Love Ends Read online

Love Ends

  12 Poems for Those Falling Out Of Love

  Paul Whybrow

   

   

  Copyright 2014 Paul Whybrow

   

   

  Published by Paul Whybrow

  (Originally written and published under the pen-name

  Augustus Devilheart)

  Cover Art: fotographic1980 at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

  Love Ends

  12 Poems for Those Falling Out Of Love

  License Notes

  This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold

  or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person,

  please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did

  not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return it and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work

  of this author.

  Love Ends

  12 Poems for Those Falling Out Of Love

  Disclaimer

  This book is a work of fiction. While some of the place names are real, characters are the product of the author’s imagination and are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to persons living or dead is purely coincidental.

  Love Ends

  12 Poems for Those Falling Out Of Love

  'We are never so defenceless against suffering

  as when we love, never so forlornly unhappy

  as when we have lost our love-object or its love.'

  Sigmund Freud

  (from Civilization and its Discontents)

  The Poems

  Love Moth

  The End of Things

  The Lonely Woman

  No Rules in Love's Game

  What Do You Do When These Things Happen

  Passing Through Love

  Your World In My Head

  Unwanted Love

  Love Hyenas

  Remember to Forget

  Spark Tinder Fuel Flame

  Out Of Ashes

  Love Ends

  12 Poems for Those Falling Out Of Love

  Paul Whybrow

  Love Moth

  Fluttering in from darkness,

  a blameless moth seeks

  light and warmth.

  Happy, fascinated, captivated

  by flickering glow

  it hovers near.

  Musty wings shake

  diamond platelets free

  in hesitant stall.

  Brightness obliterates

  questing vision

  to dull perception.

  Heat chars fragility

  into a crisp carapace

  of doom.

  Felled by desire

  for all beyond it,

  moth ashes.

  The End of Things

  Saying it's alright,

  I'm doing OK,

  It could be worse.

  I'll get over it,

  Isn't quite the truth,

  Now is it?

  You feel like shit.

  The pain won't go away.

  You'll never be the same again.

  Why did you try anyway?

  It was sure to fail eventually.

  Don't bother in the future.

  Things have ended.

  It's finally over,

  Though you tried

  To keep things going.

  You don't deserve this,

  It's really not fair.

  But life never is.

  It's the first thing we learn,

  But quickly forget, hoping

  That hope will be enough

  To make things endure.

  But they end all the time.

  Get used to it.

  All things must pass.

  Relationships are plants

  That have their life-span.

  You deserve happiness.

  Time to begin again.

  The Lonely Woman

  Love long gone,

  Loneliness her friend,

  The woman watches.

  Always watches

  The shifting past.

  Passionate tableaux,

  Fraying mood-pieces.

  Brief happy threads.

  Eternities of loss.

  Wracked with regret,

  Withered through loss,

  The lonely woman

  Ties memory strings,

  Knotted into memory,

  Creating happy patterns

  From abandoned twine.

  New vistas emerge

  Of events unlived.

  Invented happiness better

  Than sadness known.

  She lost forever

  Her faithless lover.

  Regretting his absence,

  She makes oakum,

  Fraying his bonds.

  Sore stung fretting,

  Caulking the gaps.

  She binds herself,

  Needling ways through

  Closed-off hearts.

  Casting fresh stitches,

  Pulling threads snug.

  Making fresh pictures,

  Of discarded dreams.

  Part of something,

  Better than nothing.

  The empty frame,

  Her hollow life

  Echoes with fear.

  Nobody sees her

  Or holds her dear.

  She's barely there.

  A dream weaver

  Casting pearl memories

  Into stranded time.

  No Rules in Love's Game

  If you wonder why you're hurting.

  Why things have turned out so bad.

  How it is you've been sorely used,

  And abandoned once again.

  You were in a game with no rules.

  Just expectations of decency, that's all.

  Hoping for the best, behaving honourably

  Would keep you together with one so true.

  Did you think that temptation would disappear,

  Be absent from the scene forever, no threat at all?

  The gloves come off in love's game, it's talons out.

  You'll get ripped-up, torn apart, shredded half to death.

  There's no come-back when you get hurt, so suck it up.

