Never One for Promises

by Sarah A. Etlinger

I studied music for years. All of those years learning to read the notes and play in rhythm was an education in itself and paved the way for poetry. But Sarah Etlinger’s poetry is music, an education in the rhythm and space of silence within those musical melodies. I first read her work when she submitted to The Magnolia Review, and I was immediately captivated. I rarely accept entire packets, but Etlinger’s was one of the few. Etlinger’s poetry is a beautiful collection of images of lovers and how they connect and disconnect. From Noah to Zeus to Kant readers to God on the subway, Etlinger carries the reader through a narrative of love, hope, and loss. In “Summer Aubade,” the speaker begins “Sometimes we feel more than we ever // hammocked in your arms / we fade into summer’s / constellations / … until dawn erases the stars.” Such a beautiful way to end a poem! The depth of Etlinger’s word choice is striking in every line, a word never out of place, a line break just so pretty perfect that I can’t imagine this poem existing in a different way. Her word choices are precise and open the world into possibilities that I couldn’t imagine without her voicing them. Images I’ve seen but haven’t described in such gorgeous detail. I can’t even choose a favorite poem because I love them all. I hope the reader enjoys every word in this collection as much as I have. Definitely on the list of poetry that I will come back repeatedly. Etlinger’s work is a presence you need in your life. Suzannah Anderson, Editor in Chief at The Magnolia In “Still Life with Poetry,” one of the brilliant poems in this rich and lovely collection, the speaker eyes a lover about to be abandoned by her partner and wishes to advise her to “keep reading Yeats and Rilke and the sonnets/keep their heartbreak on your sleeve.” Indeed, after you lay down Sarah Etlinger’s collection, Never One for Promises, its poignant images, precise and rich language, and complex rhythms will similarly clothe you. Conjoined in these pages is the celestial with the earthly, the mythic with the mundane, certainty with faithlessness. Here is a eulogy for the brevity of passion and, at the same time, a reverence for the past. Here is the familiar, persistent desire to make sense of the (love) stories we inherit, to understand how they shape us, to weigh our efforts to reshape them. Here is a world that compels us toward promises we know we cannot keep and so do not to love better, to be kinder, to give ourselves wholly over to martyrdom, for the ones we love, for the strangers in libraries, for our past selves, our present selves. Here is the unforgiving world in which “in the morning, demons come out in layers” and lovers suffer “the hungry teeth of women.” Here we recognize that the ones we care for must be treated mercilessly, like geraniums cut back so they “have no choice but to bloom.” It is a world in which the body serves as both love letter and confession, invocation and hex. It is one in which lovers write each other into being, etching “holy watermarks, prayer scars, and tattooed bands of tefillin” on vulnerable skin; it is one in which Noah’s wife mourns “this whole complicated business of pairing,”; in which Gods mingle with us in the subways; in which goddesses long for the sharp blade of the razor. Dr. Elizabeth Johnston, Founder of Straw Mat Writers and Professor

Genres: Poetry

49 pages, Paperback

Published November 27, 2018

Reviews

[Emma]

The imagery that Etlinger presents to the reader in her poetry is strong and breathtaking. These poems are engaging and surround the reader with a mixture of emotions. The heartache and broken promises cut deep, it is an ache that any reader can relate to.

What I enjoyed most about these poems was how Etlinger captures life in all its complicated glory. In Still Life with Poetry the reader people-watches a couple in the library. The narrator notices all the fine little details that people often miss. It’s fascinating to read the interaction of strangers and to draw your own conclusions to the relationship. It made me think about how we often portray a façade to the outside world but in our quietest moments, the mask slips and even a stranger can see the real you. After all, we are only human.

I loved the strong, vivid imagery that Etlinger paints in her poems, especially in Pears. The vision of bodies touching is hypnotic. Also the metaphor of her slicing a pear is striking and relatable reminding the reader that we are only flesh, a single cut can draw blood and leave a scar. I adore this use of creativity in poetry as it always reminds me personally why I love this mesmerising language.

