34 inspiring love poems & quotes
As we celebrate the month of love, I spent my afternoon curating poems and writing on the subject. What was beautiful about this exercise is how there is more to love than romance. Love can be about friendship, the divine. Love can mean compassion and acceptance. Love can hurt. Love remains one of our humanity’s biggest mystery.
Pablo Neruda
#1
“I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where. I love you simply, without problems or pride: I love you in this way because I do not know any other way of loving but this, in which there is no I or you, so intimate that your hand upon my chest is my hand, so intimate that when I fall asleep your eyes close.”
#2
“But I love your feet
only because they walked
upon the earth and upon
the wind and upon the waters,
until they found me.”
only because they walked
upon the earth and upon
the wind and upon the waters,
until they found me.”
#3
“At night I dream that you and I are two plants
that grew together, roots entwined,
and that you know the earth and the rain like my mouth,
since we are made of earth and rain.”
that grew together, roots entwined,
and that you know the earth and the rain like my mouth,
since we are made of earth and rain.”
#4
“If nothing saves us from death, at least love should save us from life”
#5
“I have slept with you all night long while the dark earth spins with the living and the dead, and on waking suddenly in the midst of the shadow my arm encircled your waist. Neither night nor sleep could separate us.”
Rumi
#6
“Lovers don’t finally meet somewhere. They’re in each other all along.”
#7
“Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.”
#8
“However much we describe and explain love, when we fall in love we are ashamed of our words.”
#9
“I want to see you. Know your voice. Recognize you when you first come ’round the corner. Sense your scent when I come into a room you’ve just left. Know the lift of your heel, the glide of your foot. Become familiar with the way you purse your lips then let them part, just the slightest bit, when I lean in to your space and kiss you. I want to know the joy of how you whisper ‘more.’”
#10
“Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and right-doing there is a field. I’ll meet you there.”
Gebran Khalil Gebran
#11
“Love one another, but make not a bond of love:
Let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls.”
Let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls.”
#12
“Love knows not its own depth until the hour of separation”
#13
“And think not you can direct the course of love, for love, if it finds you worthy, directs your course.”
#14
“Love gives naught but itself and takes naught but from itself, Love possesses not nor would it be possessed: For love is sufficient unto love.”
#15
“When you love you should not say, “God is in my heart,” but rather, “I am in the heart of God.”
Emily Dickson
#16
“Till I loved I never lived.”
#17
“Love is anterior to life, posterior to death, initial of creation, and the exponent of breath.”
Elizabeth Barrett Browning
#18
“How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of Being and ideal Grace.
I love thee to the level of every day's
Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.
I love thee freely, as men strive for right;
I love thee purely, as they turn from praise,
I love thee with the passion put to use
In my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith.
I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
With my lost saints -I love thee with the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my life! -and, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death.”
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of Being and ideal Grace.
I love thee to the level of every day's
Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.
I love thee freely, as men strive for right;
I love thee purely, as they turn from praise,
I love thee with the passion put to use
In my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith.
I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
With my lost saints -I love thee with the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my life! -and, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death.”
Hafiz
#19
“The heart is a the thousand-stringed instrument that can only be tuned with Love.”
#20
“Let us be like
Two falling stars in the day sky.
Let no one know of our sublime beauty
As we hold hands with God
And burn
Into a sacred existence that defies -
That surpasses
Every description of ecstasy
And love.”
#21
“The subject tonight is Love
And for tomorrow night as well,
As a matter of fact
I know of no better topic
For us to discuss
Until we all
Die!”
Herman Hesse
#22
“If I know what love is, it is because of you.”
#23
“I love you not because of who you are, but because of who I am when I am with you.”
Marianne Williamson
#24
“Until we have seen someone’s darkness, we don’t really know who they are. Until we have forgiven someone’s darkness, we don’t really know what love is.”
Dr. Seuss
#25
“You know you’re in love when you don’t want to fall asleep because reality is finally better than your dreams.”
Paulo Coelho
#26
“One is loved because one is loved. No reason is needed for loving.”
Nizar Qabbani
#27
“Because my love for you is beyond words, I decided to shut up.”
#28
“My lover asks me:
“What is the difference between me and the sky?”
The difference, my love,
Is that when you laugh,
I forget about the sky”
“What is the difference between me and the sky?”
The difference, my love,
Is that when you laugh,
I forget about the sky”
#29
“In the summer
I stretch out on the shore
And think of you. Had I told the sea
What I felt for you,
It would have left its shores,
Its shells,
Its fish,
And followed me.”
I stretch out on the shore
And think of you. Had I told the sea
What I felt for you,
It would have left its shores,
Its shells,
Its fish,
And followed me.”
Nayyirah Waheed
#30
“i loved you
because
it was easier
than
loving myself.”
because
it was easier
than
loving myself.”
#31
“i knew you
before
i met you.
i’ve known you my whole life.”
before
i met you.
i’ve known you my whole life.”
#32
“she asked ‘you are in love, what does love look like’ to which i replied ‘like everything i’ve ever lost come back to me.”
Rupi Kaur
#33
“you might not have been my first love
but you were the love that made
all other loves seem
irrelevant”
but you were the love that made
all other loves seem
irrelevant”
#34
“most importantly love
like it’s the only thing you know how
at the end of the day all this
means nothing
this page
where you’re sitting
your degree
your job
the money
nothing even matters
except love and human connection
who you loved
and how deeply you loved them
how you touched the people around you
and how much you gave them”
like it’s the only thing you know how
at the end of the day all this
means nothing
this page
where you’re sitting
your degree
your job
the money
nothing even matters
except love and human connection
who you loved
and how deeply you loved them
how you touched the people around you
and how much you gave them”
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