In her verse collection, What Is Poetry?, author Martha Montealegre explores a wide range of themes from our daily lives-hopes and struggles, beginnings and endings, love and intimacy, suffering and letting go, enslavement and freedom. Through these verses, she combines a lifetime of experiences with intense imagination. Focusing on love, memory, and loss, these poems reflect elements that we all encounter in our lives with unmistakable sincerity. Time and Again You left without vindicating your good-bye. My dreams you took with you. Loneliness remained along with the shadow of your love. The nights that held our passion hold only silence now. I am left holding the hope of your return. I hope to feel your body next to mine and find myself in your eyes once more. My hope is not unfounded. You always come back. When you return, you will tell me that being in your arms is not a dream, that I was hard to forget, that you couldn't live without me, that you have come to stay, that our love is still alive, that we have so much to live for. I will rest my head on your chest while you caress my hair and smile.