The Story of Love by Alyza Taguilaso
A piece that explores desire and unrequited love at a cosmic scale.
First published in Kritika Kultura Anthology of New Philippine Writing in English in March 2011.
From the author:
I wrote “The Story of Love” when I was twenty-one years old and starry-eyed-and-stupid in love with someone (who obviously did not feel the same—as the usual story goes). Looking back on this juggernaut of a poem through the lens of someone quietly sitting twelve years away fills me with awe and delight for my younger self, brimming with so much hope and longing. My more recent pieces are less confessional than this but I have always looked at this one with fondness because of its candor—a quality that I realize chafes off along with one’s youth as the years roll on.
A lot of the questions I asked in this piece I still haven’t been able to answer, despite the offerings of a decade, and maybe I’m not meant to find these answers, despite the insistence of the younger me.
Sentimentality aside, this is my first published piece of writing and I have always been thankful for this monster and all the doors it has opened for me.
Alyza Taguilaso is a resident doctor training in General Surgery from the Philippines. Her work has been nominated for a Rhysling Award. Her poems have also been shortlisted for contests like the Manchester Poetry Prize and Bridport Poetry Prize, and have been published in several publications, including Electric Literature, Crazy Horse, The Deadlands, Canthius, Fantasy Magazine, Strange Horizons, Orbis Journal, Voice and Verse, and Luna Journal PH, among others. You may find her online via wordpress (@alyzataguilastorm), instagram (@ventral), and twitter (@lalalalalalyza).
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