Sad Love Poems

Also see Love - Another Perspective, Missing You, and Love Poems.

If You But Knew

(Helen Welshimer)

If you but knew
How all my days seem filled with dreams of you,
How sometimes in the silent night
Your eyes thrill through me with their tender light,
How oft I hear your voice when others speak,
How you 'mid other forms I seek--
Oh, love more real than though such dreams were true
If you but knew.

Could you but guess
How you alone make all my happiness,
How I am more than willing for your sake
To stand alone, give all and nothing take,
Nor chafe to think you bound while I am free,
Quite free, till death, to love you silently,
Could you but guess.

Could you but learn
How when you doubt my truth I sadly yearn
To tell you all, to stand for one brief space
Unfettered, soul to soul, as face to face,
To crown you king, my king, till life shall end,
My lover and likewise my truest friend,
Would you love me, dearest, as fondly in return,
Could you but learn?

The Woman I Am

(Glen Allen)

The woman I am
Hides deep in me
Beneath the woman
I seem to be.

She hides away
From the stranger's eye--
She is not known
To the passers-by.

She goes her way,
The woman I seem,
But the woman I am
Withdraws to dream!

The woman I seem
Goes carelessly--
When love goes by
Does not seem to see.

But the woman I am
Knows sudden fear . . .
And hides more deeply
When love draws near!

For love might look closely
Perhaps...and see
Her beneath the woman
I seem to be!

Triolet

(Robert Bridges)

When first we met, we did not guess
That Love would prove so hard a master;
Of more than common friendliness
When first we met we did not guess.
Who could foretell the sore distress,
This irretrievable disaster,
When first we met--we did not guess
That Love would prove so hard a master."

TOO

(edited version of a poem by Beth Moore)

We were
Much too young
Much too selfish
Much too blind
To make it

Much too wounded
Much too frightened
Much too hurt
To take it

Too much we said
When love seemed dead
To go on
And forget

Too little learned
From anger burned
Too much
We both regret

Yet there's been
Too much good
Too much love
For us
To walk away

Too much caring
Too much sharing
For us
Not to stay

Too much harm
To children's charms
To tear our home apart

Too much time
For nursery rhymes
To give away our hearts

Too much we've shared
With no one else
To go on and forget

Too many years
of drying tears
To do what we'd regret

Too many laughs when
thinking back
Remind me what is true
I find that I still love you
And I think you love me,
Too.

I Love You Better Than You Knew

(Elizabeth Akers Allen)

Unremembered and afar
I watched you as I watched a star,
Through darkness struggling into view,
And loved you better than you knew.

from The Old Ways

(Loreena McKennitt)

Somehow I knew, that you'd have to go
Your world was not mine, your eyes told me so
Yet it was there I felt the crossroads of time
And I wondered why . . .

Embrace

(Billy Collins)

You know the parlor trick.
Wrap your arms around your own body
and from the back it looks like
someone is embracing you,
her hands grasping your shirt,
her fingernails teasing your neck.

From the front it is another story.
You never looked so alone,
your crossed elbows and screwy grin.
You could be waiting for a tailor
to fit you for a straightjacket,
one that would hold you really tight.

Marks

by Linda Pastan

My husband gives me an A
for last night's supper,
an incomplete for my ironing,
a B plus in bed.
My son says I am average,
an average mother, but if
I put my mind to it
I could improve.
My daughter believes
in Pass/Fail and tells me
I pass. Wait 'til they learn
I'm dropping out.

from Watch Me

(Lorrie Morgan)

The more I needed the less you gave
I guess you thought that it worked that way.
You never would listen
And now that I'm leaving
Your not believing a word I say.

If you think I won't go, watch me.
Oh, watch me prove you wrong today.
You don't even know you lost me
You think I'll always stay.
Ohh, just watch me walk away.

Poems

(Peter McWilliams)

You like it that I write
Poems
about you.
Your ego takes some
Perverse pleasure
in them.
You will cause
enough pain to fill
a book, and then
send autographed
copies to your
friends.

One Art

(Elizabeth Bishop
from The Complete Poems 1927-1979)

The art of losing isn't hard to master;
so many things seem filled with the intent
to be lost that their loss is no disaster.

Lose something every day. Accept the fluster
of lost door keys, the hour badly spent.
The art of losing isn't hard to master.

Then practice losing farther, losing faster:
places, and names, and where it was you meant
to travel. None of these will bring disaster.

