You Drive Me Crazy: Love Poems for Real Life

The third book of poetry that Ms. Esselman and Ms. Velez have put together, YOU DRIVE ME CRAZY can help anyone once again believe in the power and redeeming force of love. Whether newlyweds, heading towards your golden anniversary, or gripped in the claws of new love with a significant other, these poems are for you. From Shakespeare to Neruda, from e.e. Cummings to a poet named Rumi, YOU DRIVE ME CRAZY tackles every aspect of love and lays it bare. A testament to true love in VALENTINE segues into the daily lives of a couple caught in a lull in APEX PLUMBING. You can be thrown into that frenzied feeling of new love and sexuality in I WANT, then tossed back into the sea of heartache with FINDING IS THE FIRST ACT. I am the first to admit that I don't know all the ins and outs of poetry. I don't know the structure with which true poems are put together; I haven't a clue as to what makes a poem a poem. What I do know, however, is that love is glorious thing. It's also the most painful emotion that a human being can suffer. In this book, you can live through the range of emotions that we all experience every day-longing, need, understanding, misery, and hope. YOU DRIVE ME CRAZY is for the woman who knows that Hallmark cards aren't for real people. There are no cards to say "Gee, I'm sorry your kid got kicked off the basketball team," or "Oops, guess that comment I made about husbands who pick their noses in public wasn't so funny after all." This book is for me, for you, for everyone who knows that the good always comes with the bad, that baggage is generously included with your lover, and that being imperfect isn't, after all, necessarily the end of the world.

Love Poems for Real Life seems to have been created for couples in a long-term relationship. The poems are arranged according to how the authors see love's initial passion and then how this ebbs and flows over time. At first the poems radiate an intimacy that contrasts sharply with a desire for distance later in the book. The lovers express such sweet concepts as in E.E. Cummings "I carry your heart with me." Later, Dorothy Parker displays her sardonic wit in the last line of a love poem - that feels more like elation and frustration. It seems she is depressed at the time and nothing is bringing her joy, so she writes of the sweetness and then throws in a line or two about how she wishes she had never met her lover who seems to live with sunny skies. After reading about her life, we know there were some storms, but was anyone listening? I loved Al Zolynas' "The Zen of Housework." It is brilliant in the way it presents visual images for contemplation. Anna Akhmatova's "I Wrung My Hands Under My Dark Veil" is also stunning in beauty and emotional implication. Carolyn Creedon's poem shows great sarcasm and Sylvia Plath takes the cake for misery: "The moon, too, abases her subjects, but in the daytime she is ridiculous. Your dissatisfactions, on the other hand, Arrive through the mailslot with loving regularity, White and blank, expansive as carbon monoxide. No day is safe from news of you, Walking about in Africa maybe, but thinking of me." Margaret Atwood's poem "Habitation" seems to define this book as it explores the idea that in love, we are always at the point of "learning to make fire." The passion of the initial poems mellows into a nourishing comfort. Mary D. Esselman and Elizabeth Ash Velez are careful observers of popular culture and of the daily lives of the seemingly typical love relationship in modern society. In their introductions to each chapter, they explore the ideas of Ecstasy, Stability, Monotony, Uncertainty, Misery and Clarity. Their commentary on the poems makes for interesting reading and makes the book feel more personal and ultimately more emotionally fulfilling. Most of the poems in this collection were new to me, so that was a delicious surprise. ~The Rebecca Review

"You Drive Me Crazy" has a broad variety of poems from various time periods, styles, and themes, all revolving around the central theme of "real-life love". The introductory notes at the beginning of each section help to set the mood and even explain the poems, which I found very helpful. My only complaint about this book is that the collection was perhaps TOO varied. There were several chapters that i felt were not suitable for this book, but rather for one of their other books on lamenting about love. I purchased this book in the hopes of getting some inspiration for writing a quirky but romantic "real life love" poem, and really only found the first section useful. However, overall it IS an entertaining book filled with some great works, so unless you want this book for the same reason that I did, I highly recommend it! Grade: B

I stumbled upon this book at the library was quite pleasantly surprised. The poem selections are clever and inspiring. Each chapter introduction is subtle, straighforward, and insightful. This little book manages to be "poetic therapy." I enjoyed it so much that I plan to add it to my personal library.