To Have Loved and Lost By Reece Hopkins
Love is not what people think.
Love is not fancy dinners, a diamond ring, or a wedding
That makes a star pale in comparison.
Love is not five kids, two dogs, or sharing a bed.
Love is sitting in the rain, sharing the tears of Earth, tracing my fingers,
Down your scars to feel the words that live in your skin.
Love is sharing our breaths, feeling my heartbeat and swoon,
As it gets closer to yours.
Love is when these butterflies blossom to poems,
Yearning to kiss your ears and your heart.
And yet these poems are not written by me, but rather I read them,
From your eyes, the stories from the stars within,
The songs of your thoughts.
Love is seeing you in all the places I never knew before,
Forever changing My eyes, that long to gaze upon yours.
Your smile is the moon, pulling on the tides of my heart.
Your beauty is the Grand Canyon, I can see from the stars.
Your touch makes me the world, held in the loving hands of God,
Your breath playing melodies on my heart strings,
Like the whistling of wind through the tallest of trees.
I would let myself drown, if I knew,
Your hands were the one holding me under.
I would feel the fire of Earth burning, lashing out at my skin,
A nd bear a smile, as long as I felt you were truly looking at me.
If passion were strength my love would move the mountains,
Just so you could see the moon,
That I hung for you in the stars.
For what is love if not loss,
Of my imperfect heart to her perfect soul?
And what is loss?
For it is not the absence of love,
But rather the perseverance of passion.
We cannot love without loss,
Or lose, without love.
For what is my love if not loss,
Where I am cursed to give more than I receive?
Is my only potential to see it in her?
Am I forever her painter, but never her muse?
Love is not what people think.
Love is loss, fear, the precedent to grief,
The knife that cuts out my wanting heart,
For her to hold or forget.
But oh,
What a gift to love.
This poem is featured in Volume 8 of the Inspired Minds Literary Magazine. To read more student-made poetry and prose, read the full magazine here.