I lost my mother's watch. And look! my last, or
next-to-last, of three loved houses went.
The art of losing isn't hard to master.

I lost two cities, lovely ones. And, vaster,
some realms I owned, two rivers, a continent.
I miss them, but it wasn't a disaster.

-- Even losing you (the joking voice, a gesture
I love) I shan't have lied. It's evident
the art of losing's not too hard to master
though it may look like (Write it!) like disaster.

Insomnia

Elizabeth Bishop

The moon in the bureau mirror
looks out a million miles
(and perhaps with pride, at herself,
but she never, never smiles)
far and away beyond sleep, or
perhaps she's a daytime sleeper.

By the Universe deserted,
she'd tell it to go to hell,
and she'd find a body of water,
or a mirror, on which to dwell.
So wrap up care in a cobweb
and drop it down the well

into that world inverted
where left is always right,
where the shadows are
really the body,
where we stay awake all night,
where the heavens are
shallow as the sea
is now deep, and you love me.

Ghost in My Closet

(Patti J. Fulk)

He calls me each day
sometimes without reason.
Flowers arrive with no card,
but I know who sent them.

My friends tell me how
lucky I am.
I smile a contented smile
fooling them all--
all but me.

His eyes beg me to profess
my love.
And when he holds me I
try to respond.
But even when I close my
eyes real tight
and turn off all the feeling
that I have left,
I still can tell that
he's not you--
and no one will ever be.

from If I Could Turn Back Time

(Cher, 1989)

If I could turn back time
If I could find a way
I'd take back those words
That hurt you and you'd stay.

I don't know why I did the things I did
I don't know why I said the things I said . . .
My world was shattered, I was torn apart
Like someone took a knife and drove it in my heart.

If I could reach the stars I'd give them all to you
Then you'd love me, love me like you used to do.
If I could turn back time.

from How Can I Tell My Dreams (Not to Sleep With You)

(Mike Lunsford)

My eyes have finally learned not to weep for you
My arms know there's no need to reach for you
But as long as my heart tells my mind what to do
How can I tell my dreams not to sleep with you?

Busy days I find ways to keep you off my mind
Still you know you come and go about a thousand times
When the day slowly fades into midnight's deepest blue
I'll close my eyes and realize my dreams will sleep with you.

Though I may lie wide awake I still dream of you
For I won't try to fight the night no matter what I do
Is a dream the only thing I live for lookin' forward to
How can I tell my dreams not to sleep with you?

Just the Right Word

(Denny Davis)

I like to use exactly the right word to convey my thoughts.
For that reason I make frequent use of my thesaurus.

Today I need a word that means
'for a very long time'.

Let's see . . .

Here are some words--'centuries', 'ages', 'a lifetime'.
No, not long enough.

How about these--'a millennium' or 'an eon'.
No, still not quite right.

Maybe one of these--'forever' or 'in perpetuity'.
Close, but not quite it.

These sound better--'eternity' or 'infinity'.
But still not exactly right.

Oh, yes, here's the word I was looking for,
There's nothing quite so long as 'never'.

Reality

(Denny Davis)

Some days I feel like my life
is spinning out of control
and I am just along for the ride

Other days I feel like my life
is finally my own at last
and I know the answer to everything

I wonder which one of those thoughts
is the real one--
if there is such a thing as reality

Is there reality for anyone
or does it exist for some people
but not for others

If it exists for some people
is it a matter of luck
or is there some way to attain it

Do I just not try hard enough
or is the problem something in my past
or something I was born without

My heart doesn't really want an answer
because there's one thing I do know
my reality will never include you

Past, Present, Future

(Denny Davis)

The past is
gone,
done,
us,
over,
why,
you,
sad/happy,
him,
we,
love,
kiss,
dance,
memories,
wonderful,
painful.

The present is
confusing,
waiting,
wanting,
tears,
stressful,
free,
empty,
exhilarating,
questions,
hoping,
found/lost
lonely,
painful,
exhausting,
me.

The future is
unknown,
doubtful,
ending,
alone,
why,
how,
fantasy,
indefinite,
empty,
beginning,
possible/impossible,
questionable,
lonely,
better,
maybe.

Going...Where?

(Denny Davis)

It's easy to say "I'm leaving"
It's even easy to go.
But after you leave,
What then?

You have to look at
Where you want to be
Instead of just at
Where you don't want to be.

The problem is if you know
Where you want to be
But that is the one place that
It is not possible for you to be.