Best Sad Love Poems


Premium Member I Wandered Lonely As a Boat

"I wandered lonely as a cloud."  William Wordsworth


I wandered lonely as a boat   
a shallow dingy left behind,  
alone in marsh of reeds remote  
my paint now faint so unrefined, 
my only hope the next high tide  
on brackish water then I’ll ride,

in aimless drift left up to fate  
the wind and wave upon the bay  
on rhythmic swells, I’ll grow sedate  
with naught to see through mists of gray…  
on ripples pale so soft so free
my destination out to sea; 

that distant place where lay the sun  
across the sunset waters west, 
the ambiance of cirrus spun  
to brush with colors every crest  
where I can bathe in shades so bold
of melting solar marigold.

Yet — let go I must of wishful dreams!  
My lifeline dispossessed I strayed  
and followed streams with other schemes —  
now lofty tide cannot be swayed,  
a rustic wreck in reeds reposed  
their wind-song whispers I’m imposed. 

There’s no escape their soldiers’ lance, 
the blades of green so tall and crisp,
with waves they undulate in dance  
and breezes ruffle tassels’ wisp,  
though swans find beauty mid the reeds 
—a wistful coward’s bitter weeds.  


Susan Ashley
January 14, 2023


~ Second Place ~
Contest: 2022 Poetry Marathon Mile 25
Sponsor: Mark Toney


~ Poem Of The day ~
January 16, 2023


Poet’s note: this poem was inspired by, but not written for, the contest: “I Wandered Lonely As… Challenge”, sponsored by Natasha Scragg and judged on September 24, 2022. Thank you, Natasha, for the beautiful William Wordsworth quote and for the poetic inspiration.


Photo: gettyimages; Jay Fleming

Premium Member Some Hearts Can Never Be Tamed

Once when my soul spoke,
you betrayed every word.
Then your tongue promised
to only sing with sincerity.

I danced for a brief while, 
lost in your angelic orchestra.
Until I stumbled and you fell,
crushing our garden of roses.

Then keys fused only sad sounds.
Maybe it was me, but i'm sure 
it was you, who left me alone on 
that boulevard of broken promises.

Vivid violins cried, until you 
snapped their sorrowful strings.
And I was right there, but
your eyes deceived you.

You thought it was rain drops,
not the tone of my tears,
electrocuting the heart 
of my weeping guitar.

Chills from your silence 
froze suppressed emotions. 
Creating ribs of steel, which 
shield flesh that is now stone.

Now your love belongs to 
another innocent man.
Who doesn't know your song,
nor how your garden blooms.

Simple Musings
Silent One
28 February 2018
© Silent One  Create an image from this poem.

Premium Member Phases

the night as black as a newly broken heart

      increasingly 
         the crescent of a single sly smile
             outshone the vast stellar firmament 
                an enigmatic, ephemeral shooting star
 
                    subsequently
                      with a twinkle twinkle in her eyes
                       counting down to our jovial Jupiter joyride
                        waxing poetic on a comet's cosmic course
                        
                             and
                          life  was
                             Full

                         inevitably 
                        eclipsed by a brighter constellation
                       diminishing her gorgeous gibbous glow
                     our penumbra luminosity reached its nadir

                 ultimately 
              her heavenly smile inverted
           my waning orb fell from her orbit
       i splashed down in a cold, lonesome ocean

the night as black as a newly broken heart


Written 14 Aug 2022
© John Watt  Create an image from this poem.


Premium Member We'Ll Always Have San Andreas

-rearranging the stars-

How could we agree to separation? 
If you were destined to be my soulmate,
Why would we allow the stars to change our fate?
They've written in a fresh verse 
Sewing in a new song, soon to be sung
The Stars are not to blame
The fault lies deep within our hearts

Like earthquakes wondering through the years
separating silicone valley of tears.
Sweeping sweet dreams far away
What has become of my day?
Today the sun sets holding on to old hope
Tears fall down a sudden slope

Now my dreams are drowning down another road
Tonight I sit under the aspen cold
Alone, no longer in search of gold
Naming nights you whispered words of love to my soul

Your love no longer speaks 
Without warning, the Midas touch slowly fades
In my chest  -  I find fault  
The sound of heartache echoes every day
Rejuvenating every crack from display
In plain sight, I search for thee
The sun  -The moon  -The madness  -The Salton Sea
My heart no longer speaks

Everything I dream of sinks like the night
Stuck in quicksand  -- the aftermath
Healing scars the aftershock left behind
Finding ways to fill the gloom
Alas bridal curtains sit silently in my room
Setting boundaries between Earth's poetic plates
Like an earthquake passing through my heart 
You left like the moon, moving mountains apart

IS THERE SOMETHING YOU forgot TO TELL Me, dear
Suddenly, San Andreas Fault looks tragic from here
Until then I will hold my breath
In hopes, our Plates will meet again 

By: PD
6/29/15

Premium Member Tin Foil Hearts

On pensive planes of wraith-like existence,
Are stoic shadows feigning affection;
Crimson lips of withering consistence,
Have lost their craze for craving confection.

