Colleen Hoover

You__e incredibly brave. And you__e going to make it through this because you have a very strong heart. A heart that is capable of loving so much about life and people in a way you never dreamt a heart could love. And you__e beautiful in here. Your heart is so beautiful and someday someone is going to love that heart like it deserves to be loved.

The fact that Ridge has been honest in his conversations with me is not something he did wrong. The fact that he has feelings for me also isn__ wrong, when you know exactly how much he__ fought those feelings. People can__ control matters of the heart, Warren. They can only control their actions, which is exactly what Ridge did. He lost control once for ten seconds, but after that, every single time temptation reared its ugly head, he walked in the other direction. The only thing Ridge has done wrong is fail to delete his messages, because by doing so, he failed to protect Maggie. He failed to protect her from the harsh truth that people don__ get to choose who they fall in love with. They only get to choose who they stay in love with._ I look up at the ceiling and blink back tears. __e was choosing to stay in love with her, Warren. Why can__ she see that? This will kill him so much more than it__ killing her.

She's absolutely beautiful. Her hope is beautiful. The smile on her face is beautiful. The tears streaming down her cheeks are beautiful.Herloveisbeautiful.

Love and hate, despite their polar opposites, are both feelings that are induced by passion. I can handle that. It__ the indifference I don__ know how to process.

I absolutely, positively hate this beautiful, magical feeling.

I tell myself that with enough effort, I can control my feelings.

When you aren't sure what it is you hate or why you even hate it, it's hard to hold onto the details...you just hold on to the feelings.

We try so hard to hide everything we're really feeling from those who probably need to know our true feelings the most. People try to bottle up their emotions, as if it's somehow wrong to have natural reactions to life.

To me, lyrics are harder to write when you have to invent the feelings behind them. That's when lyrics take a lot of thought, when they aren't genuine.

I know my mouth is agape and my eyes are wide, but I'm relieved that hope isn't a tangible thing, because everyone around me would see mine crumbling.

People don't like to talk about death because it makes them sad.

The truth is an excruciatingly painful son of a bitch.

I could go on all night, Lake. I could go on and on and on about all the reasons I__ in love with you. And you know what? Some of them are the things that life has thrown our way. I do love you because you__e the only other person I know who understands my situation. I do love you because both of us know what it__ like to lose your mom and your dad. I do love you because you__e raising your little brother, just like I am. I love you because of what you went through with your mother.I love you because of what we went through with your mother. I love the way you love Kel. I love the way you love Caulder. And I love the way I love Kel. So I__ not about to apologize for loving all these things about you, no matter the reasons or the circumstances behind them. And no, I don__ need days, or weeks, or months to think about why I love you. It__ an easy answer for me. I love you because of you. Because of every single thing about you.

This poem is very longSo long, in fact, that your attention spanMay be stretched to its very limitsBut that__ okayIt__ what__ so special about poetrySee, poetry takes timeWe live in a timeCall it our culture or societyIt doesn__ matter to me cause neither one rhymesA time where most people don__ want to listenOur throats wait like matchsticks waiting to catch fireWaiting until we can speakNo patience to listenBut this poem is longIt__ so long, in fact, that during the time of this poemYou could__e done any number of other wonderful thingsYou could__e called your fatherCall your fatherYou could be writing a postcard right nowWrite a postcardWhen was the last time you wrote a postcard?You could be outsideYou__e probably not too far away from a sunrise or a sunsetWatch the sun riseMaybe you could__e written your own poemA better poemYou could have played a tune or sung a songYou could have met your neighborAnd memorized their nameMemorize the name of your neighborYou could__e drawn a picture(Or, at least, colored one in)You could__e started a bookOr finished a prayerYou could__e talked to GodPrayWhen was the last time you prayed?Really prayed?This is a long poemSo long, in fact, that you__e already spent a minute with itWhen was the last time you hugged a friend for a minute?Or told them that you love them?Tell your friends you love them_no, I mean it, tell themSay, I love youSay, you make life worth livingBecause that, is what friends doOf all of the wonderful things that you could__e doneDuring this very, very long poemYou could have connectedMaybe you are connectingMaybe we__e connectingSee, I believe that the only things that really matterIn the grand scheme of life are God and peopleAnd if people are made in the image of GodThen when you spend your time with peopleIt__ never wastedAnd in this very long poemI__ trying to let a poem do what a poem does:Make things simplerWe don__ need poems to make things more complicatedWe have each other for thatWe need poems to remind ourselves of the things that really matterTo take timeA long timeTo be alive for the sake of someone else for a single momentOr for many momentsCause we need each otherTo hold the hands of a broken personAll you have to do is meet a personShake their handLook in their eyesThey are youWe are all broken togetherBut these shattered pieces of our existence don__ have to be a messWe just have to care enough to hold our tongues sometimesTo sit and listen to a very long poemA story of a lifeThe joy of a friend and the grief of friendTo hold and be heldAnd be quietSo, prayWrite a postcardCall your parents and forgive them and then thank themTurn off the TVCreate art as best as you canShare as much as possible, especially moneyTell someone about a very long poem you once heardAnd how afterward it brought you to them

What rules?___ell, for one, I__ not allowed to break your heart,_ he says. __econd, I__ also not allowed to break your damn heart. And last, I__ not allowed to fucking break your damn heart.