  You've wounded lovers yourself—isn't that the truth?

  No rules means a free-for-all—quite a price to pay.

  Keep your wits about you, love's the toughest game in town.

  What Do You Do When These Things Happen?

  The first night that you sleep together

  and you don't make love.

  When you call your new partner

  by your previous lover's name.

  How you don't feel aroused,

  simply not in the mood.

  When things are banging on a bit,

  so you might as well fake orgasm.

  How you need to think of other people

  to get there—anyone but your lover.

  When you're trying to think of more reasons

  to stay together than to break-up.

  That you're gladder to see them leave you

  by yourself, than to welcome them home.

  When they're tired and fall asleep fast,

  or you pretend to do so….

  They call it falling in love.

  It takes longer to crawl out.

  Passing Through Love

  Teasing my way past you,

  As you stand and gaze

  At what you can't hold,

  Our love gutters and dies.

  Winnowing on the wind

  Of our desire, spent seed

  Falls earthwards, scraps

  For skulking scavengers.

  Harrow
ed by loss for what

  Will never be, a future

  You can never have, you see

  You were only passing through love.

  Your World In My Head

  My head is full of you,

  I think of nothing else.

  We parted months ago,

  You haunt me constantly.

  I'm searching for who I was

  Long before we became we.

  I catch glimpses of my spirit,

  A hapless wandering refugee.

  I'll rebuild my soul, batten heart

  Against attack from the thud

  Of flightless dreams crashing

  Lost into what I once held true.

  Within the refuge of my sanctuary,

  I spring-clean remnants of you

  Clinging to the bones of me.

  Gouged clean, I'll begin again.

  Unwanted Love

  What do you do with it?

  The greatest power known.

  A force to move mountains.

  Energy to sustain a happy life.

  The thing we all search for.

  Where does it go to?

  When love is unwanted.

  As the words of rejection

  Are uttered, does it wither away?

  The thing that's so needed.

  How is it we contain love

  That only lives with approval?

  Can we recapture love spoiled,

  Freshen it for another heart?

  The thing may be immortal.

  Love Hyenas

  Vulnerable, wounded by love,

  forsaken and abandoned,

  it's hard to try again.

  To throw yourself

  back into the arena,

  climb into the ring,

  rejoin the meat market,

  swim in the sea

  with all of the other fish.

  Easy to bare your throat

  and say "don't hurt me".

  As if that will protect you.

  There's those that hunt

  for prey like you.

  The weak and needy,

  tired and desperate,

  your scent draws

  such scavengers close.

  We've all been victims.

  Everybody hurts sometimes.

  But if that's how you are,

  a walking wound of self-pity,

  then all you'll attract

  will be love hyenas.

  They'll tear you apart.

  Heal yourself well

  before you try love again.

  Remember to Forget

  Say you'll remember.

  Say it to yourself.

  Remind your good self,

  That it's time to forget.

  No point in holding on

  To thorns that prick anew.

  Let scabs make good scars,

  For it's time to forget.

  Distance may change

  The thoughts burning

  Through your tender soul,

  But it's time to forget.

  There's no disloyalty

  In letting-go memories

  Which pain you cruelly.

  Remember to forget.

  Spark, Tinder, Fuel, Flame

  Sparks need friction.

  Some abrasion.

  Striking flintiness

  Against hardness.

  Strange to think that.

  Do we seek resilience?

  Some toughness of soul

  That matches our own.

  The 'click' which sparks,

  Lights tinder laid as trap.

  A lure to hold brightness.

  A brief flash in our pan.

  Tinder as foreplay.

  Initial sharing.

  A gentle yielding

  For furies to come.

  It has to catch.

  Grip substance,

  Or flicker fades,

  Unscorched.

  Our fuel as fodder.

  The life meat risked

  For shared warmth,

  Light and company.

  Heat that roared,

  Danced in delight

  In a well-made pit.

  Subsided to an even glow.

  Embers, heat enough

  To ignite new passion.

  Infernos need feeding.

  Are your flames eternal?

  Out Of Ashes

  Feel their texture.

  Rub them between

  Your thumb and finger.

  Add some water.

