The equation for love has not been written

Martha Eliassen Bristow
Wed, 29 Apr 2026 13:45:12 PDT

In 'The Equation for Love Has Not Been Written', the speaker confronts the obvious but nonetheless startling truth of middle age: life is half over. Time to get a clipboard and go down the aisles making note of what you've got too much of, what's almost depleted, and what ran out a long time ago. Time to requisition supplies for the second half. The speaker seeks ways to assess the different types of love - and loss she has known. Because love is a force as inexplicable as poetry, a stable vantage point is difficult to find. The speaker's aesthetic distance shifts between first person and third person, and she borrows some new personas, too. Most of the speaker's explorations are expressed in free verse, but where appropriate, the poems are in form.