All of these poems are original, written for this collection. They can be sent to a boyfriend, girlfriend, husband, wife, or partner. Keep the details that sound like your relationship and change any that don’t.
For the First Time You Say It
-
Before I Lose My Nerve
I’ve practiced this in the car,
at red lights,
to a houseplant that didn’t react.
Here it is, out loud at last,
plain as a porch light:
I love you. -
The Ticket
I kept these words folded in my pocket
for weeks, like a ticket
I was afraid to use.
Tonight I’m handing it over.
I love you.
That’s the whole show. -
Take Your Time
I’ve had time
to learn what these words mean to me.
You can take your time, too.
I love you.
I wanted you to hear it
without a question waiting at the end. -
The Moment I Knew
You handed me
the first peach of the season
and waited for my verdict.
I forgot the question.
I was busy realizing
how much I loved you. -
Early Days
We’re still learning how the other takes their eggs
and which songs we always skip.
Some things, though, arrive early,
ahead of the schedule.
This is one of them:
I love you. -
Answer to Yours
You said it first, out by the car,
keys already in your hand.
For a moment, every word I knew
seemed to leave me.
Then I found the only ones I wanted:
I love you, too.
Short Enough for a Text
-
Morning Report
Sky’s gray,
traffic’s slow,
I still love you. -
Dog in a Raincoat
I saw a dog in a yellow raincoat
and wanted you beside me,
laughing at the serious way
it stepped around the puddles.
I love you in these passing moments, too. -
Three Words on a Train
I love you,
typed with my thumbs
on a crowded train.
Even here,
I wanted a moment
that belonged to us. -
Your Name
I’ve learned your name
in half a dozen tones—
calling across a room,
answering the door.
My favorite is the way it sounds
right after I love you. -
Lunch Break
Ten minutes for lunch.
I spend the first one
thinking of you
and the second
making sure you know.
I love you. -
Lights Out
Lights out, phone down,
one last thing before I sleep:
I love you.
See you in the morning. -
All Three Kinds
You’re the person I save
the good news for,
and the bad news, and the weird news.
I love you for wanting all three. -
Same Sentence
I love you.
There, I’ve put us
in the same sentence.
I’ll leave us there
a little longer.
-
Drive Safe
Every time I leave, you say drive safe,
as if the road might listen to you.
I carry that care
a little farther than the driveway.
Here are my words for the road:
I love you. -
Before the Punch Line
You laugh before the punch line,
every single time.
I love you there,
delighted with the joke
before you’ve given it away.
Take your time.
I’m enjoying this part. -
The Hinge
You stop halfway through a story
to listen to the door.
Later, the hinge is silent,
and you pick up where you left off.
I love you—
the story,
the repair,
the way both matter. -
Two Books
We sit at opposite ends
of a room,
each inside a different book.
I look up.
You look up.
Neither of us loses our place.
I love you
in the company of our separate thoughts. -
Steady
When my days come in sideways
and I talk too fast to make sense,
you listen like there’s no rush,
like the story is worth the telling.
I love you for letting me finish
before we decide what comes next. -
Your Version of the Chorus
You sing along to the radio,
inventing half the chorus
with absolute conviction.
I love you.
By the next red light,
I’m singing your version, too. -
The Longer Walk
We could turn here
and be home in five minutes.
You point toward the river;
I take your hand.
I love you,
and I’m in no hurry
to finish this walk. -
An Unmarked Date
No anniversary, no birthday,
nothing on the calendar at all.
I bought the card
because the blank space inside it
looked like somewhere
I ought to say
I love you.
For the Details You Love About Them
-
The Way You Tell a Story
You start with the ending,
circle back for the middle,
forget a name, find it,
and land the whole thing perfectly.
I love you mid-sentence, every time. -
When You Explain
I love you
when your enthusiasm
gets ahead of your sentences.
Tell me about the thing
you know by heart.
I’ll follow your hands
as they draw it in the air. -
Brave
I’ve watched you walk into rooms
you were scared of
and walk out with a plan.
I love you for your courage,
and for telling me later
how much your hands shook. -
The Real Laugh
There’s your polite laugh,
your phone laugh,
and the real one,
the one that surprises even you.
I love you at that moment—
head tipped back,
delighted beyond the reach
of a complete sentence. -
Sundays
You read the news aloud to me
in your best weather-anchor voice,
then set it down and say,
“Okay, now tell me yours.”
