i wish we were lovers
Contributors
Description
It is so very frustrating, makes one almost want to scream — petulantly, childishly even — that it is a deeply unfair world when the one you most want to speak to, to be with, is the very one you can’t.
Particularly when calling out to you is not so much the thing I cannot do (of course one always can) but the very thing one shouldn’t. For, one should try not to forget that — even as it might pain one to do so — words are missiles that explode in your somatic being.
Where sending them out might cause damage, even bring ruin; and keeping them in, be catastrophic.
I suppose one might say you helped send me on a path towards the beautiful, opened in me the possibility of catching a glimpse of beauty —
three steps
on the ladder
of writhing
Back cover blurb
Composed of quotes, notes, writings, messages, and drawings, I wish we were lovers moves tentatively but eagerly across these pages to explore, and finally minimize, the distance between ‘you’ and ‘I’ and thought and feeling
~ Chris Kraus
Responses
A beautiful and deeply moving book, full of insights and precious thoughts extracted from the hopes and hopelessness of love. The depths of doubts and despair are carried to the absolute heights of expression, making of each fall and abyss a peak of poetry and writing
~ Anders Kølle
I wish we were lovers is a small book with universal appeal. In it, Jeremy Fernando tackles issues of love, loss, and longing from — and it becomes, from the outset, apparent that he has had very close and personal contact with all three conditions. In an almost dreamlike manner, he deftly steers the reader, via the delivery of carefully curated quotes — the wisdom of Prospero and Pink Floyd, in one memorable instance, appearing on the same page — illustrations, and his own meditations, on a voyage of the mind, heart, and soul. I read this slim volume slowly, savoring each line, often re-reading a page before turning to the next, so wound-up in its contemplations had I become, eager to squeeze every ounce of truth out of them. For, aren't we all, in some way and at some point in our lives — possibly for most of our lives — on the same route of discovery? Don't we all hold inside us some lingering nostalgia for 'what could have been', and harbor doubts as to our own degree of faithfulness and desire even — or especially — at the point of admitting to another 'I love you'?
~ Chris Stowers