a gathering of poems
by Barbara Kahan

Romance with the light on. Love uncovered, held open to the elements. The illumination in Illuminated Tales of Romance happens between the words. The light shines on through storm and dissolution, hope and invention. The table of contents tells its own story of the gathering:

Dance to the Light: Three Love Stories

Her Story: Universal Reasons for Using and Refusing Umbrellas
His Story: What Happens When You Try to Photograph Hope
The Archaeologist’s Story: Archaeology of a Relationship, a poem for three voices

Light and Dark: a Romantic Cycle , poems for three voices : narrator , romantic , academic

Multi-Dimensional Collage with a Masculine Motif
Childhood Romance and Beyond: boy of tender years as yet unformed
Romance in her Tenuous Teen Years: man of her dreams
Romance in her Turbulent Twenties : brooding companion to the night sky
Romance in her Turbulent Twenties: man with occasionally malevolent eyes
Romance in her Turbulent Twenties and Beyond: man dancing in the light of the sun
Romance in her Thirties: joined at the beginning of time
Romance in her Forties : man of her dreams manifested in reality
Her Romantic Conundrum : choosing between the sun and the moon