Echoes of Passion: Sari Fishman, Francesco Petrarch, and the Power of the Muse

Between a Feminine Muse and a Masculine Muse, Between Postmodernism and Early Renaissance

Dr. Sari Fishman, a postmodernist poet, engages in a literary dialogue with the works of Francesco Petrarch, one of the great poets of the early Renaissance. Both explore—each in their own era and way—the theme of unattainable desire, the pain of one-sided love, and the complex dynamics between poet and muse. While Petrarch sang of his love for Laura, an idealized and distant female figure, Fishman reverses the dynamic: she is the woman, and her muse is a man. Despite this reversal, the message remains universal—gender is secondary when it comes to longing, pain, and the inability to grasp what the heart so deeply yearns for.

Why Overthinking and Poetry Are a Match Made in Heaven

Overthinking often gets a bad rap for tying us in knots, but in poetry, it fuels creativity. Poems thrive on small details and let your mind explore endless layers of meaning. You don't just see a tree—you think about its roots, the light, growth, time, and how it all connects to life and death. It's deep, and that's why overthinkers excel here.

Take Sari Fishman's "Inner Self Portrait" for example. These poems explore identity, love, and fear with raw emotion, inviting readers to uncover new layers of meaning with each read.

Laura – Love or Ideal?

Between the pages of literary history and the creative pulse of the present, the figure of Laura continues to hover. Was she a real woman, or merely a poetic construct? According to tradition, Laura was a married woman from Avignon, France, whom Petrarch encountered in a church on April 6, 1327. From that moment, his fate was sealed: longing, yearning, and pain accompanied him throughout his life, and he documented his impossible love through poetry. But did he love Laura herself, or the idea he created of her? Was she flesh and blood, or an ideal to which the poet surrendered?

Love as a Driving Force

Petrarch does not celebrate fulfilled love, but rather that which remains unattainable. To him, Laura is more than a woman—she is a concept, the battlefield of his emotions, a living muse that fuels his poetic power. His love is trapped within social conventions, transforming it into myth. The more desire is suppressed, the more it intensifies. If he had attained Laura, would his love have persisted?

Fishman's poems, for example, don't hand you neat conclusions on a silver platter. They challenge you to sit with the discomfort of not knowing—and that's where the magic happens.

Petrarch in a Feminine Version: Sari Fishman as a Poet of Longing

For Petrarch, the poet is male, and the muse is female. In Fishman’s work, the dynamic shifts: she is the speaker, and her muse is male. But does this change alter the nature of desire? It seems that literature knows no gender. Longing transcends periods and conventions, and the object of love—whether man or woman—becomes a universal image of restless passion.

The Pain of Unattainable Love – A Poetic Comparison

Like Petrarch lamenting his love for Laura, so too does Fishman’s poetry express unfulfilled longing. Her poem "Forbidden Heart" captures the suffocating sensation of unattainable love:

FORBIDDEN HEART

when I am filled with you

I breathe in heavily

the three modes of time

the past is burnt

the future is empty

the present is at my door

inviting the pain

to spread through me

and through your forbidden heart

Similarly, Petrarch mourns his lost love in Sonnet 61:

Sonnet 61

Blessed be the day, and the month, and the year,

and the season, and the time, and the hour, and the moment,

and the beautiful country, and the place where I was joined

to the two beautiful eyes that have bound me:

and blessed be the first sweet suffering

that I felt in being conjoined with Love,

and the bow, and the shafts with which I was pierced,

and the wounds that run to the depths of my heart.

Blessed be all those verses I scattered

calling out the name of my lady,

and the sighs, and the tears, and the passion:

and blessed be all the sheets

where I acquire fame, and my thoughts,

that are only of her, that no one else has part of.

Young Werther and I – The Connection Between Petrarch and the Present

In her poem "Young Werther and I", Fishman takes us on a journey back 250 years, showing how little has changed. Despite social and technological progress, moral constraints still imprison love. Like Petrarch, both she and Werther experience unfulfilled yearning due to impenetrable societal boundaries. The poem establishes a continuous dialogue between past and present, between the Renaissance and postmodernism, between the chains of yesterday and those of today.

YOUNG WERTHER AND I

we danceagonizing into the yellowrapturing into the blueplugging love at one anotherlike two pistols

look I say to himwho would have believedthis night has enduredfor two hundred and fifty years

Similarly, Petrarch expresses these conflicting emotions of love and suffering in Sonnet 104, reflecting an inner emotional storm:

Sonnet 104

I find no peace, but for war am not inclined;

I fear, yet hope; I burn, yet am turned to ice;

I soar in the heavens, but lie upon the ground;

I hold nothing, though I embrace the whole world.

Love has me in a prison which he neither opens nor shuts fast;

he neither claims me for his own nor loosens my halter;

he neither slays nor unshackles me;

he would not have me live, yet leaves me with my torment.

Eyeless I gaze, and tongueless I cry out;

I long to perish, yet plead for succour;

I hate myself, but love another.

I feed on grief, yet weeping, laugh;

death and life alike repel me;

and to this state I am come, my lady, because of you.

Conclusion – The Enduring Power of Longing and Literature

Fishman asserts that Petrarch’s love for Laura had to be real, grounded in a tangible and visceral connection. "Petrarch had to have been truly in love with Laura—she had to be flesh and blood, not merely a concept, genuine suffering, and authentic passion. There is no way that Petrarch simply imagined these feelings and wrote in an abstract, idealized manner. My poems would not exist if I had not met my muse, my Laurel. In the same way, Petrarch's sonnets were born from a deep, visceral connection to Laura."

Her latest collection, INNER SELF PORTRAIT, explores these themes of longing, restraint, and creative inspiration. The book serves as a bridge between past and present, demonstrating how unfulfilled love and artistic muses remain powerful forces in literature. Through this literary conversation with Petrarch, Fishman challenges readers to engage with the universal themes of passion and desire, reinterpreted through a contemporary lens.

Why Read INNER SELF PORTRAIT and Rediscover Petrarch?

For those who seek poetry that transcends time, INNER SELF PORTRAIT is an essential read. Fishman’s evocative language, emotional depth, and fearless confrontation of desire and restraint make this collection a unique literary experience. Her words challenge and provoke, drawing readers into an intense, personal dialogue about passion, longing, and creative inspiration.

At the same time, this exploration of poetic muses invites us to revisit Petrarch’s writings with fresh eyes. His sonnets, deeply rooted in the struggle between love and societal constraints, continue to resonate today. Whether discovering his poetry for the first time or returning to it with a new perspective, readers can find in Petrarch’s verses the same fervent intensity that fuels Fishman’s modern work.