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Joanna Kowalska Poem
"The Steam Train I Never Rode"
It waits upon the platform still,
a beast of brass and sighing steel,
its breath a ghost of what was planned,
its whistle cutting through what’s real.
Your mother bought the tickets two,
a birthday gift, a kind of dream,
to ride the rails through hills and blue,
our laughter trailing with the steam.
But time derailed what love had made,
and silence filled the engine’s hum.
The journey left, the plans decayed,
and I stood still you did not come.
Now every echo down the track
reminds me of that fleeting chance
the smoke, the heart that won’t come back,
the ticket folded in my hands.
Perhaps it’s better that it stayed,
a journey written, never known
for some trains go, and some remain,
and some are meant to leave alone.
Copyright © Joanna Kowalska | Year Posted 2025
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Joanna Kowalska Poem
"The Ladybug Lesson"
I held your hand with a secret kept,
Afraid to blink in case you left.
The silence grew where laughter lived,
A hallow echo of all we give.
I didn't see it all at the time
The quite ways you crossed the line.
From tired to selfless, day by day,
While I just brushed your care away.
You showed up when the world went cold,
Carried more than you'd ever told.
But I was blind, too lost to see
The weight you bore to carry me.
And part of me still wants to cry
"I love you too, I really tried"
I thought I gave you all of me
My heart, my time, my loyalty.
But love, it seems, it's more than shown
it's felt the deepest when it's gone.
And now the silence cuts in two
Not just from missing, but from truth.
The things you did, the love you gave,
Now echo from an empty place.
Once, I caught a ladybug so small,
A child's joy in hands too tall.
I showed my mum, my proud young face,
She knelt beside me, soft with grace.
She said "if you love it, let it go
if it loves you, it will come back, you know"
But I was young, I didn't see
Why love would ever want to leave.
Now I do.
I let you go, though every thread
Of my soul and skin screamed out instead.
I feel the gap where effort was
Now it's your absence that still does.
I'm sorry for not seeing clear,
For every time you needed me near
And I was distant, blind and proud
Now its your silence that speaks loud.
But even if you don't come back,
You gave me love, and that won't lack.
And maybe that's what Mum once meant
That love is free, not meant to rent.
You gave your all, I gave you less
And now I sit with this regret.
Still, part of me, the child, hold tight
to ladybugs in fading light.
Copyright © Joanna Kowalska | Year Posted 2025
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Joanna Kowalska Poem
“My Sweet Boy”
You’ll always be my sweet boy,
Even now, when we walk separate roads.
There’s a quiet in me that still remembers
How your laughter fit so easily into mine.
We built something tender once
a small, beautiful world that taught us both
how love can grow, and how it changes
when we must let it go.
I still catch glimpses of you
in the way the world softens at sunset
you, learning yourself, standing taller,
speaking clearer, living truer.
And oh, how proud I am.
To see you bloom beyond what we were,
to see you find your own light.
Love didn’t end it just became gentler,
like a hand released, but still warm.
You’ll always be my sweet boy,
Not because you’re mine,
but because you’re becoming
everything you’re meant to be.
Copyright © Joanna Kowalska | Year Posted 2025
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Joanna Kowalska Poem
“The Roses I Kept”
I asked you what to do with them,
the roses I gave before we broke
their petals still soft with promises,
their scent still whispering us.
You said, throw them away.
Just like that.
As if love were something
that could be taken to the curb,
left for morning to collect.
But I couldn’t.
So I let them dry
watched red turn to rust,
silk to paper,
life to memory.
Now they rest in a box somewhere,
quiet and light as regret.
Each petal a piece of what we were,
each stem a reminder
that even when love dies,
it leaves something behind
for the ones who can’t let go.
Copyright © Joanna Kowalska | Year Posted 2025
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Joanna Kowalska Poem
"My Favourite Blush"
You were the tint that met my cheeks,
a quiet warmth the world couldn’t see.
My favourite blush soft, sudden, sweet,
you painted my calm with rosy heat.
I wore you like a secret hue,
a touch that made the gray feel new.
Every smile had your shade in it,
every heartbeat, your colour's limit.
But pigments fade, and time will show,
even sunsets learn to let go.
Now my mirror knows my face again
bare, but brave; no stain of then.
