Letting Go Poem by Erin Cowart

We do not know how to let love go

We hold it, claw at it
Try to twist it to fit our hands

And when that fails
We try to twist ourselves
To fit the shape of love

Stuffing, shrinking
Renaming and excising
Until we are changed

Deformed, unrecognizable
Less than
Because we could not let go

Let love go

When it is time
When life still remains
When it is still soft
A fresh and treasured memory

For a dead and dying love
Hardens in our chest and eyes
Growing heavier and more rotten
Until the stench of it
Covers everything we touch

Dead loves
Little loves
Half loves
Loves that do not know they are hates

Lay them all down
And feel the weightlessness of your soul