the candle light burns steady in falling dusk - the memory of your hand in mine
power cut - the candle he gifted me before passing burns a night vigil at my bedside
Ed Higgins
December scent rains coming down sodden leaves underfoot seeping melancholy your lost love
your flowing red hair crackling fire igniting my love heartbeats of desire lust’s blazing flames
Marilyn Humbert
the heartache of my faraway friend’s loneliness… her unsteady voice, the forced facetime smiles
bedside vigil weighed down by Mum’s last words I fade and disappear in the mountain’s shadow
the barren fields of father’s frugal life all that remains a battered felt hat on a bent five-bar gate
Barbara Anna Gaiardoni
defeat of the team of the heart hurts more and more
Jackie Chou
winter chill untended poinsettias by the care home door… how many Christmases have passed without mom
the grass covered with golden leaves the shape of tears… autumn deepens without your footfall
so much longing in the sound of a xiao flute those Chinese stories of star-crossed lovers that baffled me as a child
Mark Gilbert
wedding photo I just don’t know who looks more pleased, he or she, in that sepia moment
this path of purple and turquoise just wide enough to hold hands
Steven Mayoff
Scars
Muddy tracks glisten, icing over into welts. Pale winter stars weep down on these lava-red scars. Oozing up from sleep, grief melts.
Bryan Rickert
seeds scattered by the wind will my love ever take root in her heart
leaves carried away by the stream it seems like yesterday our love was in bloom
owl calls left unanswered better not to ask why you don’t love me
Chen-ou Liu
my friend remarks home is where the heart is as the bus arrives I murmur, my heart's split between two places, an ocean apart
poetry books stacked double on shelves from floor to ceiling ... too full yet too empty on my friend's blood-stained note
some light bulbs in mother's mind sputter out as others dim... I'm her caregiver, and yet often treated like a stranger
Susan Burch
giving her half a hug tonight feeling stingy with my love
the death of Lehabah -- how even a fictional character can break your heart
a carolina wren twirling its happiness into the air how tweet it feels to be loved by you
Giuliana Ravaglia
Preludio
Alzai gli occhi verso di lui respirò aria e sole la mia anima misterioso e nudo quel primo sguardo imprevedibile preludio d'un vergine incanto come l'alba d'un cielo puro
Prelude
I rolled my eyes at him my soul breathed air and sun mysterious and naked that first glance unpredictable prelude to a virgin enchantment like the dawn of a pure sky
Forse
Forse oggi è solo sera battiti d'amore bruciati dal silenzio ritorneranno a scaldare speranze irromperà l'aurora oscurando ogni dolore
Perhaps
Maybe today is just evening beats of love burned by silence they will return to warm hopes the dawn will break obscuring all pain
Controvento
Nessuna nube oscurerà i tuoi occhi vele feconde di vagabonde follie morderai le piene dell'autunno baciando controvento rivoli chiari e sarai l'estate
Upwind
No clouds will darken your eyes fruitful sails of vagabond follies you will bite the floods of autumn kissing clear rivulets against the wind and you will be the summer
Hassane Zemmouri
exam day- melting in the child's mouth a cube of sugar the mother's smile whispers a prayer
old cookie cutters- my nephew naming the shapes one by one my longing has the scent of vanilla
Debbie Strange
kinkeepers . . . the invisible women loving behind the scenes of our everyday lives
the linden tree outside our window cradling snow . . . we open ourselves to one another
the dam has been breached once more we are swept along in surges of sorrow
Anthony Lusardi gynaecology centre holding her swollen belly the doctor gives the results the lifespan of weeping cherries; all the memories i still have from our first kiss
taking her picture all the poses she makes trying to look perfect all i need is her smile
Roberta Beach Jacobson getting a little ahead of myself mailing three scented envelopes letters yet unwritten
times of war a plague in the garden rose petals cover gravestones of fighters no matter what their beliefs
I project my fears onto my friends not all of my fears as a few must remain with me
Tonia Kalouria
A LOSS FOR WORDS
Excited Google Search for long-lost lover! Wonder which state he lives in now? Nearby? Still married? Widower? Remarried? Single by some miracle? …Difficult to read week-old Obituary through tears.
REQUIEM POUR TROIS
She tenderly cradles each preemie — one in each arm. She proudly “shows off” each preemie — one in each arm. She lovingly gazes at each preemie — one in each arm. She sobs “goodbye” to each preemie — one in each arm. She is buried with her babies — one in each arm.
James Penha
Jim Loved; Jim Lost
“Jim Jarmusch!” the woman called out approaching me mystified in the cinema lobby where no Jarmusch film played and where never was I—whose hair remains tawny—he.
