Meraki: Love Letters to Language

Elise Maren

Email elise@elisemaren.com for a pay what you can link to purchase for accessibility

English stinks. I love to write in English mostly because it stinks. Bullying English by exploiting its grammar, homonyms, and numerous other peculiarities can make for amusing poetry. However, I find the language to have one unforgivable flaw: there is only one word for the notion of love. While Sanskrit boasts 96 words for love, we use one measly, catch-all term to describe feelings towards coffee, family, partners, and strangers alike.

As you'll see throughout Meraki, I find language generally fascinating. However, don't mistake me for a polyglot. It's all Greek to me - pun intended. Each chapter is a different form of love in Greek. You'll find poems that draw inspiration from Greek, Hebrew, Hmong, Somali, Spanish, Norwegian, Japanese, French, and Northern Sámi.