The Valentine’s Day assault is officially underway – all the standard trappings of this ‘lovers’ holiday’ are now on display at a store near you. According to the Greeting Card Association, an estimated one billion Valentine’s Cards are sent each year. But for the millions of Americans who are single, divorced or widowed, Valentine’s Day can be a painful reminder of unrequited or lost love.
Anyone whose heart has ever been pierced by Cupid’s arrow knows that romance is a double-edged sword. The giddiness of falling in love is often doused in melancholy when life’s daily struggles start chipping away at romance. The stress and hectic pace of everyday living can overwhelm a blossoming relationship according to author and poet Jesse M. Arzate. “We live in an era of harsh immediacy; we’ve been groomed to expect instant gratification in all aspects of our lives,” says Arzate. “That includes love and heartbreak as well. When a relationship ends, we expect ourselves to ‘get over it’ quickly because that’s what society dictates. But I just don’t believe the human soul is designed to simply cast emotions aside at a supersonic speed.”
The belief that we should learn to savor our emotions and explore the depths of our love is the impetus behind Thoughts Pressed Between Pages, a compilation of Arzate’s poetry. The poems capture the paradoxes of human emotion; intoxicating love and devastating heartache; exquisite happiness and blinding grief. Arzate’s words evoke powerful imagery to remind us that while a relationship can be fleeting, love’s impact can be long-lasting and the aftermath of a breakup can leave indelible marks on our soul.
Arzate wrote the poetry during what he considers ‘two of the most significant years’ of his life. He hopes others who are suffering the sting of unrequited love or muddling through the emptiness of a lost love will read Thoughts Pressed Between Pages and see that they are not alone in a sea of whirling emotions, and that it does take time for feelings and hearts to heal. “There’s nothing wrong with taking the time to reflect upon a relationship when it ends,” says Arzate. “If you’ve been married to someone for five years and the marriage ends in divorce, does it even seem logical that your heart would instantly forget that person? You can’t deny the love you had or the hurt you feel because that won’t really heal your heart.”
Arzate characterizes Thoughts Pressed Between Pages as an antidote to a culture that is mostly marked by vulgarity. As a father, he dreams of buffering that coarse roughness and he hopes his poetry will inspire others through the beauty of the verses. In many of his poems, Arzate expresses a love that is not limited to earthly confines and thus rejoices in the miracle of life. A love that all can appreciate; whether they are alone this Valentine’s Day or embraced in the arms of their true love.
Paperback: 47 pages
Publisher: Vantage Press, Inc., 2007
Available at: www.Amazon.com
About The Author:
Jesse M. Arzate has had a lifelong love for poetry. As a child, he grew up in a migrant family. Now a father himself, much of his poetry has focused on the mother of his children. Jesse continues to write creatively from his home in California.
