Some days you just need a good poem to ruminate on. Many times they make you feel an emotion you can't particularly pinpoint. Here are three that do that to me, by some of my favorite modern poets. Maybe they'll make you feel, too.
1. For Women Who Are Difficult to Love | Warsan Shire
you are a horse running alone
and he tries to tame you
compares you to an impossible highway
to a burning house
says you are blinding him
that he could never leave you
forget you
want anything but you
you dizzy him, you are unbearable
every woman before or after you
is doused in your name
you fill his mouth
his teeth ache with memory of taste
his body just a long shadow seeking yours
but you are always too intense
frightening in the way you want him
unashamed and sacrificial
he tells you that no man can live up to the one who
lives in your head
and you tried to change didn't you?
closed your mouth more
tried to be softer
prettier
less volatile, less awake
but even when sleeping you could feel
him travelling away from you in his dreams
so what did you want to do love
split his head open?
you can't make homes out of human beings
someone should have already told you that
and if he wants to leave
then let him leave
you are terrifying
and strange and beautiful
something not everyone knows how to love.
2. Untitled by Rupi Kaur
at times i want to stop writing completely
when i feel it starting to destroy me
i never want to stare at blank pages again
the word poetry makes me angry
the english language is a tsunami
on my tongue and i'm just not sure
i can weather out this storm it can't
be healthy spending nights this sleepless
cause my mind is busy forming
constellations out of words
how can i be so utterly obsessed with
the placement of letters but so
entirely convinced they're absurd.
3. The Lack of Sense is Making More Sense to Me | Anna Leader
seymour and i sit next to each other
for six hours, until the sun comes up.
he feels emotion like a fire at a distance–
he can see it and identify what it is and where,
but he doesn’t feel the heat. he wishes he could.
life isn’t worth living if you’re living it cold.
rajiv says that he’s so rational that he
is unable to open up the door for emotion
that he remembers shutting at seven years old.
he knows that in every situation he has to impose
the feeling on himself that he should feel
but doesn’t, quite. it never feels quite right.
it’s interesting that they both use metaphor
to describe experiences i’ve never had.
if for rajiv, emotion is what’s behind a door
he can’t open, i’ve never been able to shut it.
emotion isn’t a distant fire, it’s a crashing sea
where cresting waves keep on crushing me.
