Lang Leav is a writer originally from Sydney, Australia. Most of her books are collections of poetry but she just recently released her debut novel "Sad Girls". Her other works of art include "Love & Misadventure", "Lullabies" and "The Universe Is Us."
During the last few months I have been struggling through heartbreak and needless to say it has been extremely difficult. But through it all, I have been turning to poetry to help me make sense of this feeling and to help me cope with losing someone I thought I would be with forever.
Among other beautiful poets, Lang Leav has been helping me pick up the pieces and move on from my lost love. I know I'm not the only one dealing with this type of pain so I figure I would share ten Lang Leav poems that will help you feel those painful feelings. So grab a cup of tea, put on your favorite soundtrack and let the tears fill your eyes as you read through these heartbreakingly honest poems.
1. Love
I don't know what it's like to love someone, who the world
tells me I am not supposed to love. I can't imagine how hard
it must be to love someone I am afraid to kiss on the street.
But I do know what it is like to love someone who I cannot
be with. I know how it feels to have my brain tell me one
thing and my heart another. To live with the knowledge
that if circumstances had been different. I would be with
the one I love.
I do know there are all kinds of barriers to love. I do believe
the world needs less of them.
- Lang Leav
This poem explores the limitations that love has, whether it be the gender of the person or the location or timing. Sometimes it all comes down to the wrong place and wrong time and then you are no longer with the one you love. It can be really hard to love someone but not be able to be with them.
2. Tell Me
Tell me if you ever cared,
if a single thought
for me was spared.
Tell me when you lie in bed,
do you think of something
I once said.
Tell me if you hurt at all,
when someone says
my name with yours.
It may have been so long ago,
but I would give
the world to know.
- Lang Leav
Whenever you are not with someone anymore you always wonder if they are thinking of you and you would give anything to be able to read their mind. Or if when the door shut they were on the other side crying and hurting just as much as you were.
3. Wounded
A bruise is tender
but does not last,
it leaves me as
I always was.
But a wound I take
much more to heart,
for a scar will always
leave it's mark.
and if you should ask me
which you are,
my answer is -
you are a scar.
- Lang Leav
The way someone breaks your heart can leave a metaphorical scar. Not a bruise because bruises fade away like they were never there. Some loves are like that but the greatest loves leave a scar. Because you are left different, no longer who you were before but someone new.
4. Perfect
He said to me 'you're perfect,
and I want you to be mine'
But I felt I wasn't worthy,
and to be perfect, I need time.
I knew it could be worth it,
and I could be better if I tried.
then he got tired of waiting
and I watched my chance go by.
- Lang Leav
I can very much relate to this poem because sometimes you get into a relationship at a transitional or hard time in your life. You say "I want to be with you but just be patient with me I am working on some things" and they say OK, but eventually they get tired of waiting and leave. It can feel so heartbreaking when someone you love decides they can wait no longer.
5. I Loved Him
I loved how his eyes danced merrily,
and the gentle way he spoke;
the way he filled my aimless days,
with bitterness and hope.
I loved him as I fell to sleep,
and each morning as I woke;
I loved him with all my wayward heart -
until the day it broke.
- Lang Leav
This one is obvious and everyone has had this feeling; you love the other person so much but then one day they change their mind and you are left with a broken heart.
6. Talk Again
I want us to talk again - the way we used to when the sun was
coming up, and we were miles away from anywhere.
I want us to talk again - about all the things we would think
about, yet never thought to say out loud to anyone else.
I want us to talk again - like the way we did before we
wanted to do anything more than that. I want us to talk.
And if we never talk again, I want you to know that I miss
that most of all - and every time the sun goes down, I think
of all the things I wish I could tell you.
- Lang Leav
Oh, this is a feeling I know all too well; the longing to talk to someone the way you used to. When all you want is to go back to those moments when you were just friends talking about anything and everything. In most cases that is what you miss the most when the relationship is over; the friendship and the late nights talking about things you wouldn't talk to anyone else about.
7. Moving On
Leave him, let him go. Don't be the crazy ex-girlfriend or
the shoulder to cry on. You're more than just an ego boost,
a story he can tell someone he wants to impress. Just walk
away with your head held high and don't give him another
second of your time. I know you love him so much that
every step is killing you. But this is the moment you'll look
back on as the day you put yourself first. Go and make
something beautiful of your life and I promise you, one day
you'll forget he was ever there.
- Lang Leav
Moving on is something I have a hard time doing, I'm always hanging on to those last little shreds of hope, not realizing that I need to let go. But when I read this poem it always makes me feel motivated to let go and move on. It's a reminder that the other person has decided to be without you--don't let them stay in your head. Each month that passes they will fade away and in a few years you will look back and feel like it was forever ago.
8. Reasons
I wish I knew why he left. What his reasons were.
Why he changed his mind.
For all these years, I have turned it over in my
head - all the possibilities - yet none of them make
any sense.
And then I think, perhaps it was because he never
loved me. But that makes the least sense of all.
- Lang Leav
Those haunting questions of a sudden breakup--when they leave without saying much and all you have to do is wonder if they ever really loved you or ever really cared. You wish you could ask them why but maybe even then it wouldn't make sense to you.
9. Letting Him Go
There is a particular kind of suffering to be
experienced when you love something greater
than yourself. A tender sacrifice.
Like the pained silence felt in the lost song of a
mermaid; or the bent and broken feet of a
dancing ballerina. It is in every considered step
I am taking in the opposite direction of you.
- Lang Leav
Letting go is incredibly hard, especially when you held the other person so close before. You don't want to let go completely but each day you let go a little at a time. Because time heals all wounds without you even noticing it, every day without them is a step in a new direction.
10. Regret
Timing is irrelevant when two people are meant for each other.
It's what I once believed.
But we met during a time when I was such a mess and still had
so much to figure out. How could I have known how crucial
every word, every action was or how losing you would be
something I would always regret.
If only you could have met me now, how different it would be
How much I have changed. How I have grown. I learnt so much
from all the mistakes I made with you. I just wish I had made
them with someone else.
- Lang Leav
Sometimes you meet at the wrong time and it doesn't work out, but you know that if you would have met a few years from now things would have. I always believed timing was irrelevant, that people make choices not time or fate, and I wish that were true because maybe then he would still be here.
If you want to find out more about Lang Leav you can visit her website.
