Poems for Time Travelers in Love

Robert Anbian’s Poems for Time Travelers in Love is a marvelous antidote to the trendy, confessional work promoted in a world where so much writing is self-therapeutic social media. These are love poems that can be read as both personal and universal in the same voice. They are by turn pensive and celebratory, tenderly innocent and knowing, and sexual without resort to profanity or gratuity. Like any honest relating of love, there are nostalgic elements as well as lasting regrets.

Anbian’s work is equally delightful in its technique. These are free verse pieces, unmarred by unintentional rhyme or form-dictated constraints. They work well on the page as well as when read aloud. If there is a conceit, it is the abandonment of periods, relying throughout on capitalization for sentence breaks. The language is consistently strong and considered throughout, with word choice and imagery that reflect intent rather than hurry. Throughout, we are offered poems that are conversational, intelligent, sometimes challenging, but never elitist.

Not all time travelers are in love, but all lovers are time travelers, as evidenced by these mature poems that fully occupy both past and present while unapologetically believing in, and tangibly visualizing, a future.