By Larissa Page
Content warning: intimate partner abuse, depression, George Floyd/police brutality, the Portapique mass shooting, body dysmorphic disorder, disordered eating
Love in the Age of Quarantine is a collection of poems written by Katie Feltmate, who left a toxic and abusive relationship just before the COVID-19 pandemic. She wrote as a way to heal her way through 2020 and this collection of poems is one of the best collections I’ve read in quite a while.
Feltmate bares her heart to us in the beginning section of this collection. She works through her trauma and her mental health after leaving a relationship that broke her down. Her writing is extremely vulnerable and I found it very impactful. Much of it gave me goosebumps as I read, though it was also tough to read about someone’s pain, especially when the pain of intimate partner relationships is so common and so prevalent.
I first came across this collection while attending a reading that Feltmate did. She voiced to us then that this “love in the age of quarantine” wasn’t, in fact, a romantic love (though she does write about romantic love as well) but actually the love of herself, of healing and finding her way back to herself after losing herself and her independence. The collection of poems begins painfully, but the way in which she comes back to herself and loves herself becomes evident as the collection of poems moves though the sections.
Toward the end of the collection of poems, Feltmate also writes about the COVID-19 pandemic itself, including poems about healthcare workers, anti-vaxxers, pregnant friends, people who have lost their lives due to the pandemic, BLM, and so much more. She includes a few poems about the Portapique mass shooting event that left Nova Scotians absolutely reeling. She lists the victims, and she honours them in her work. Living in Nova Scotia in the first half of 2020 was something none of us will ever forget and I was glad (and heartbroken) to see it memorialized within the pages of this book in beautiful poetry.
Love in the Age of Quarantine was truly a wonderful collection of poems. It gave me goosebumps, made me cry, and made me consider how other people lived during our times of lockdown and within this pandemic. It helped give me insight and understanding, as well as hope, respect, and love.