Tear-filling prisms tilling a rueing sphere,
Pathos prowling, pity's wild and roaming;
Reminisce wind-blown is tumbleweed drear,
Bathos like bramble bur clings in gloaming.

Tin foil hearts' echo sad droning down-beat,
Rose petal ballet two rust figurines;
Today's gray sleet does douse yesteryears' heat,
Apathy's ennui directing the scenes...

Love once aflare in fanfare marigold,
Lies now a wizened weed, dried and stone cold.


Susan Ashley
November 2, 2017

Premium Member Bluewing Falling

Her magic is drawn 
from an ocean's 
million hues 
reflecting 
boundless skies

slain by her trembling perfection 
you grab hold of her 
to save yourself 
 
and you do not mean her any harm 
you just want to feel what azure feels like
to experience the depths of cerulean 

but her cobalt dust 
rubs off all over you 
your being  

indelibly indigo stained 
  
as the beauty you wished to possess 
lays crushed 
at your feet




July 13th, 2018


Premium Member Night Light

Night Light

Enfold me in your tender loving embrace
     that reaches out from the past with
long arms to keep me near you. 
     Visceral pain combines with physical 
in a continuous loop of uncertainty. 
     I feel as though I am drowning in 
reflective deep waters, opaque with 
     darkness that lingers indefinitely. 

Maybe it is the fullness of Luna 
     controlling my thoughts that spiral 
to the depths of this darkness. 
     As this long night gives way to dawn 
and another day begins, I pray that light 
     will enter to vanquish the darkness 
within, while shadows of remembrance 
     peak and I step into sunray’s warmth. 

8-30-22

'Your Second Chance 1ST Poetry Contest' 
Sponsored by: Sotto Poet 

______________________________________________
12-19-21 

Poem of the Day December 21, 2021. ~Thank you very much 
Team Poetry Soup and Members~

STRAND (1045) Contest ~N/A~
Contest Judged:  1/4/2022 10:45:00 AM
Sponsored by: Brian Strand |

Premium Member I Pass the Graveyard

I pass the graveyard deep in snow.
One woman at a headstone weeps
all dressed in black like winter crows

as memories in warmth she keeps.
While icicles from boughs hang low
one woman at a headstone weeps.

Still muted angels' trumpets blow
and 'cross the powder darkness creeps
while icicles from boughs hang low.

On granite crags do snowflakes heap
where frost on trees like lichens grow
and 'cross the powder darkness creeps.

As past the iron fence I go
her mortal love in silence sleeps
where frost on trees like lichens grow.

My heart into my throat now leaps.
I pass the graveyard deep in snow;
her mortal love in silence sleeps
all dressed in black like winter crows.

Premium Member Sunset

The golden hope 
Of brighter tomorrow
Slides into the salty ocean
No steam or bubbles
Just the crimson joy of the clouds
Escorting 
With their shifting ochre tones
While fiery orange irradiates
The grateful atmosphere
Until slowly
Ever so slowly
Into the ripples of the horizon's haze
The queen of the daylight
Slinks
Then is gone
Her wispy train of colour
Vanishing
As the blue king of the night
Claims his place
And sits in the throne room
Of the speckled sky
© Sam Scott  Create an image from this poem.

Premium Member Fractured Soul

Shes sits in her worn out familiar chair
As the sun wakes for the day
Her being weary before the day begins
From wishing her life away

Nothing matters anymore
Old now, completely bereft
He’s been gone a few months 
Alone , nothing left

They lost their only child 
As a beautiful young adult
A lifetime of grieving 
Being the result

It should never be that way
Your child leaves earth before you
Their profound,pure love for each other
Is how they got through

She sits motionless ,eyes closed 
Her mind consumed of days gone by
Her whole being aches , tears fall
She breathes one loud , last sigh
© Deb M   Create an image from this poem.

Date Night (And the Day After)

Opening line from "Highway Five Love Poem" by Ruth L. Schwartz


This is a love poem for all the tomatoes
I squished to make our Date-Night spaghetti.
Our love, like the pasta, was shiny.  So the story goes.

We sit at our table, between us a rose
Red as the marinara I chose.  (He let me).
This is a love poem for all our tomatoes.

We watch the steam, which the mouth quickly blows
Away (like the wind and those petals the day he met me).
Our love, like the pasta, was sticky.  So the story goes.

We sip our red wine.  Chianti, it has a good nose.
(In the morning, do you think he will regret me?)
This is a love poem.  For all our tomatoes

Are gone, just as the wine hides grapes squished by toes
in authentic California vineyards.  (You get me?)
Our love, like the pasta, was steamy.  So the story goes.