Jerome Berglund
live flowers on five dollar shelf don’t overlook fight in them yet pink tulips
Gail Brooks
young lovers sigh behind purple vines ripples in the pond reveal mating turtles
crumpled tissues tear-stained near my pillow where once white wrinkled sheets were signs of happiness
Ram Chandran
avoiding her eyes, I asked why we loved each other so much and why we decided to part now
you have gone beyond the reach of moonlight still I feel your breath when I wake up in the middle of the night
Wendy Gent
all night i waited at your bedside, finally i’m ready to leave ... your last words to me before the soft light of dawn
twilight our final goodbye the palette shifts to black and white only our shadows touch
distant memories fade like summer colours a newsreel passing of time all the things you’ve missed, and yet ... a sense of your presence
C.X.Turner
falling from my hands worn down heart-shaped this pebble lands in a splash of sorrow
deep in wild woods under crunching snow my love hibernates to emerge when it’s safe to bloom
the cold ache and winter crunch of snow on my boots the resolve to stop loving you fails
Ruth Holzer
myriad lights of a strange city glittering leading me nowhere the night I lost you
when you left you promised to greet me again one day smiling, your arms full of cherry blossoms
Dad's birthday a hundred years ago-- how worried he would have been about me in this season of plague
Farah Ali
FLAME
delicate creature yearning flitting towards her own demise…the warmth of that final moment
SEPARATION
wing and sky darkness and light the raven’s shadow peels away… winter dusk
Bonnie J Scherer
your Lento to my Vivace leaves us out of tune … a love gone flat
barren landscape too hostile for life its soil desiccated and infertile … wasteland of the heart
daylight l e n g t h e n s … still my heart does not sing
Tuyet Van Do
she grieves for the sparks there once were no longer present
striving forward they try to leave behind lost time
Tracy Davidson
along the river she liked to sit by love still flows I clutch the wooden box that bears her ashes
a shaky smile in her last photograph the pain she tried so hard to hide transfers to me
ashes of roses she strokes the velvet lining of a small coffin her husband reading aloud one final bedtime story
Mirela Brăilean
walking alone on the crowded beach - even though I know you have gone forever I still see you all around
the fragrance of the cherry trees in bloom fill the streets - without you in my life my soul remains empty
Daniel Birnbaum
each of us a handle for you the luggage for me the door occupied hands cannot wave goodbye
the bell in the distance too close the wedding of my friend with my friend
Joy McCall
where do we turn when we need help? to the deep pools of love that hide in all the shadows
what is distance? we can be far apart but still close love knows nothing about miles or time
paralysed, I dream of walking on the shore picking pebbles I wake with empty hands my pillow wet with salt tears
Michael H Lester
finally over the pain and humiliation of being dumped now I’ve found a new love the old one wants me back
never thought I could love a puppy like I do though he bites my ankles and my shirt sleeves too
she cheated and oh! how she lied my first love the sound of every footfall like an arrow to the heart
Rebecca Kolstad
memories of you float like flotsam into my conscious a few worth salvaging
mother's orchid still barren on my windowsill then, a rare bloom finally smiling
three years since we sat vigil holding your quiet hands memorizing your face
Lorelyn De la Cruz Arevalo
the wind howls faint weeping down the hallway is anyone there the cold fans her face how long has it been
his last goodbye kiss take me with you the gale drowns out her plea buried many moons ago
Gabriel Rosenstock
tá sé i ngach neach an crann seo amach san fhómhar i ngáire an pháiste i dtost an tsaoi mhachnamhaigh is cuimhne mhilis ar phóg
it's in everyone this lone tree of late autumn in the laughing child in the silent brooding sage and in a remembered kiss
nochtann tú mar néal agus imíonn tú arís sa spás ama sin – soicind amháin, míle bliain – cad go díreach a tharla?
cloud-like You appear then You disappear again in that space of time – a second, a thousand years – what exactly has occurred?
á, dá mbeinn i m'éan chosnóinn thú, a thaisce agus chanfainn duit: i gciúnas na foraoise an saoi is Shakúntála
ah, were i a bird i'd protect you, Belovèd and i'd sing for you in the silence of a wood a sage found Shakuntala
Mircea Moldovan
what's left after the words of endearment the tracks of your steps and a frozen rose on a stone bench
icicles dripping in the zipped suitcase you put thick socks and a used laptop to play Solitaire
bitter moon I don't remember the name of the dog with blue eyes near the garden grave Eskimo´s spirit
Jon Hare
warm night in the soft breeze restless leaves your breath mixed with mine
someone else's perfume in an empty elevator lingering … your hand drew away as the door closed
losing the path to the setting sun the words describing your beauty no longer mine
Paula Frew
I Have Loved
I have loved one man with my whole heart, and he loved me likewise. Grandpa was a poor farmer who loved me richly and fully. he left me when I was twelve, too young.
A 21-Year Story I was a woman-ette when we first met. We were married until you split. 21 years and then you quit. When you texted, I wanted to be over it.
Staying in Love Across the great divide, my sorrow does echo. Along the open prairie, my mind does reminisce. Above the grand mountains, my heart searches. Who says we can’t stay in love?
Alvin Cruz
a raindrop balancing itself on a bamboo leaf... between living with and living without you
the cashmere scarf you left behind the lingering scent of loneliness fills each empty space
my echo in an empty room the way loneliness repeats itself
Steve Wilkinson
Snow Melts as quickly As it fell - Why is it that love Must follow the same pattern ?
“In the last days There will be no Natural affection” - Maybe these words are the only ones I really believe