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.