Still, I find myself some nights,
pressing air like it holds your light
as if the emptiness could hush,
and give me back
just one more blush.
My favourite blush, you were never mine to keep,
just a tint that taught my heart to leap.
And though you’ve left, I still feel the rush
still trying to find a trace of you,
my favourite blush.
Copyright © Joanna Kowalska | Year Posted 2025
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Joanna Kowalska Poem
"Love Is Not a Feeling"
Love is not the flutter in the chest,
not the rush of light in the eyes,
not the way the heart skips
when a name is spoken softly.
Those things fade
like morning dew
when the sun climbs high.
Love is the staying
when the fire cools.
It’s the reaching out a hand
when pride says, don’t.
It’s forgiveness whispered
when the wound is still fresh.
It’s not born of mood or moment
it’s born of will.
The quiet courage to say,
“I choose you still.”
For “charity beareth all things, believeth all things,
hopeth all things, endureth all things.” 1 Corinthians 13:7 (KJV)
Love is not a feeling.
It’s the vow beneath the breath,
the promise that stands
when feelings fall.
It’s the echo of Eden,
the reflection of Calvary
a daily dying to self,
and a daily choosing of grace.
Because “We love him, because he first loved us.” 1 John 4:19 (KJV)
Love is not a feeling
it is a choice.
And in choosing it,
we become
a little more like Him.
Copyright © Joanna Kowalska | Year Posted 2025
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Joanna Kowalska Poem
"Better In Stereo"
"I'm up with the sunshine"
and you’re the first one I want to know.
"You dance to your own beat,
I'll sing the melody,"
Somehow our chaos still fits perfectly.
"When you say yeah, I say no,"
Yet we laugh it off and let it flow.
You’re the part of me I don’t always see,
the better half of me,
the half I'll always need
the one who sticks around when I disagree.
"We both know
We're better in stereo,"
Two different vibes, one steady glow.
And through every high and low we face,
With you, life always finds its place.
Copyright © Joanna Kowalska | Year Posted 2025
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Joanna Kowalska Poem
"The Space Between Us"
He said he still wants me,
in the quiet way a sunset wants the sea
reaching, glowing, fading,
but knowing it can’t stay.
His voice trembled between love and loss,
a bridge half-built over the years we shared.
He spoke of time
how he needs it, how it needs him,
how he must learn the language of himself
before he can speak love fluently again.
And I listened,
holding his words like wildflowers,
fragile, but still alive
because wanting isn’t enough
when the heart needs room to grow.
So I wait,
not out of weakness,
but with faith
that when his roots are steady,
he’ll find his way back home to me.
And from afar, I’ll be cheering him on
quietly, fiercely, faithfully
as he keeps his promise
to grow, to heal, to rise,
to keep making me proud
in the distance between our hearts.
Copyright © Joanna Kowalska | Year Posted 2025
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Joanna Kowalska Poem
"Not a Goodbye"
Somewhere between your laughter and my sigh,
Our love story turned into a sad story
Not with storms or sudden tears,
But with silence softly growing between words.
We tried to hold the sunlight in our hands,
But time slipped through like golden sand.
The smiles stayed, but the warmth grew shy,
And somewhere somehow, we forgot why.
Yet even as the distance grows,
A quiet truth still gently glows
Love like ours does not just die
It changes form, it learns to fly.
So let the pages turn, let memories cry,
Our love story turned into a sad story…
But it’s not a goodbye.
Copyright © Joanna Kowalska | Year Posted 2025
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Joanna Kowalska Poem
"Joy Was Born This Night"
On Christmas night, so calm and bright,
The stars shone soft and clear,
As in a small and humble place
Our Savior came so near.
A baby born, the promised King,
In straw and manger bed,
No crown of gold upon His head,
But love was what He spread.
The angels sang of peace and joy,
Good news for all the earth,
The shepherds came with open hearts
To see the Savior’s birth.
O come and kneel by Jesus now,
This child so small and mild,
For heaven came to live with us
Through Mary’s holy Child.
So let us sing with thankful hearts,
Let songs of joy be heard
On Christmas Day, our King was born
The Savior, Christ the Lord.
Let every voice proclaim
Joy to the world our King is born!
Forever bless His name.
Copyright © Joanna Kowalska | Year Posted 2025
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