It’s Tuesday, and the dVerse Poets Pub is open with hot cross buns, chocolate cupcakes and a range of beverages from our well-stocked bar, as well as a selection of delicious poetry.  I’m Kim from writinginnorthnorfolk.com, your host for this week’s Poetics.

I receive regular emails from The Marginalian, from which I have previously gleaned ideas. In her email on 22^nd March 2026, Maria Popova shared passages that appear on pages 126-127 of Traversal,  written in the context of Mary Shelley’s life, at the heart of which is the question: Where does love go when it goes? As Shelley says, “It is a common question, contrived in its commonness yet savagely sincere, bellowing in the bosom of every brokenhearted lover, reverberating through the body of every civilization’s love songs and sonnets, radiating from cave drawings and dive bar graffiti.”

Many poems have been written about the aftermath of love, each one different and new. While poems about heartbreak might not be as uplifting as those about the joys of love, they can be equally as beautiful and meaningful. I have provided extracts from some of these with links to the poems, if you wish to read them in their entirety.

The first is ‘The More Loving One’ by W.H. Auden, a poignant poem that explores themes of unrequited love and the nature of affection in the face of indifference. It was written in 1957 and is included in his collection Homage to Clio. The poem reflects on the speaker’s feelings of unreciprocated love, using the metaphor of stars to illustrate the indifference of the beloved. The speaker acknowledges that while the stars do not care for him, he chooses to embrace the role of the “more loving one,” valuing the act of loving itself despite the lack of reciprocation. Auden’s poem encapsulates the pain of loss when love ends.

“Were all stars to disappear or die,
I should learn to look at an empty sky
And feel its total dark sublime,
Though this might take me a little time.”

A favourite of mine is by Stevie Smith, one of the twentieth century’s most eccentric poets. ‘Pad, Pad’ is spoken by someone whose lover sat down and told her he no longer loved her. The animal suggestion of ‘padding’ rather than walking, as well as the ‘tigerish crouch’ of the departed lover, are typical Stevie Smith.

Vicki Feaver, ‘Coat’ is a short poem comparing the departed lover to a coat, which the poet longed to throw off and be free of – until she actually did cast it aside. Now, she only feels the cold.

Untitled

by Rupi Kaur

love will hurt you but
love will never mean to
love will play no games
cause love knows life
has been hard enough already

This short, untitled poem takes a bittersweet and world weary, but ultimately generous look at love and its challenges.

‘Movement Song’ by Audre Lorde is about the end of a relationship. While the sorrow felt after the speaker’s heart has been broken is clear, the poem ultimately ends with hope that the pair can both have a new beginning — albeit apart.

“We were always saying goodbye
in the blood in the bone over coffee
before dashing for elevators going
in opposite directions
without goodbyes.”

‘Neutral Tones’ by Thomas Hardy vividly portrays the bleak aftermath of a failed love affair, reflecting on the desolate landscape surrounding the past encounter.

Neutral Tones

by Thomas Hardy

We stood by a pond that winter day,
And the sun was white, as though chidden of God,
And a few leaves lay on the starving sod;
– They had fallen from an ash, and were gray.

Your eyes on me were as eyes that rove
Over tedious riddles of years ago;
And some words played between us to and fro
On which lost the more by our love.

The smile on your mouth was the deadest thing
Alive enough to have strength to die;
And a grin of bitterness swept thereby
Like an ominous bird a-wing….

Since then, keen lessons that love deceives,
And wrings with wrong, have shaped to me
Your face, and the God curst sun, and a tree,
And a pond edged with grayish leaves.

I also really like Charlotte Mew’s poem, ‘I so liked Spring’.

“I so liked Spring last year
Because you were here; –
The thrushes too –
Because it was these you so liked to hear –
I so liked you …”

This short poem, about getting over somebody you once loved and shared your life with, is an underrated gem. Addressing her former lover, the poet declares that she liked spring last year because she was sharing it with someone special. It is implied that this special lover has forsaken the poet, who is determined to enjoy this springtime for its own sake, not because of who she might have been sharing it with.

Your challenge is to take the title of your poem from the question ‘Where does love go when it goes?’ or ‘Where does love go?’ and answer it in your poem. You may take ideas from the poems I have given above. You could write about personal experience, someone else’s story of lost love, or you could philosophise and ponder on the question. The form is up to you.

If you are new to dVerse and/or Poetics, here’s how to join in:

• Write a poem in response to the challenge.
• Enter a link directly to your poem and your name by clicking Mr Linky below.
• There you will find links to other poets, and more will join, so check back for their poems.
• Read and comment on other poets’ work – we all come here to have our poems appreciated.
• Please link back to dVerse from your site/blog.
• Mister Linky will close on Saturday at 3 p.m. EST.
• Comment and participate in our discussion below, if you like. We are a friendly bunch of poets.
• Have fun.