As of Thanksgiving night it's now been a year, the toughest year of my life. I've tried to do everything right, to be there for my kids everyday, to better myself, to let my actions speak louder than the lies, and to accept that it was never real, that her love was a mirage, and it's time to move on

Someone I loved once handed me something I couldn’t name, a weight I carried around like it knew me better than I knew myself. I turned it over in my hands for years, trying to understand why it stayed cold no matter how warm my life became. There were nights when I thought it ...

Full poem here; www.facebook.com/share/p/1KbU...

She winces sometimes when the world moves too fast, so I learn to slow down for her, to listen to the rhythm of her breath instead of the clock. Some nights she hurts, and I just sit there, no fixing, no saving, just two people learning that love can be quiet. She laughs less on those days, but...

Once I tell someone I love them, it sticks, like a scar under the skin, quiet, permanent, whether they stay, whether they hurt me, whether they even remember who I am.

On cloudy days I long for a sun-kissed beach, on days full of brightly lit bliss, I long for the bitter-patter of Tucson monsoons testing the roof above my bedroom, but during time spent with you I can't imagine that I could ever find a better view. -Samuel Decker Thompson

You can’t pull the wings free before they’re strong enough, you’ll ruin the thing you wanted to see fly. You can’t dig your fingers into the dirt and drag a sprout into daylight before it’s ready, it will only whither and die. You can’t force the mind open like a jammed door, it needs ...

Some people believe the universe has their name written on every good thing, as if fate keeps a ledger, as if effort is optional, but the truth comes slower, like a bruise forming under the skin, you either reach for it or you don’t, and most of the time, it doesn’t reach back. Sometimes you ...

The most beautiful thing, I think, isn’t the shine of people pretending to be whole, but the quiet way someone stays even when you’re spilling out of yourself. When they touch the parts you hide without trying to fix them, and say, this too is you, as if it’s something worth keeping. They don’t ...

You try to love them softly, the way morning light loves the curtain, but they shut it anyway, saying it’s too bright, saying they’re too tired ... and maybe they are. tired of needing, tired of trying, tired of losing what they never understood. Still, part of you hopes that one day they’ll see...

Emotional safety changes the landscape of love, It isn’t love that saves you; it’s safety. It’s knowing anger won’t turn into cruelty, It’s hearing their words and believing them, because they match what they do. When they're steady… not perfect… but real. You start to breathe again. Your ...

My address is not lost by touching you again My heart is not lost by loving you again My body is not lost by becoming passionate about you again My being is not lost by going for yours and being a mutual priority Nothing is lost because we were food when pleasure came to meet us...

I saw you, the full picture, the charm, the damage, the chaos that lived beneath your calm, the generous caring facade that hid your emotional vacancy. You were no saint, but I stayed anyway, like I owed something to the wreckage, like I could save you, like a fool who mistakes endurance for love...

... and the worst part is, if we are ever going to find someone worthwhile, we have to keep allowing ourselves to be vulnerable time and time again, because that's the only way to really connect with someone, that's the only way love can finally win. -Samuel Decker Thompson

One thing you need to learn is that there’s people in this world who just can’t love. They crave for it, they obsess over finding it, they lust after that initial spark, but then, when it's within their grasp, they don’t know what to do with it, they don't know how to nourish it, how to ...

Four poems with the same premise, except that 3rd one went a little haywire on me.

Every sunrise gives you a new beginning, a chance to step out of yesterday’s echo, but if you keep speaking to the pain, it will always answer. -Samuel Decker Thompson

it's not something to take personal, sometimes other people just have too much going on in their own head, or too much pain in their heart to make room for caring about yours. So, it's not your fault, you just need to find someone who has the space for you, and who feels you fit perfectly in it.

Would you ever get back with your ex? The answer to this question has changed in society as a whole. 20 years ago it was commonplace to see couples who couldn't quit each other, no matter the drama, they'd keep breaking up and getting back together, but nowadays that seems to have faded.

time has a strange way of turning pain into a compass. After the ache fades you start to see the pattern, every wound was a direction, every ending, a quiet shove forward pointing you somewhere softer, toward someone who won’t mistake your kindness for weakness. And maybe that’s the way it goes ...

The dark hours are for hunger, for skin against skin, for wandering hands, for sensual reflections, for sweat and the raw heat of wanting, but then when the dawn comes, it’s quieter, softer, sweeter, a tenderness poured into making their favorite breakfast, a touch that lingers too long on ...

I will do everything in my power to keep you forever safe in every storm ... I know how much you love the rain. -Samuel Decker Thompson

She burns and softens at the same time, carrying sorrow in her bones, and a kind of light that makes people turn their heads. She’s made of what no one can teach. Her hands reach into places unnamed, and what comes back with her doesn’t belong to this world. She knows beauty the way others know...

I would happily endure all the trauma I've been through for a thousand lifetimes more, just to know It was always leading me to you. -Samuel Decker Thompson

You want to be seen, but not held too long. you want to be wanted, without feeling trapped. I get it, I know you move carefully, like someone who’s learned that closeness can cost too much. you pull back just when the world leans in too far, because too many times you ...

You wonder if that person is with someone else, laughing into another chest, still burning the way they once burned with you, you assume they must be by now, it makes you sick, and it makes you alive, but neither feeling offers mercy. You want to cut it loose, erase the taste, but the need claws...

This is important. I guess I'm a weird one, particularly amongst males, but I've never had an interest in casual sex, there always had to be a real connection there, emotionally and intellectually, as well as some hint at future possibilities for us as a couple for me to find enjoyment in it.

I know it's not easy, these phones and all their apps are designed to be extremely addictive, but you get enough time on it, you know you do, you don't need to be pointlessly scrolling when those little loves of your life are right there in front of you waiting to create new memories.

Interpret this as you will, both sides of any given social conundrum could apply it to their position ... but oppression, trampling on rights, and destroying people's lives just because they are different than you is indeed a form of violence, so you can't be surprised when they respond in kind.

Love doesn’t ask politely. It doesn’t wait for you to be ready. It shows up when your hands are full of broken things, and it says, “I’ll carry some of that if you let me, even if it cuts me deep, I'll carry that for you.”

Despite all that has gone wrong we tend to spend our lives believing we are fated for happiness and that our destiny is love. Even in the later years when we begin to pretend that we've given up hope as a means to cope, we still turn every fuckin' corner with a wish buried deep inside that we ...

Treat love as if it is all you believe in.

What you gave them, what you poured into them, will never be acknowledged. Yet we return, again and again, gamblers who never quit the game. we know the odds, but still we play, because love burns bright when it calls our name. -Samuel Decker Thompson

I'm happy to see her doing just fine, and even thriving without me, I believe if you truly cared about someone, then that's where your mindset should be.

...you marvel at how fast it can begin ... Just yesterday the world felt violent, cracked apart, and now, it's so much softer since you handed over your heart. It’s not love yet, but if it smells like gasoline and burns just the same, there's no sense getting caught up in the name.

..your effort must not wane when they say "yes", nor when they say "I do", not even when they whisper goodbye and take their last breath, for steadfast commitment to your partner's peace and happiness must endure beyond all earthly time if two hearts are to always love true. -Samuel Decker Thompson