Healing a Broken Heart Through Poetry

Emma Garcia

Altogether, writing has been a significant resource in my life as an expressive

outlet. I have a journal that I write in whenever I feel like sharing my day-to day
experiences or displaying my emotions into a sequence of rhythmic words and
sentences. I write almost everything I’m feeling or experiencing into these journals. On
days where it feels too hard to put my feelings into simple words, I find it easier to
express myself through poetry. Throughout my young adolescent years, I’ve gone
through the motions of love and heartbreak, which are the main topics of my poetry. As
I read my different writings and poetry through the years, I’m able to acknowledge and
reflect on how these writings have helped heal and transform my heart.
While I enjoy writing poetry about both love and heartbreak, I find that most of
my poems are related to the sorrow that follows a broken heart. It feels hardest for me
to properly heal from damaged relationships. For myself, writing helps me make sense
of the chaos that is accompanied by these feelings of heartbreak. By expressing myself
through poetry, I have been able to better assess closure within myself and regain
control over a situation. I’ve gathered a timeline of poetry that I’ve written in-between
the ages of 17 and almost 20. I have always kept my poetry to myself with no intended
audience. Sharing these stories of my life put me in a very vulnerable position, but I
believe these poems to be my biggest resources as I reflect on my journey through love
and heartbreak:

The poem, “First Love” explores my first experience of heartbreak and the lingering
emotions I felt after the breakup, even with all the pain he inflicted on me emotionally. I
got into my first relationship at a very young age. We were only together for about 6
months, but he found ways to manipulate me from the ages of 15-17. When I wrote this
poem, I was 17 and still feeling suffocated by this boy. He had been making multiple
attempts to reach out to me while he had a girlfriend. As I “replayed the last hug we
had,” I was coming to the sad realization of the pattern that seemed to repeat with
 this boy. I use repetition of words and phrases
in my poetry to enhance the intense feelings I had.
I keep repeating “Almost like I’m in some
twisted game” as my way of describing the feeling of
being trapped in this toxic relationship dynamic. The
plea at the end, “God get me out of this twisted
game” represented me reaching my breaking point.
During this time, it felt like I couldn’t escape him no
matter what I did. Even as I was writing this poem
with so much anger, frustration, and sadness, I still
felt a sense of love for him. My self-esteem was very
low, which is what kept me trapped in his “twisted
games” for so long. I call this poem “First “Love”,”
because it was love for what I knew it to be at the
time. Looking back now, it wasn’t real love, but in my
time of innocence and vulnerability, I believed it to
First “Love”: February 2021 be. My idea of “love” was very corrupt, and putting
these feelings into sad, but beautiful words was what
helped me separate myself from him and his toxic
behavior.
I was now beginning to see things
more clearly, and gain this self-power and
worth back within myself. I spent a lot of time
reflecting and going through all the different
emotions. This poem is short, but holds so
much meaning to me. The opening line,
“Once so very long ago” establishes a
nostalgic feeling, and implies that my
feelings and perspective for this person have Reflection: April 2021
changed overtime. When writing this poem, I was slowly processing all the turmoil I
had experienced in this relationship. I initially refer to him as a metaphor of being “my
one and only home,” when I had felt this initial sense of belonging and safety with him.
I display the contrast/shift in dynamic in the line, “until you couldn’t take things slow.”
This was the turning point in or relationship when I no longer felt heard or respected by
him. I expressed my frustration in the rhetorical question, asking “When did you hear
yes when I said no?” Essentially, I was comparing when I used to feel safe with him,
until he became the thing I was now trying to escape.

Songs have such a strong influence on my writing and poetry. I see songs as a
form of poetry, and vice versa, so it makes sense why they influence my writing. I was
looking back through my camera role to find field notes that support my poetry. During
the same month I wrote the poem “Reflection” and “Roots,” I screenshotted a song
called “To me” by Alina Baraz, and circled a lyric in the song:
“I’m not asking for too much, I’m asking the wrong motherf*cker”
 This song contains the overall theme of self-
improvement and emphasizes the importance of not
allowing relationships to alter your personal journey
and growth. I believe this song had a large influence
on my poetry during this time in my life. Regardless
of the difficulties I’ve faced, I still did my best to see
the positive aspects of life.

Roots: April 2021

Unlike my other poems, “Forming Real Relation-

ships” was written with genuine love and feelings
towards my high school sweetheart. I felt
the best way to declare my love and
gratitude for the relationship and
individual was through poetry. I met him
when I had least expected, and ended up
being with me through times I never
imagined would have ever happened to Forming Real Relationships: August 2021
me. I believe that this alone brought us
much closer. Even though our relationship was nowhere near perfect, I cherish it
deeply, because I learned what it was like to truly feel loved by a significant other. I use
the imagery of “dream-like” to describe the way I viewed our love and embraced the
imperfections between us. Throughout all my poetry, I choose to use a lot of symbolism
when describing people or feelings. For example, describing him as my “twin flame.”
After reading the previous poems, the shift in emotion is quite apparent. I believe this
shift is more apparent through my poetry in comparison to my typical journal entries.
With poetry, I’m able to express myself at a whole new level that can't as easily be
expressed verbally.

Surprisingly, “Parting Ways” is written about the same boy in the poem
above, “Forming Real Relationships.” It's interesting seeing two poems written about
the same person, with completely different feelings being portrayed. Over the years,
I’ve learned that navigating a committed relationship at such a young age is extremely
hard. I found this quote from “The Perks of Being a Wallflower,” written by Stephen
Chbosky:
“You accept the love you think you deserve”
 Parting Ways: May 2023
This quote has deeply resonated with me in all my relationships, including family and
platonic. My idea of “love” and what I feel I deserve has fluctuated over the years. I
view this poetry as evidence of growth and how my perspective of love has changed
overtime.
Even though I am no longer the vulnerable, lost 17-year-old girl who first began
writing these poems, I still hold and cherish a piece of her within me. I still feel in many
ways she did, but I now have a better understanding of who we both are. I can thank
poetry for guiding me and my emotions and shaping me into the woman I am today.