i’m living up to my blog name

“Why don’t we write each other love poems? / Look at me collapse into babysobs and bare need, me, / sturdy and self-sufficient.”

“Inevitable Postcards” Ellen Doré Watson

This (two star, written) assignment required me to share a quote I’ve read and explain why it interests me. I have always really enjoyed this quote, how sweet and purely pleasant it is- but considering the name of my blog, y’all probably aren’t surprised. Right below are pics of the poem that I took, since I couldn’t find a copy online, in case you’re interested in reading the whole thing.

Part of what interests me about this quote is how, within the context of the rest of the poem, it’s almost surprising, like she was all of the sudden overwhelmed with affection for her significant other and just couldn’t keep it in. It’s a marker of a huge tone shift between the first and second half of the poem, the shift is just so noticeable, and I love it, but I’m interested as to where that came from. Additionally, I really like how she contrasts her general sturdiness and self-sufficiency with “babysobs and bare need”, sort of showing how even Very Strong People can go crazy go stupid (emotionally). That there is nothing wrong with having big, huge, uncontrollable emotions and that it is okay to have outpourings of those emotions. Its a really nice, refreshing outlook to read about. The other incredibly interesting thing about this quote is its intro, “why don’t we write each other love poems?” Its, as I stated earlier, very sudden and kind of a shock given the prior content of the poem. The way its almost talking to the reader, treating the reader as her lover, is a Hot Take that I generally really enjoy seeing in poetry. Not to go too English professor on here, but there is also some fun alliteration with “babysobs and bare need” versus “sturdy and self sufficient”, that is fun to think about, the effects and implications of that alliteration. Overall, this is, to me, a really powerful quote that speaks volumes about the nature of love and its un-ashamed-ness (that’s a word, right?).

Now for the “reflect on the assignment” part! This was a nice way to ease into the ds106 assignment flow after taking a (probably foolish) weekend break from it. The most difficult part about this assignment for me was choosing which quote to write about, for I recently got into poetry and thus have a lot of highlights and markups in my Ellen Doré Watson book (which, btw, 10/10 recommend if you’re into poetry). I decided on the cheesy romantic one partially because of my blog name- romanticism cliche- and partially because I was just really feeling a light-hearted and cutesy moment. After I settled on Watson’s cheesy love quote, I took some time to figure out what really draws me to that quote, and then wrote that down!

xoxo! -liz

important ps: any poet/poetry recs? def doesn’t have to be romantic/cheesy!