The swooning, the longing, the butterflies, all with out the cringe, please.
Truth is, we all love a good love poem. Poetry is the language of love, after all. What better way to express your feelings than through one of the most honest and beautiful mediums. However, at some point, the whole “roses are red,” stars in your eyes, valentines day card cheesy poetry starts to be a little much.
Great love poems, the ones that speak to the feeling in a way a cheesy romantic meme could never, explore all aspects of love. Love poems that aren’t cheesy don’t rely on the tired metaphors, reliable tropes, or bad rhyme schemes to showcase the messy, complicated, and beautiful ways people love.
So, if you’re looking for love poetry that won’t make you cringe, here are some poems that are nothing but honest, raw, and beautiful expressions of love. No cheese, just genuine feeling.
chemistry
is
you
touching my arm
and
it
setting fire to my mind.
It’s all I have to bring today—
This, and my heart beside—
This, and my heart, and all the fields—
And all the meadows wide—
Be sure you count—should I forget
Some one the sum could tell—
This, and my heart, and all the Bees
Which in the Clover dwell.
If I were to live my life
in catfish forms
in scaffolds of skin and whiskers
at the bottom of a pond
and you were to come by
one evening
when the moon was shining
down into my dark home
and stand there at the edge
of my affection
and think, “It’s beautiful
here by this pond. I wish
somebody loved me,” continue…
was how horses simply give birth to other
horses. Not a baby by any means, not
a creature of liminal spaces, but a four-legged
beast hellbent on walking, scrambling after
the mother. A horse gives way to another
horse and then suddenly there are two horses,
just like that. That’s how I loved you.
Continue…
I am telling a story, enjoying myself
I know because my hand is conducting
my descriptions
We are driving through golden light
And your body is inclining towards me
at all points
As it does when you’re happy with me
Continue…
After all, there’s no need
to say anything
at first. An orange, peeled
and quartered, flares
like a tulip on a wedgewood plate
Anything can happen.
Continue…
not back, let’s not come back, let’s go by the speed of
queer zest & stay up
there & get ourselves a little
moon cottage (so pretty), then start a moon garden
with lots of moon veggies (so healthy), i mean
i was already moonlighting
as an online moonologist
most weekends, so this is the immensely
Continue…
If you suddenly and unexpectedly feel joy,
don’t hesitate. Give in to it. There are plenty
of lives and whole towns destroyed or about
to be. We are not wise, and not very often
kind. And much can never be redeemed.
Still, life has some possibility left. Perhaps this
is its way of fighting back, that sometimes
something happens better than all the riches
or power in the world. It could be anything,
but very likely you notice it in the instant
when love begins. Anyway, that’s often the case.
Anyway, whatever it is, don’t be afraid
of its plenty. Joy is not made to be a crumb.
