poems about heartbreak

Heartbreak is the end of something cherished. It can feel like the the end of the world…or, at least, your world. But it’s also the beginning of something new. These poems take a (mostly) hopeful look at heartbreak and its aftermath. We hope you enjoy them.

This short poem is about finding love after heartbreak.

birdsong

A bird with a broken wing
met another with a broken heart.
Together they learned to sing.

This short poem is about how codependency can break your heart and eat your soul.

soulless

Two lovers
shared one soul.
It was not enough,
so they ate it whole,
leaving them
soulless.

This short poem is about healing after heartbreak by looking outside yourself.

heartspring

Her heart wasn’t just broken.

It was drowned/shot/stabbed/
torn/punctured/smashed/
cut/crushed/macerated.

So she lived without it,
looking outwards,
helping others patch their wounds,
until one day…

it grew back.

This short poem is about how heartbreak can be contagious when the broken-hearted don’t take enough time to heal.

hearts of glass

Two brittle hearts
collided.
They shattered
on impact
into shards of
sharp-edged love
that cut
innocent passersby
who mistakenly thought
they were to blame.

This short poem is about leaving when it’s time.

escape (haiku)

It was time to leave.
She laced up her running shoes
and ran far away.

This short poem is about love that comes fast, lasts a few seasons, and ends in heartbreak.

love for a season

Love came in the spring
like a gentle breeze.
It became a torrid summer
of cool drinks and hot, slick limbs,
then a dry, windy fall.
Leaves and insults crackled underfoot.
In winter, their hearts froze
until another spring
melted them away.

This short poem is about love and possession.

love squeeze

Love that holds you tight
and squeezes you until
you can’t
take
another
breath
isn’t love at all.
It’s possession.
Or a boa constrictor.

This short poem is about telling the difference between words and actions.

air castles

His words were a
castle.
His actions were a
cyclone.
As she ran
to the castle,
it blew away.

This short poem is about finding yourself after a cataclysmic heartbreak.

a quilt of stars

They broke up, and she broke into
as many pieces as there are stars.
She prowled the dark parts of the universe,
gathering scraps of herself in a velvet bag.
She sewed them into a quilt of fear
and pain and joy and hope
and the courage to love again.

This short poem is about stealing hearts before they can be broken.

she stole it back

He stole her heart
and left it
under lock and key.
It grew
Dusty.
Rusty.
Uncared for.
One night she stole the key,
unlocked her heart,
and slipped away,
beautiful, free,
and hungry.

This short poem is about the dark allure of bad decisions.

broken love

With one wrong word,
love shattered
in her mouth.
She swallowed
the broken fragments.
They lodged
in her throat,
piercing her
from the inside out.
The blood
in her mouth
tasted like
failure.
And yet she hungered
for more.

This short poem is about fear of commitment and how it leads to heartbreak.

web of lies

She was afraid
he would leave
so she spun a web
of silken promises
and dreams.
Once he was
caught fast,
she spun a new web,
in a different
part of the woods.

This short poem is about heartbreak (or, at least, breaking one’s heart into pieces) can actually create more love.

divided heart

She carved her
heart into ten pieces
and shared it
among her
friends
lovers
parents
children
From each piece
grew a beating heart
full and joyous
and able to
break and bleed.
Eventually,
all her hearts broke.
But the love
outweighed
the pain.