As I mentioned in MPSIMS, yesterday my fiance lost everything, as far as we know, in a fire. That includes a poetry anthology which contains the poem he read right before proposing to me. Of course neither one of us remembers the name, and I couldn’t find it at Borders or Barnes and Noble’s this afternoon. We bought it on sale at Borders about 3 years ago, so it may be out of print.
I thought the title was I Love You Madly, but it’s not turning up on Google. Here’s what I remember about it. It starts with Shakespeare’s “Shall I Compare Thee To a Summer’s Day” followed by a modern version of it. It contains a lot of the classics like “Jenny Kissed Me”, but also poems of lost love as well. One poem I’m particularly interested in is called something like “Love 10 Cents a Mile” and is called a classic New York poem. I can’t remember the words, but it includes references to “crazy neighbor who lives upstairs” and “poor ____ who isn’t a drunk but merely a guy who’s down on his luck.” It’s a man attempting renegotiate his turbulent loves and turns on lines which run something like "But tonight you are in my hair and in my heart and compared to tonight all other nights are black. Come back. " It finishes up “and a couple of reporters in case anything should break.” If nothing else, if someone could find the words to this poem or a place where I can buy it, I will be very much in your debt.
I figure if anyone can do this, you can. If you need more information, let me know and I’ll give tell you whatever I can. Thank you.