That ‘one’ and then 2 and 3 would bug the hell out of me, and I can only assume it’s a typo as i can’t imagine why it would be deliberately done that way. I am working on some love poems though.
Nelly I combined your prompt "Imagine if someone asked you what you had learnt about love over the years, could you pull together three lessons? Could you try out delivering your lessons with conviction." with Writing myself a Love Letter/Poem like in Elizabeth Gilbert Letters from Love. So I asked Love: Dear Love, what would you have me know about what you had learnt about love over the years, pull together three lessons? This is what Love told me.
Hey Sweetie,
Love speaks in echoes, in tides that return,
in the hush between heartbeats where wisdom is born.
I have gathered three truths, etched deep in the stone,
lessons shaped by time, by loss, by my own.
First, love is not a promise, but a presence.
Not the vow of forever, not the weight of a ring,
but the hands that hold steady when the canyon walls sing.
It is found in the pause, in the breath that is shared,
in the knowing—unspoken—that someone is there.
Second, love is not a shelter, but a light.
Not a fortress of safety, not a lock nor a key,
but the torch in the darkness that lets you still see.
It does not protect from the storms that will come,
but it stands in the rain and refuses to run.
Third, love is not an answer, but an opening.
Not a script to be followed, not a truth set in stone,
but a question unfolding, a place to call home.
It makes room for the wreckage, the beauty, the scars,
for the vast, winding river that we already are.
So, Sweetie, love is not something you seek or defend—
It's so funny you mentioned attempts at love poems never really being fully finished poems. My husband and I have been together 10 years this year, I've begun a little project of collecting any poems I've written about him, us or places we've been together. But so many of them are scribbles that have never been revisited or edited in any way. It's going to be a bigger project than I thought! I'm looking forward to trying your prompts in my notebook/coffee time later this week x
I'm hoping to come back to the other prompts 💛.
I think of your lips
After Tracy K. Smith
.
I think of your lips, but not in the way you think
I’ve been kissing them for almost twenty-five years
and I’m happy about that, but the thoughts I think
are about how you purse them right before telling a joke
that you don’t want to laugh at, that you want to keep deadpan
and how they move, so slightly that only I can see them
in noiseless conversation with your high school friends,
with opposing counsel, with a record store employee
who refused to be impressed by your purchase.
I think of your lips, replicated in each of our children, the fullness,
the sudden smiles, the silent parting as they sleep.
Beauuuutiful. Turns out reading other peoples love poems I get an involuntary smile 😊
I love the love poems you shared. It was a very low week for me last week, and it lifted me up to read beautiful things 💛.
That ‘one’ and then 2 and 3 would bug the hell out of me, and I can only assume it’s a typo as i can’t imagine why it would be deliberately done that way. I am working on some love poems though.
What I have learnt about love.
*
love never finds you when you desire it,
but creeps up and delivers a heart shocking
‘BOO!’
at the most inconvenient of times,
when you’ve sworn off new lovers, new love,
to allow time to heal, when you have plans
and ideas and a direction for your singular life,
it scuppers them all with persistence and pressure,
it dogs you, nags you, shaking you by the scruff
even though you shoo it away
It is dogged and annoys until you acquiesce.
After this initial contact negotiations must begin
needing to be concise but also e x p a n s i v e
covering all bases to avoid confusion later on.
Hormones and chemistry combine in a irresistible haze
confusing and exhilarating.
Some say this phase will end, but find the right one and it
lingers on for decades.
I love the playfulness of this one Tamsin. The “boo” was brilliant
Nelly I combined your prompt "Imagine if someone asked you what you had learnt about love over the years, could you pull together three lessons? Could you try out delivering your lessons with conviction." with Writing myself a Love Letter/Poem like in Elizabeth Gilbert Letters from Love. So I asked Love: Dear Love, what would you have me know about what you had learnt about love over the years, pull together three lessons? This is what Love told me.
Hey Sweetie,
Love speaks in echoes, in tides that return,
in the hush between heartbeats where wisdom is born.
I have gathered three truths, etched deep in the stone,
lessons shaped by time, by loss, by my own.
First, love is not a promise, but a presence.
Not the vow of forever, not the weight of a ring,
but the hands that hold steady when the canyon walls sing.
It is found in the pause, in the breath that is shared,
in the knowing—unspoken—that someone is there.
Second, love is not a shelter, but a light.
Not a fortress of safety, not a lock nor a key,
but the torch in the darkness that lets you still see.
It does not protect from the storms that will come,
but it stands in the rain and refuses to run.
Third, love is not an answer, but an opening.
Not a script to be followed, not a truth set in stone,
but a question unfolding, a place to call home.
It makes room for the wreckage, the beauty, the scars,
for the vast, winding river that we already are.
So, Sweetie, love is not something you seek or defend—
it is lived, it is given, it is yours to extend.
Step into its current, let it carve as it may,
for love, like the canyon, was never afraid.
Yours always,
Love
It's so funny you mentioned attempts at love poems never really being fully finished poems. My husband and I have been together 10 years this year, I've begun a little project of collecting any poems I've written about him, us or places we've been together. But so many of them are scribbles that have never been revisited or edited in any way. It's going to be a bigger project than I thought! I'm looking forward to trying your prompts in my notebook/coffee time later this week x
I honestly find them really tough. Ten years 🥰. What a lovely project. Are you planning to do something nice? Hope the prompts help x
Hoping to make a mini paper chapbook for him with poems from over the years!