r/Poem

Love should not arrive quietly

like a polite guest standing at the door.

It should arrive like rain

after a long thirsty summer,

sudden and restless,

touching everything it can.

Love should not feel careful

or ordinary.

It should be the moment

when two people stand close

and the world around them

seems to soften and fade.

A look that speaks

more than a thousand words.

A silence that feels

more alive than noise.

Because life already holds

too many simple things,

too many safe conversations,

too many feelings

that never truly grow.

So if love comes

let it come fierce.

Let it shake the calm inside you.

Let it make your heart

beat a little faster

when their name crosses your mind.

Love should feel rare,

like finding something beautiful

you were not even searching for.

And when it is real

you will know.

Not because it is perfect,

but because it is alive

and extraordinary

in a world that often settles

for less.

TW: growing up in an abusive home

When I was little,
love sounded like breaking things.

Cabinet doors slammed hard enough
to shake pictures crooked on the walls,
glass cracking somewhere down the hall
like lightning striking inside the house.

I used to sit frozen in my bedroom
counting the crashes
like prayers.

one.
two.
three.

Please let that be the last thing.
Please let nobody bleed.
Please let me grow up different.

My father wore anger
like a second skin.
It lived in his hands,
in the sharpness of his voice,
in the way silence after a fight
felt more dangerous than
the yelling itself.

I promised myself
I would never learn that language.

I said my hands would stay gentle.
I said my voice would never become a weapon.
I said when rage climbed into my throat
I would choke on it
before I let it sound like him.

But tonight
we argued until the room felt small
enough to suffocate in.
His voice became every slammed door
from my childhood,
every shattered thing I pretended not to hear.

Suddenly
I wasn’t standing in the
present anymore.

I was eight years old again,
heart pounding in a bedroom down the hall,
waiting for the next thing to break.

Except this time
the breaking came from me.

Picture frames hit the floor
one after another after another,
our smiling faces splintering beneath my feet,
memories cracking open into
glittering little knives.

And the sound,
God, the sound,
felt familiar enough to make me sick.

Because for one terrible second
I saw him in my hands.

In the shaking.
In the loss of control.
In the violent ache of wanting
to be heard
so badly
that destruction arrived before
words could.

no no no no.
please not me.

I wanted to blame the bloodline.
Wanted to say anger is inherited,
passed down like eye color
or crooked teeth.

But maybe the cruelest thing about growing up inside a storm
is that your body memorizes the thunder.

Even when you hate it.
Even when you fear it.
Even when you swear
you will spend your entire life
becoming anything else.

Tonight I swept glass into
trembling hands
and cried over broken photographs
like they were tiny funerals.

Not just for the frames.

For the little girl I used to be,
the one sitting in her bedroom
covering her ears
begging God:

please don’t let me become him.

And for the first time in my life,
I wasn’t scared of becoming him.
I was scared of noticing
I already knew how.

The Sun
I hear God,
I feel Him everywhere,
But why can’t I see
Where is Thee?

Then I heard,
The light in the sky,
Leads us like sheep and shepherd.
But don’t look,
For it is too bright.
But where is Thee?

I saw the light,
Disappear into the ocean water,
As if the clouds dip,
Chips in tea.

I waited longer,
But to no avail,
The darkness seems to prevail.
And when all hope was lost,
I saw the light emerge across.

That’s when I noticed,
Thee is nobody but you,
Move through the sky,
Lead us with sly,
Help us get through,

And now I know,
Who you are.
A true friend to the core,
With love for all small chores.
So my dear,
For once I ask,
Nothing is there for me to fear,
And hence,
Let me lift up the spear.

-Atharva Haldankar.(me!)

[NOTE: I did not want any proper rhyming scheme as I prefer most free verses. You may provide feedback on other things.]

Just feel like death is calling me

My head says listen to my heart

My heart says listen to my head

This is the problem

It can’t focus

It can’t listen

Miscommunication

I’m here

Yet NOBODY is listening

I’m screaming at the top of my lungs

My throat is red raw

My hands are bloody

My eyes are weeping

Yet I’m here

And NOBODY is listening

In a world that runs on restless feet, 
Where time sprints past and hearts compete, 
I found a pause I can’t explain 
A quiet thread beneath the strain.

She doesn’t know I walk this earth, 
Or that her presence holds this worth, 
And maybe that’s how it should stay 
Some things are softer from afar that way.

Her eyes
not just beautiful, but kind 
They slow the chaos in my mind, 
Turn racing hours into space,
Where everything can fall in place.

Not mine to hold, or claim, or keep, 
Just something steady, calm, and deep.
A passing light I happened to see, 
That asked for nothing back from me.

But in a world that races blind, 
Her eyes are where I measure time.

I’m sorry, my dear
For holding your hand only in my head
For loving you wildly inside my head
Because I’m just that kind of man
Since in real life, I can't hold your hand.

Please forgive me
For living with you in my fantasy
Reading comics together in sweet harmony
My in-mind soulmate, forever you stay
Though in reality, there's no one today.

In my mind, we build a house that’s gleaming
And every night when stars come out, our love is dreaming.
Oh, this world so far
I wish upon a star
Just to hold your hand, to hold your hand
And caress your hair where the shadows are.

Still I dream
That you’d sense a presence near your side
Someone behind the trees, where I hide
Watching you with a love so deep
Though in the real world, no one I keep.

In my mind, we build a castle, small and sweet
And every time I leave, you beg for no retreat.

Oh, this world so far
I wish upon a star
Just to hold your hand, to hold your hand
And caress your hair where the shadows are.

My in-mind soulmate, forever you stay
Though in reality, there's no one today.
My in-mind soulmate, forever you stay
Though in reality, there's no one today.

She is the ballad that the voiceless sing,

The jagged edge of a raven’s wing.

She is the nectar brewed in a chalice of gold,

A story of fire that’s never been told.

She’s the hallowed hush of a winter’s night,

A blinding dark and a searing light.

With lips of honey and a heart of stone,

She sits on a high and haunted throne.

She is the riddle the wind cannot sigh,

The burning depth of a violet eye.

What she is.

A holy relic or a cursed design or

A demonic grace or a spark divine?

It drives you crazy that I can live without you.

It drives you crazy that I'm talented.

It drives you crazy that I'm attractive.

It drives you crazy that I'm not afraid of what others say.

It drives you crazy that I'm treated the way I want.

It drives you crazy that I don't have to beg for attention.

It drives you crazy that the people around me love me.

It drives you crazy that I have suitors.

It drives you crazy that you can't be me.

I'm so envious of people who are healthy.

I envy people who don't feel anger, who can control their feelings and don't explode.

I envy those who haven't vomited from jealousy.

I envy those who have never been in a physical fight.

I envy those who have never had an addiction.

I envy those who can talk about how they feel without trembling or crying.

I envy those who aren't afraid of food and have a healthy relationship with it.

I envy those who don't have body dysmorphia.

I envy those who have the privilege of going to therapy.

I WANT TO BE NORMAL, I WANT TO BE HEALTHY.

I was going to pour out my love for you

But then you showed me your ring.