Flowers I Should Have Thrown Away Yesterday, is the new poetry collection by Elisa Matvejeva. It is a journey into specific moments during different relationships—some good, some bad—she’s had over the years, but this collection seems to blend them together into one continuous relationship. It starts out great, with the honeymoon glow of a new partnership, and over time it becomes stale as the two people grow apart. Matvejeva writes this rise and fall of love with stark honesty, making it hard to look away from. It’s arresting and engaging and makes the reader yearn to find a connection of their own that elicits such a strong and introspective emotions.
I want to be
adored
craved
obsessed over
is that really so wrong
but your touch is waning
and so is my attention
to details that have already
passed us by
and maybe
just maybe
his starlit eyes
were not worth
our exquisite spectacle
but they craved me
and my soul followed
The lack of titles for each poem make this a free-flowing collection blending into itself. In the same way the speaker is feeling her emotions deeply, we’re taken for a fluid trip into the compelling nature of a relationship. This is the beauty of this: when the amorous feelings come to an end, we’re still able to find the gorgeous nature of language. Matvejeva wrote about love in an intriguing way, and she writes about heartbreak in that same intriguing way. It makes me feel like the whole point to anything in life is to feel and feel deeply, regardless of how painful it may be.
Purchase your copy of Flowers I Should Have Thrown Away Yesterday from Maida Vale Publishing.