For poetry lovers with a strong constitution, more heartbreak, desolation and despair on the romantic poetry front as we explore the break up of relationships and love turned sour. From shock to after-shock, bitterness and recrimination, the downward spiral of emotions that follow the shattering of romantic dreams is painful to witness and excruciating to experience. All those who have tears, prepare to shed them now...
Roller coasters are perhaps an appropriate metaphor for relationships which have a succession of ups and downs, but ultimately go nowhere. However, the lows described in this poem are terrifying, stomach churning episodes of sustained verbal and physical abuse from which the woman is lucky to escape.
A discourse about the break down of a relationship and the shattering of romantic dreams.
Are the signs there to see? A man studies a photograph of the last day he and his girlfriend were together to see if he can find any indication of what was about to happen.
A parting of the ways is always painful, however measured and mature the approach to it.
Filled with sorrow and remorse, a lone voice reflects on his failings and the break up of his relationship.
Hurt offers an uplifting message to those who have been wounded by romance and feel afraid to enter the fray again.
A poem full of bewilderment, in which a man examines what has happened to his relationship, once so close, now so distant.
A poetic exploration of rejection and dejection, which reaches a particularly bleak conclusion.
A short poem of lost love and the eternal flame of yearning that can never be extinguished.
Having struggled to expunge all traces of his former partner from his life, a chance discovery brings back a flood of memories.
The author asks for one last chance to show his love and rebuild his relationship with the one he has betrayed.
A farewell note in poetic form which signals the end of a relationship and a brighter future for the departing lover.
Not a poem about DIY cardiac surgery, but a plea to let the hurt of lost love end.
A real 'what if?' of a romantic poem.
The protagonist pleads with their partner for the relationship to be ended swiftly and cleanly, if, as it seems, it really is over.
If you keep falling off the romantic merry-go-round, the only thing is to brush yourself down and get back on.
Parting is such sweet sorrow, but it is the aftermath that holds the real terrors.
Maritime metaphors abound in Paul's poem of romantic despair.
A poem about moving on, forgetting the past and seeking pastures, and partners, new.
There's a time and a place for that final, decisive moment when a relationship breaks up.
A heartfelt poem in which a young man endeavours to explain to the woman that he loves that she is not the special one who will make his life complete.