We finish our meal with gestures the other knows.
(I wonder if he'll someday forget me.)
This isn't a love poem for all our tomatoes.
Our love, like our pasta, was al dente.  So our story goes.
© Erin Moss  Create an image from this poem.

Premium Member Images of Feathers

"Once upon a midnight Poe"

Underneath the midnight mask, I remove the makeup at last,
The moon is an anvil to my mood, mooring along the vacant vast 
I lay the Gin and Tonic by the bedside asking for more,
I hear a noise, a lost voice, the echoes of no rejoicing,
I couldn't brush the light coming from the cracks under the door
I gave it some thought, 
My eyes twinkle, towards the tinsel tiles on the floor
Seemingly the light seemed to be deeming the distance of resistance
Curiosity came in crawling and caressing 
To sense and taste of sinful skin 
Everything then grew thinner than thin
On the spur of the moment, I hear a whisper, my love is near
"Darkness there, and nothing more."

A nerve impulse hits the wall if nothing nary, nevertheless 
I sadistically, stagger a sullen movement, even so
At this moment, Edgar Whispered, "Nothing more."
Many nights, I dream of demonic demons, demanding answers for
A sad --sadder voice sits and whines, with the wind
"Merely this and nothing more!"
A notary, nauseate moment, seasick, shipwreck sensation
Secular suicide spreading like gossip, sailing through my veins
Evilly and twisted, "This it is and nothing more" - remains

Tweaking and repeating, the speeding of needing
My drugs of pain and passion, to end the delusion
Of the self-inflicted - bruising from the voices of my choices
I hear the whisper, a selfish whisper, asking for Lenore
How many nights, he comes into my room, dress like A Raven
Painted and tainted like the midnight dreary
Reciting the excitement like The Bells, of Annabel, in a rush
Never, never, nameless here forevermore, in my dreams
Under my evil-doing skin, like the sum of sin is how it seems

On the nights, my soul mate does not appear, 
The anchor drowns and torments me with tears
I travel up in fear, of the fear, when my ghost is not near
Rattling and trembling, by the bedside, 
On the grim side of the mental moon, when in gloom
I scrape up my room, screaming at the bleeding, 
From my heart, who needs a killing, 
From a feeding and the feeling of letting one, go!

The Special Rose

She sits and rocks, so gently back and forth
Her chin leaning heavily on her chest.
In her hands she cradles, one flat waxed rose
And sighs as pain is swelling in her breast.

Her long grey hair, now tied up in a bun
Is what I see when entering the room.
I helplessly watch, her tear drops flowing,
They look like dew, upon the lonely bloom.

Slowly she looks at a picture nearby,
A glimpse of a smile creases her face.
Granddad with her, stand on their wedding day
With red roses, and a dress of white lace.

After the wedding, she said with a smile,
I took this one rose and waxed it back then.
Granddad had laughed at me wondering why.
I said, for the special memories when…….

And now this old rose, I hold in my hand,
Precious memories kept in my drawer
I pull it out remembering the day
When granddad loved me, and I loved him more.


Written by Brenda Meier-Hans 
11.25.2014
Contest: Encounters with Flowers 
5th

Premium Member One Step Away From Eternity

Alas, I stand atop this mountain crest,
and gaze upon the valley down below;
the graveyard where your body lays at rest,
sits in the center shadowed by plateau.

My sad heart aches with every breath I take;
I wonder why I’m made to bear this bane,
and live a life that’s cruel and opaque,
while trying hard my teardrops to restrain.

This awful illness claimed your life so soon,
while you and I were living in our prime;
the heavens haled you, leaving my life strewn
across this wasteland, sadly out of rhyme.

‘Tis but a step across this steep degree,
and I will join you in eternity.



July 20, 2018

My Gift of Tears

Leave you my tears?
I think you already own them . . .

They sparkle in dew on the grasses,
on your windows they cling to look in;
They see you with someone else laughing
And wonder if the joke is on them?
Days past they would have been with you,
Laughter's jewels alive in my eyes,
But tonight they beat on your windows;
Instead of bright smiles, they weep sighs.

Leave you my tears? 

In the rain they pour down from heaven,
They run down your walls to the ground.
They gather in rivers about you;
Don't you sense me when you are storm bound?
How you step on my heart when you walk out
With somebody else on your arm,
Playful like kids in spring showers,
Unaware of the heart you have harmed.

Leave you my tears? 

If I could wrap them up in a present,
give them all to you at one time,
My tears would make you an ocean,
Sink your ship on the sea of your crimes
My tears . . . to me they are holy,
They tell of the heartbreak I've known;
You never knew how to treasure 
The love that bowed at your throne.

I leave you my tears . . .


Faye Lanham Gibson
Copyright, September 5, 2014

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