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.
ISBN: 9781556596308
Format: Paperback
The sun in quarantine
My feet unaccustomed to grass
my eyes unaccustomed to sky
I try to be a sun for the three planets
who are my children
I borrow some of their warmth
in order to give it back to them
“In these fleet, homey, frank, and funny lyrics, most of them haiku or tanka, Ruhl seeks deep lessons in the everyday, from folding laundry to making a meal to the turn of the seasons.” ―Booklist