  Mix a porridge

  With your palms.

  Flakes on the wind or

  Clogged on your life-line.

  Which do you prefer?

  Your love affair

  Became so much smoke

  And ash residue.

  Ashes make fertiliser.

  Dig them deeply

  Into your heart.

  Memory of them

  Provides sustenance

  For future love.

  The End

  About The Author

   

  Paul Whybrow has a young head on old shoulders.

  Ex many things, including being a teacher, counsellor,

  librarian, dispatch-rider, milk-man, postman, bar man,

  house renovator, classic vehicle restorer, courier,

  van driver, factory worker, project manager,

  live-in carer for the elderly, editor, photographer,

  volunteer at a community centre, play-schemes,

  homeless campaigns and nature conservation projects.

  I wrote non-fiction magazine articles for ages,

  but turned to creative writing in the summer of

  2013. I've been my own boss for a long time,

  which means I'm working for an idiot and the

  pay is lousy—but the holidays are great.

  Paul Whybrow has a good heart inside a battered chest.

   

  * * *

   

  Also by Paul Whybrow

   

  Novellas

   

  * A Man Out Walking His Dog—A tale of mistaken identity.

  * Burpwallow Holler—Loyalty in post Civil War America.

  * Quarry—A gangster becomes prey in a lethal reality TV show.

  * Ghosting—How a lonely biologist finds peace with the ghosts of her life.

  * Is It Her?—A new start is offered to a grieving widower.

  * A Blue Tomorrow—Temptation and new beginnings on a farm.

  * Hearts On Tour—Small town friends support one another.

  * What Would I Do Without You?—A newly-single wife begins life again.

   

  Short Stories

   

  * The Moon Is Out Tonight—Two soul-mates separated by circumstance.

  * Due-Date—A soul in limbo is given a new job.

  * Jacqui In Space—A 20th century explorer on 22nd century Mars.

  * Over And Out—Things come to a head on a 50th wedding anniversary.

  * In The Graveyard At Dawn—A boy and his dog among the graves.

  * Soul-Swapping—Moving souls, a demon tries to get back to hell.

  Song Lyrics

  * 12 Country & Western Lyrics—hope, regret and seeing things as they are.

  * 13 Kinds of Blue—trouble's your only friend, ain't it?

  * A Dozen Pops—love in a bubble always goes pop.

  * A Dozen Rocks—head down boogie along the highway.

  * Box of Love—songs of love and hope.

  * Howling For You—the sadness goes on and on.

   

  Poetry

   

  * Love Stages—Love affairs seen at different phases.

  * Love Begins—The thrill of the new, the nervousness and delight.

  * Love Ends—What do you do when things go wrong?

  * Love Hopes—How would you like love to happen?

  * Love Wishes—In an ideal world yo
ur affair would be like this...

  * Nature's Ways—Aspects of the natural world, happy and sad.

  * Modern Times—What it means to live in the 21st century.

  * Old Age Navigation—Ageing stinks, but it beats the alternative.

  * Darkness—Written from the endless night of the soul.

  * Darkness Darkness—We all have our dark side—how's yours?

  * Loneliness—The poverty of the soul, when you're alone.

  * Solitariness—The richness of the soul, when you go solo.

  * Poems To Ponder—Thoughtful and amusing poems for children.

  * Witches' Knickers—Silly and nonsense poems for young readers.

  * Hold Onto Yourself—Funny and warm poems for youngsters.

  * What Do You Like?—9 Erotic Poems

  * Building Story House—10 Poems on creating stories

  * Lost Among The Words—10 Poems about Writing

  * Friends And Other Confusions—10 Poems on liking others and yourself.

  * Chasing Big 'O'—9 Erotic Poems

  * Squeeze It—10 Poems on Creativity and Setbacks

  * We Stop Ourselves—10 Poems on Creativity, Doubt and Self-Belief

  * Love Scenes—10 Poems about love

  * Free To Fly—10 poems on getting through

   

  Novels 

  Coming soon:

  * The Perfect Murderer—a novel about a serial killer, who makes no mistakes.

   

  .

   * * *

   

  Connect with the author

   

  https://paulwhybrowblog.wordpress.com