An epistolary breakup poem written to "you" — the "you" of poetry, not the "you" of life. A poem that doesn't back away from any feeling, it climbs inside and crawls around each one's humiliating and devastating core. Some call this a "cult classic," and truly, I would follow Ariana Reines anywhere, even to my demise.
— MaslenNow that I am not addressing you
But the "you" of poetry
I am probably doing something horrible and destructive.
But this "I" is the I of poetry
And it should be able to do more than I can do.
Just a few months after the publication of her prize-winning, instant classic debut The Cow, Ariana Reines self-published this stunning book-length poem, now a cult object among readers of truly contemporary poetry. Coeur de Lion is an intensely personal, monologic meditation on longing, sex, and love between a speaker and the object of all her passions, which include thinking and writing.
"Scathing and meek, furious and thoughtful, reckless and careful, brave and frightened, Coeur de Lion is something you've never seen before that you already know by heart." —Daniel Handler aka Lemony Snicket