Heartbreak can come at any time. The feeling of heartache can be found when you’re standing on the street corner, while you’re eating your breakfast at a hotel in a new city, or while watching a romantic comedy. In times of heartbreak, every vina knows that it can be hard to move forward. Luckily, poetry can provide messages of healing.
Poetry allows for the comfort of knowing you are not alone in your feelings. Poems can bring epiphanies, discoveries and understanding about yourself when hardship hits. So we’ve provided you with six poems to jumpstart your journey to healing to the brighter days ahead.
“You Learn” by Jorge Luis Borges
Argentinian born writer, poet, and translator Jorge Luis Borges writes “You Learn” as a way to speak to the reader, explaining that as you grow, you learn the difference between what is right for you and what no longer aligns with your life. The poem opens with the lines, “After a while, you learn the subtle difference/ Between holding a hand and chaining a soul, (1-2).” The juxtaposition of “holding a hand” and “chaining a soul” allows the reader to realize that love can free you or bind you. This is an excellent poem for heartbreak, as it allows the reader to realize that they are also free from a relationship that may have held them back.
“The Waking” by Theodore Roethke
Belonging to the poetry collection that won the Pulitzer Prize in 1954, “The Waking” involves the assertion that life is full of mysteries. Being broken hearted allows us to see how much beauty there is in life when we awake to new insights about ourselves and the world through the scope of hardship.
“Acquainted with the Night” by Robert Frost
One of America’s beloved poets Robert Frost provides the reader with the idea that being “acquainted with the night” is a great opportunity to learn from our hardest experiences that come into our lives. We must be gentle with ourselves as we work through the feelings of loneliness and always know that someone is there to comfort us in times of need. Read it and feel your heart being pieced back together, vinas.
“Winter Trees” by William Carlos Williams
“Winter Trees” teaches us that “all the complicated details (1)” are done and we are given permission to move onto the next phase of our lives. William Carlos Williams displays the “wise trees (9)” as the human mind becoming more self-aware as it works through these thoughts and feelings. The takeaway? We come out on the other side wiser than we were previously.
“The Lesson” by Maya Angelou
“The Lesson” shows us that sometimes we can feel defeated, but to not forget to live our lives because there is so much beauty in living. We should not hold our hearts back from potential pain, but go into life full-force, so that we will learn lessons along the way and grow into who we are meant to be.
In “One Art,” Bishop tells the reader to “lose something everyday (4).” Bishop explains to us that losing is a natural part of life. To feel the loss is okay. We are allowed to feel our emotions and be sad. She says that it, “may look like disaster (Write it!) disaster (19).” Bishop writes that it “may look like” because she is stating that even though heartbreak may be devastating at the time, there will be a new horizon.
As you deal with your heartache, read these poems as many times as you need. Remember that heartbreak should not be taken lightly. You are allowed to cry, to feel these emotions — but know that you will move past them in time. Be sure to surround yourself with vinas, family and new hobbies as you go through these emotions. Your close connections are a great support team rooting for you. You got this, vinas!
VINAZINE 