I love you most on Sundays,
and then the other days catch up. -
You Remember
You remember the details
I thought had slipped away:
an old ambition,
the name of a place I miss.
I love you
for listening across the years.
I’ve kept your stories, too. -
Two Ways of Seeing
We look at the same painting
and see two different stories.
I love hearing yours
while the colors are still in front of us.
I love you—
and the view
I couldn’t have brought alone. -
Window Seat
You give me the window seat,
then lean across to see the clouds.
I move back
until the sky belongs to both of us.
I love you
somewhere above the weather,
sharing this narrow square of blue.
For Love With Some Years Behind It
-
The Couch
We’ve worn a groove into this couch,
two dents, side by side.
Nobody else would fit them.
I love you.
I love our dents. -
Still
Still your key in the door.
Still me, glad to hear it.
Still the same three words,
worn in like a favorite shirt:
I love you. -
Anniversary Arithmetic
We can count the years
on the front of this card.
Inside, I keep trying
to fit the rest:
the late talks, the long drives,
the laughter that interrupted dinner.
I love you.
There’s never quite enough paper. -
Every Edition
You’ve seen me with the flu,
in airport lines at five a.m.,
in every grumpy edition of myself,
and you still say good morning like you mean it.
I love you,
and I mean it back. -
Those Two
When we’re old, I’ll still steal the crossword,
you’ll still pretend not to mind,
and someone at the next table will say,
“Look at those two.”
I love you now.
I hope we keep becoming
those two. -
Learning You Again
A new interest.
A different dream.
A story I’ve somehow never heard.
After all these years,
you still have news for me.
I love you in the present tense,
curious about the next thing
you’ll think to tell me. -
On a Wednesday, in Jeans
I’d marry you again
on a Wednesday,
in jeans, with no cake.
I’d know your voice
before I turned around.
I love you
without a single guest
to hear me say it.
When You’re Apart
-
Time Zones
It’s morning where you are
and almost midnight here.
We’re living in different hours
but saying the same three words.
I love you,
from your yesterday. -
Your Side
Your side of the table
has become a place
I keep glancing toward.
Four more days.
I love you.
Until then,
tell me what you’re seeing
from your side of the world. -
The Postcard
I write your address
more carefully than my own,
press the stamp into its corner,
and send these words
through places I’ve never seen.
I love you.
Something I held today
will soon be in your hands. -
Buffering
Your face freezes mid-smile.
The sentence arrives in pieces.
I love you,
I say to the spinning circle,
and wait for the rest of your laugh. -
Counting Down
I know the date.
I’ve checked the time.
I’m early in my imagination:
already at the gate,
already looking for you.
I love you.
Soon I get to say it
without holding a phone.
Funny I Love You Poems
-
To Scale
I tried to draw
how much I love you.
The arrow went off the page.
I’ve taped on another sheet.
This is becoming
a very impractical card. -
The Thermostat
You like it cold. I like it warm.
We’ve held this debate for years.
I love you,
in my sweater,
at sixty-eight degrees. -
Extra Fries
I said, “Just a few.”
You ordered enough
to account for my definition.
I love you.
We can discuss the mathematics
after I finish these. -
Blanket Thief
You roll over,
taking the blanket
and most of the climate with you.
I love you.
I am also ordering
a second blanket. -
Movie Night
We have watched six trailers
and selected nothing.
I love you.
Apparently, we came here
for a documentary
about our decision-making.
Longer Poems to Read Aloud
-
All the Ways I’ve Said It
I’ve said it with the last good pen,
with the chair pulled closer,
with your scarf held up
as you were leaving in the cold.
I’ve said it by learning
which stories make you laugh,
which plans you’re looking forward to,
which days call for company.I hope you heard me.
Tonight I want to leave nothing
to translation.
I love you.
I like the sound of it
here, between us,
with nowhere else I need to be. -
After We Argue
I’m sorry I cut you off.
I was answering a sentence
you hadn’t finished.
I love you,
and I want to do better
than guessing what you mean.When you’re ready,
I’d like to hear the rest.
I’ll put my answer down
and listen
for what you were trying
to tell me. -
Plain Words
I wanted a sentence
worthy of the feeling,
something with enough room
for the years behind us
and the days we haven’t met.I kept returning
to the words we already knew.
I love you.I mean them on Mondays,
in the car with the radio on,
when we’re dressed for somewhere special,
when we’re deciding what to make for dinner.
I mean them here,
with you listening.
Especially here.
