The Emma Press Anthology of Love

Emma Dai'an Wright, Rachel Piercey

• Publisher: The Emma Press
• Year: 2018
• Print ISBN:
  9781910139561
• eBook ISBN:
  9781910139363
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Poetry
• Index: Literature

In The Emma Press Anthology of Love, that familiar four-letter word takes on a world of meanings. Love is written across the sky for the whole world to see, and whispered to a partner at the bus stop in the rain. Love is transcendent and love is everyday, found equally in steamy texts and shopping lists, and the only reliable thing about it is that it's never where you expected to find it. Building on the success of 2015's Mildly Erotic Verse, this book explores the diversity of modern romance. Often awkward, never perfect, romantic encounters and relationships are rooted in our own contemporary world of Tinder, Twitter and TV dinners. But they are also part of an enduring tradition: the cornerstone of our common humanity. In this book, thirty fresh, diverse and original voices speak to what love means right here, right now, bridging the gap between Hollywood imagery and modern lived experience.

JAMES WALTON

sorry (i forgot your Unbirthday) e e

I like the way our bodies go

together as gelato. How my dark arm

is against your tummy, a swirl in dawn.

In that gentle spoon. The wonga vine

of your hair, black blossom in my face.

I could breathe all of you in. My lips

settle in places on your spine, or fall

away to find new things, although they’ve

been there, again and again. I like the night.

Its dreamy convalescence, your daggy

chequered pyjamas, my teeth

undoing the drawstring of everything.

JACK HOUSTON

Letter composed to Ghengis Khan in my head (whilst in bed)

It’s been said that you

fathered hundreds to different

wives in many beds but

did this make you joyous?

I ponder this as I try to sleep

pushed to the edge

of the mattress with my infant

son taking up the space I’m meant

to sleep in. I have read that half

of Asia can trace lineage to you.

Did this make your life worthwhile?

I don’t know. I do think though that

I’m more than happy in this

single double

bed with

this one

wife, this

only progeny.

ROY MCFARLANE

As I Did The Night Before

It was the way you used to put your tights on,

after a moment of loving

or at the dawn of a new morning.

There was nothing more sensual

or visual

than you sitting at the edge of the bed

taking your tights in your hands;

softly, tenderly and gently

lost in that moment of intimacy.

And you’d begin

with one leg folded into your body

and your foot pointed elegantly;

you would unroll a film of nylon

that would sheathe and cling

over tips of toes,

ball and sole,

arch and ankle,

over stubborn heel,

sailing steadily

up the calf of an extended leg.

A ritual so beautiful

it had to be repeated.

And when completed

with both feet on the ground

you would rise,

gracefully poised as a ballerina

at the barre;

bending at the waist with legs straight,

you would unroll the rest of your garment

with sweet dexterity

across knees and up golden thighs

until they finally ascended

over a round delicate derrière

where waist bands settle

and gussets reach at the meeting of your thighs.

And you stood tiptoe to ensure that all was covered,

body stretched and arched for a moment.

You held that pose.

Finally, with an encore,

you would bend over one more time,

caressing and smoothing out

unsightly folds or ripples that you found

as I did the night before

when we had reached our pinnacle.

I held you tenderly and lovingly,

smo...

Table of contents

• COVER
• OTHER TITLES FROM THE EMMA PRESS
• TITLE PAGE
• COPYRIGHT
• CONTENTS
• CATHERINE AYRES
• CYNTHIA MILLER
• LENNI SANDERS
• STEPHEN SEXTON
• When are you coming for coffee?
• grand and easy, easy and grand
• that sharp tang
• my swaying ear of corn
• breathe out ghosts
• Let’s both
• ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
• ABOUT THE EDITORS
• ALSO FROM THE EMMA PRESS