One of the many things I love about poetry is how much comfort the poet’s words can bring the reader. Etlinger’s poetry is much like a beloved friend who is always there with advice, a cuddle and cup of tea when you feel lost. She doesn’t sugarcoat the truth and reassures you that it’s ok to feel, to cry, it is human. She bleeds her heartache, her pain, her lust and desires over the page, naked and vulnerable for all to see. It’s inspiring and heartbreaking as you realise how relatable the human condition can be. I admire Etlinger’s bravery to share her pain and passion in the form of poetry. Much praise for her honesty and strength.

I give Never One For Promises By Sarah A. Etlinger a Four out of Five paw rating.

Beautiful and full of passion, these poems are a delight to indulge in. Etlinger brings music and life to her poetry and it’s simply breathtaking to behold. I highly recommend it to everyone, it would make a lovely Christmas present this year under a dear friend’s tree. What better gift is there than the gift of poetry dear reader? It’s just so wonderful. Bliss.

[Jessica Drake-Thomas]

This collection of poems is delightfully sexy and absolutely stunning. Etlinger uses cutting pears or the shape of chili peppers as metaphors to discuss relationships in a way that is both original and insightful. In another piece, she describes god as a man in a dark suit on the subway, with a “black licorice smile,” which I also really thought interesting.

I really loved the piece “Pillow Talk 2.” In it, the speaker’s love interest keeps her company while she’s up all night due to insomnia.

“I think it would be interesting/if you wrote a poem/about life before/women got their periods,” the man in the poem says. The speaker doesn’t respond to this verbally. However, she’s thinking about it. Periods are a natural and healthy biological occurrence—a world without them is a world where women don’t give birth.

“I think of Venus,” she says, “arising from a shell/bobbing among the waves…/she had babies,/she had a womb/blood/-red and holy/enough for twins.” Here, she’s doing two things. She’s giving an example of a goddess who has human features. Etlinger’s Venus is a goddess with a period—she’s both beautiful and real. Her body is healthy. I’ve never heard anyone describe a goddess as having a period before, but now that I have, it seems so right that any other description is wrong.

She goes on to say that “I cannot help but think/he writes me into existence/like the fashioning of angels,/…a Venus without her period–/barren, virginal, fresh and clean/as the night air/he breathes into his sleeping lungs.” Here, we see that she knows that she’s being misperceived by this man—much like most mythology seems unrealistic (after all, Athena was born by being pulled out of Zeus’s head, which could never actually happen). The speaker’s unexamined insomnia gives her character the depth that the man in the poem lacks. It’s during that time that she has productive thoughts, creates poems. Just like Venus, she has a power that the man in the piece does not have—she can see things and people as they are.

I truly enjoyed this book. It’s full of mythology and Goddesses and fruit. Each poem in the collection is an absolute gem, with a lot of subtle artistry that really draws the reader into it. I highly recommend this book

[Linda Hill]

A collection of twenty poems.

I’m slightly at a loss to know how to review Never One For Promises by Sarah A. Elinger because the sinuous sophistication and beauty of her language is beyond my vocabulary to describe. I’ve read and reread the poems several times and I thought this collection was utterly outstanding.

Sarah A. Etlinger’s poetic eye is perfectly attuned to life and nature. Her descriptions are glorious, particularly when referring to heat and cold. I loved the way there are many references to various kinds of beats throughout so that I found my own heartbeat and pulse becoming attuned to the rhythm of the poetry. It seems ironic too, that one of the shortest and simplest poems, Moment Before The Storm, I found the most affecting emotionally. That said, without exception, the poems in Never One For Promises reverberate with life, emotion and, I suspect, undercurrents of the poets own beliefs, loves, joys and fears.

Themes of love and insecurity, infidelity, religion and patriarchal society are conveyed by both sensual and sensuous imagery so that I found the poems curiously surprising at the same time as being eerily familiar because they conveyed many of my own thoughts in ways I could never have imagined. There’s often a wistfulness that I found so moving.

