But really, what is love? - Robert Creeley and Kim Konopka

I keep rereading the first poem of “For Love” but I can’t seem to make any conclusions about what is going on. I was going to choose a different poem to discuss, but my confusion seemed in part what this poem is about. 

The speaker (which I assume is Creeley) says all/ that I know derives from it teaches me.” The speaker is indebted to love and cannot escape its presence. Even though his knowledge comes from love, he can’t seem to fully grasp what love is and what it does.

As the reader, I feel that I am also chasing down a meaning too complex to name. This effect in part comes from the speaker referring to love in many different ways. When referring to love, the speaker users the pronouns “it” and “you” with metaphors mixed in between, thus making it difficult to understand what this love is. One of my favorite stanzas is when the speaker changes his mind and wrestles with how to refer to love: If the moon did not…/No, if you did not/ I wouldn’t either, but/ What would I not// do,

Love cannot be encompassed in definitive metaphor. But, the mixture of vague references also indicates that maybe love isn't the sole subject of this poem. I assume love is a primary subject, but the title “For Love” is followed by the dedication “for Bobbie.” So I’m left wondering if there are moments when Bobbie or a figurative lover is the subject.

So, rather than being a poem that definitely tells the reader what love is, the speaker seems in the process of deciphering love.  The enjambment across stanzas adds to this effect by mystifying when one thought ends and a new one begins.  “Let me stumble into/ not the confession but/ the obsession I begin with/ now. For you// also (also).” Placing “for you” at the end of the stanza reiterates the obsession while introducing the new thought of the next stanza.  

I can’t pin the exact feeling of this poem, but the speaker experiences of vastness and self-awareness carries over to me as the reader. In contrast, many love poems give specific metaphors or anecdotes to theorize about what love is.  Kim Konopka’s poem “I Want” is an honest and relatable poem that forgoes vagueness in favor of specific examples of daily love. The speaker isn’t caught in a self-aware search of how love consumes her; rather, she is focused on her desire to serve and love the other person in the tangible present.

I Want 

by Kim Konopka

I want

to shove my clothes
to one side of the closet,
give you the bigger half.
Quietly I’ll hide most of my shoes,
so you won’t know I have this many.

I will
rearrange furniture to add more,
find space on my shelves
for your many books,
nail up the placard that says
poets do it, and redo it, and do it again.

I want
to share a laundry basket,
get our clothes mixed up,
wait for the yelling
when my reds run wild
into your whites
turning them a luscious pink,
your favorite color of me.

I will
move my pillow
to the other side of the bed,
lay yours next to mine,
your scent on the fabric
always near me,
even on nights you’re away.

I will
buy a new bureau to hold your
thousand and one black socks,
find a place for all those work boots,
the ones I refer to as big and ugly.

I want
more pots and pans to wash,
piles of them leaning high
from late night meals
cooked naked and drunk,
red wine pouring into
a sauce of simmering
tomatoes, garlic, and olive oil,
kisses bitten between bites,
and platefuls of our late hours,
stacking up into dawn.

I want
to stock cupboards, closets, and pantry,
fill the house with us.
I want to gain weight with you
because our love,
our love makes me fat.

Bonus: Bo Burnham's song "Love is" is filled with specific silly and offensive images of love. He is a musical comedian with an affinity for shocking statements, so heads up.