Let Go, Your Heart

Poem No. 98

The other day I was chatting with my partner,

Petra Hernandez

, about broken hearts.

I was complaining — in a very un-poetlike fashion — about my inability to avoid heartbreak. She gently reminded me that heartbreak is not only unavoidable, is also demonstrably survivable.

Every person we have ever encountered has suffered heartbreak, if they have graced this life for any length of time. We are surrounded by broken hearts on all sides, and they have all been survived. And the wisest, most joyful among us? They have not avoided broken hearts at all, nor merely survived them. They have thrived with them.

All hearts break. It’s what we do with the pieces of our broken hearts that matters. This may, in fact, be the whole point of, well… everything.

What we should be cautious of in this life is not the break-ability of our hearts, but their extinguish-ability. It is not heartbreak we should fear, but heartsmother, heartcrush, heartstrangle.

(Pro tip: if you get the chance to live for a few decades with the wisest person you know, I highly recommend it. Sometimes they invent words like “heartstrangle”. So good.)

Petra’s thoughts reminded me of an old poem of mine, which started quite lengthy and jumbled, and needed to be broken into many pieces before being remade into this gentle reminder to myself:

---

---

Untitled

Let go, your heart
was made for breaking.

How else will it become
the stained glass window
of your soul?

---

---

If you’d like to share this poem somewhere, I’d be honored. Here’s a handy image for you:

Thanks for reading,
~ A

---

If you enjoyed this poem, please like, share, comment, and/or subscribe, all of which help to promote my work:

You can also:

---