I have to make particular mention of Unpacking The Last Box After Moving In Together. Admittedly it’s one of the longer poems in Never One For Promises, but in just two and a half pages the poet encapsulates more drama and emotion than many a short story I’ve read. Sarah A. Etlinger has an amazing talent.

I loved Never One For Promises. I frequently read and review poetry but the work of Sarah A. Etlinger is amongst the best I’ve encountered. Just wonderful.

[Suzanna Anderson]

I studied music for years. All of those years learning to read the notes and play in rhythm was an education in itself and paved the way for poetry. But Sarah Etlinger’s poetry is music, an education in the rhythm and space of silence within those musical melodies. I first read her work when she submitted to The Magnolia Review, and I was immediately captivated. I rarely accept entire packets, but Etlinger’s was one of the few. Etlinger’s poetry is a beautiful collection of images of lovers and how they connect and disconnect. From Noah to Zeus to Kant readers to God on the subway, Etlinger carries the reader through a narrative of love, hope, and loss.

In “Summer Aubade,” the speaker begins “Sometimes we feel more than we ever are: // hammocked in your arms / we fade into summer’s / constellations / … until dawn erases the stars.” Such a beautiful way to end a poem! The depth of Etlinger’s word choice is striking in every line, a word never out of place, a line break just so pretty perfect that I can’t imagine this poem existing in a different way. Her word choices are precise and open the world into possibilities that I couldn’t imagine without her voicing them. Images I’ve seen but haven’t described in such gorgeous detail. I can’t even choose a favorite poem because I love them all.

I hope the reader enjoys every word in this collection as much as I have. Definitely on the list of poetry that I will come back repeatedly. Etlinger’s work is a presence you need in your life. I look forward to reading her next poetry collection.

[Amber]

When I say this is a volume of love poetry, I'm not talking saccharine and I'm not talking starry-eyed. The voice is more of the older/wiser variety with observations that are wry but not bitter. Imperfect loves, infidelities, wondering about measuring up to ideals and former loves. And it's not all love-related; religion, mythology, philosophy, even geography and gardening make an appearance if only in metaphor.

The language is lush and I can taste it in my mouth. I think one of these days when I get some solo time I have to read it aloud to myself. Etlinger also has the enviable knack for killer titles and last lines. I find myself paging back and forth to enjoy individual similes and metaphors: (of Ash Wednesday smudges) "like kisses from burnt ghosts", "etiquette of her skin", "birds chitter in coffee klatches" and pretty much the whole last stanza of "January Thaw" that pretty much tells you how THAT turned out.

I don't read a lot of poetry and when I do, I remember that I like it a lot more than I think I do. I'll definitely be looking out for her next collection when it appears.

[Samantha Grenier]

Could I have breezed through these poems? Yes, I could have, but I am a friend (and now) a fan of the poet, so they require multiple reads to give them a fair shake, but I also love them. Am I still re-reading these? Oh yeah. This is a bedside text. I have a few favorite poems I gravitate to, because like a favorite outfit, they fit me just right. They’re relatable.

It’s always that last line that either gores you, or requires a second intake of breath. So back to the beginning of the poems I went, over and over. Themes that caught me (some by surprise) were relationships (mostly martial), infidelity, complicated connection with god, and what it is to be female.

My favorite poems in this body include: “The Collection,” “Still Life with Poetry,” “Pears,” “Chili Pepper,” “An Act of God,” “Venus in the Shower,” and “Ash Wednesday.” These poems, in particular, make me feel both empowered and weak as a woman. It’s a closed-lip confession which somehow makes me feel vulnerable but stronger. I’m sure there’s a term for it, but for now I can only think of identity.

[Isabelle]

“Never One For Promises” by Sarah Etlinger describes the evolution of a relationship and the bitter-sweet ability to see events differently in hindsight. Etlinger points to the vulnerability within each relationship and the bravery which love requires – when we enter a relationship, we can have no idea of its future, but because we can’t help falling in love, we do it anyway. There is comfort in reading a collection which acknowledges this uncertainty.