sarah Ruhl

Writing from and toward “the endless desire / to be at home in the world,” Sarah Ruhl wrote Love Poems in Quarantine to mark the passage of time when all familiar landmarks disappeared. From the dawn of the COVID-19 pandemic, to the murder of George Floyd, to months of simultaneous quarantine and protest, this is―in free verse and form, lamentation and meditation―a book of days, a survival kit for spiritual malady. These poems find small solace in domestic absurdities. Even in global crisis, there is the laundry. The dog rolls in something putrid, the child interrupts a Zoom meeting, and dinner must get made, again and again. Using language to travel and touch when bodies could not, Ruhl has drawn with great care a portrait of a year unlike any other in history.

Genres: Poetry, Nonfiction

144 pages, Paperback

First published May 31, 2022

About the author

Sarah Ruhl (born 1974) is an American playwright. She is the recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship and the PEN/Laura Pels International Foundation for Theater Award for a distinguished American playwright in mid-career.

Originally, she intended to be a poet. However, after she studied under Paula Vogel at Brown University (A.B., 1997; M.F.A., 2001), she was persuaded to switch to playwriting. Her first play was The Dog Play, written in 1995 for one of Vogel's classes. Her roots in poetry can be seen in the way she uses language in her plays. She also did graduate work at Pembroke College, Oxford.

In September 2006, she received a MacArthur Fellowship. The announcement of that award stated: "Sarah Ruhl, 32, playwright, New York City. Playwright creating vivid and adventurous theatrical works that poignantly juxtapose the mundane aspects of daily life with mythic themes of love and war."

Reviews

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a lovely read for me on a rainy Sunday morning. Having read Ruhl’s memoir Smile, I recognized the contours of her life and the members of her family. In the early poems, cooking and laundry recur, everyday duties that mark time for her as she tries to write and supervises virtual learning for three children. “Let this all be poetry,” she incants.

I try to be a sun for the three planets who are my children.

The bondage of money, the bondage of time.

my oldest daughter said she loves the sound of when I write a poem. What sound, I ask? The wood pencil scratching against the paper.

We crack eggs and apply heat in a marriage, hoping to make something that feeds us all.

Part Two contains poems written after George Floyd’s murder, the structure mimicking how abrupt the change in focus was for her and for a nation. Minor domestic concerns from the first two months of lockdown gave way to life-and-death matters, yet she was also wary, as a white woman, of speaking out and making it about her when Black pain was not something she could understand. “I will be your white backup singer,” she offers, while noting the ironies of privilege.

White people make bread while Black and Brown people die in America.

This summer White people read White Fragility on the beach while Brown people die.

Part Three moves into haiku and tanka, culminating in a series of poems reflecting on the seasons. There was minimal formatting in the e-ARC I downloaded from Edelweiss, so these often ran into each other; it wasn’t always clear even what was the title and what was the body of the poem, so my quotations are probably not correctly set out here. This wasn’t a particular problem, however. It all flows together as a wry collection of wisdom (Buddhist leanings meet Catholic upbringing) and experience.

(A title) “Was my poetry party a super-spreader”

It used to be very impolite
to cross the street
when you saw someone coming.
Now it is polite.

every day we get to practice going to sleep and waking up

Like Margaret Atwood’s Dearly, I would recommend this even to people who think they don’t like poetry because the poems are about what they say they’re about, and in terms of form and language they are relatable and never daunting.

This makes a welcome addition to the body of Covid-19 literature; I’ve read a lot of nonfiction about it but not yet much from other genres.

Two favorites:

Shelter

To love a house
not because it’s perfect but because it shelters you

To love a body
not because it’s perfect but because it shelters you

Quarantine in August, the overripe month

I’m tired of summer. I crave fall. Luckily fall comes after summer.

And if I get tired of it all, winter will come, then spring.

[BeingDaphne · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think this will be an interesting reread in a few years. To see what I annotated and related to the most when we were all going through quarantine together.

[Fornia · Rating 2 out of 5]

i think i need to accept i'm not built to read poetry, at least unguided

[Lindsay · Rating 3 out of 5]

More thoughts put into form than polished poems, but the book captures the feeling of the pandemic. An interesting look at how art can come in the midst of uncertainty.

[Mario Garcia · Rating 3 out of 5]

sweet

[Bess · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the first book I've read about the pandemic, and I was nervous about it. I immediately connected to the experiences Ruhl writes about, those that are unexpected and positive, and those that are upsetting. George Floyd's murder is a prominent theme, as well as Ruhl's grappling with what it means to be a white person writing about race and racism.

The DRC I read has terrible, sometimes nonexistent formatting, and so I wasn't always sure where one poem ended and another began. But I thought the collection excellent and look forward to seeing a hard copy.

[Michelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

What I liked:

--2 poems, one about folding laundry and the other about three kinds of light.
--11 haiki, tanka, senryu
--2 strong haikus about race, which I liked better than the poems about race
--2 haikis about writing

The rest of the work did not resonate with me.

Quotes

Look out your window;
it's interesting enough,
how wind blows the trees (58)

In Tibet it is said that when
the sunlight comes in
from outdoors, touching the wood
on your floor: it is holy. (82)

The past is present
only in the nose: oh holy nose. (90)

[Ellen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well! Delightful! Thought provoking, uplifting, honest… Would that I had spent my time in quarantine as well as Sarah Ruhl has! I actually look forward to going back over this gift of a collection more slowly, to savor the nuggets that made me pause, laugh, gasp…

[Marianne]

The perfect artifact from COVID-19 lock-down - small intimate moments/thoughts in a world both completely turned inside out and turned inward. Only in these COVID years could Zoom play such a hand in poetry.

[Ann Reed · Rating 3 out of 5]

i really REALLY wanted to give this a higher rating because i love her plays but these poems felt a little too simple and tumblr ish. love her writing style but this wasn’t my favorite poetry book. anyway read eurydice it’s great

[Cereal · Rating 5 out of 5]

These poems were gorgeous and warm. I always love reading Sarah Ruhl.

[Stephanie Linnell · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.25/5 stars

[Bonnie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Earnest but slight poems that tick off all the right boxes for current social issues. A week after I bought the book I put it in a little free library.

[Shawn Aebi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some splendid words expressed here (the George Floyd piece hits the mark). Overall, more of a collection of aphorisms or musings arranged poetically.

[Marcia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Timely poems.

[Moniqa · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like this one so much, I might buy it. And/or some of Ruhl's other works.

[R.K. Cowles · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 1/4 stars

[Cath · Rating 3 out of 5]

Highly enjoyable. Speaks to my experience at the beginning of the pandemic. Lots of fun haiku.

[Dinah · Rating 2 out of 5]

Oh no she was a playwright after all ☹️

[alice starnes · Rating 4 out of 5]

i said: how did god make you so beautiful and you said: to please you

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first covid quarantine book I’ve read. A great collection of poems from that time period.