They say true love is eternal. But as so many lovers discover, it often ends with a trip to the lawyer’s office.



Magnetic Repulsion collects 100 poems that explore the core of the entire romantic experience—from wonderful first blush, to tentative uncertainty, to the need for healing when it all fades.



The result is a compelling and necessary companion for anyone who has ever fallen in and out of love.





Poet Patricia A. Hawkenson’s gift for evoking the complex, sensual essence of human relationships is on full display here.



In “Wringing Warm,” a just-laundered towel becomes a metaphor of the electric connection between two people.



“Naked Sushi” examines a woman’s satisfaction at her lover’s muddy footprints--a reminder that she is needed, and not alone.



But there are also poems that resonate with transition. “Apnea” looks at changes in relationships through the prism of two partners’ position in bed. And in “A Harmony of One,” Hawkenson’s speaker proclaims her independence, resolving to “learn the tune of my own song.”



Through it all, Hawkenson’s textured epiphanies and gorgeous images do justice to this wonderful, crazy, frightening, maddening and confusing thing we call love and life.



Magnetic Repulsion: 100 Poems From Desire to Disgust, is nothing less than a study guide for separating relationships.