This reading list of love poems published by CLMP member magazines includes poems about new love, old love, and lost love—as well as poems about love for parents and children, love for the planet, and more.
“Here’s a Love Poem Sleeping” by Darius Atefat-Peckham
Southeast Review
A poem about bringing someone fully into your life.
together in bed, thinking about how much I
love your tired voice, tired you
“tracking numbers” by Tiffany Babb
West Trestle Review
A poem about wanting to give a beloved a gift.
carefully, i copy and paste
a string of numbers from my email
to the post office website
“All My Warm Parts Rebuff Your Sweet, Sticky Sideswipes” by Holly Burdorff
Evergreen Review
A poem about sending a breakup letter.
I’ve written to you. Please now accept this, my electronic letter
the ask the trade the price
“Slippin’ Away” by Myna Chang
Tangled Locks Journal
A poem about the electricity of young love.
Can almost see that double-dare girl now, pullin’ down
storms, reaching for trouble. Eyes green as tornado sky.
“Evergreens” by Lisa Charnock
The Hopkins Review
A poem about impermanence and desire.
To walk again through oak and bay woodland,
to finger the striped bark peeling from eucalyptus—
“Love Is an Engine” by May Chong
West Trestle Review
A poem about the explosive nature of love.
and when we have run to our last
spark and explosion, no more
“The Fidelity of Angles” by Geffrey Davis
Raleigh Review
A poem about longing and desire.
Longing approaches us by froms—: from memory,
from holy irreverence, from time zones apart
“But Nothing’s Fair after Love” by Stevie Edwards
Baltimore Review
A poem about “the feeling of remorse after having been reckless with someone else’s heart.”
Because I was a bad finger to tie his ribbon to.
Because I was a bad sky
to look up at—
“Pinecone Icicle at the Teeth of the Night” by Clem Flowers
Tangled Locks Journal
A poem about gifts between lovers.
You open the
tired door—
“Chameleon or Thinking About My Mother the Sparrow” by Ysabel Y. Gonzalez
Dark Matter: Women Witnessing
A love poem for a mother and grandmother.
Chirrup caught in its jewel-throated song,
she is the sorrowful sparrow flitting above,
leading me although she doesn’t quite know the way.
“Victim of Love” by Camille Guthrie
The Iowa Review
A poem about the pain and joy of infatuation.
It may be true
that I’m limerent
“Love Letter” by Nathalie Handal
Poetry
A love poem for the world and for poetry.
I’d like to be a shrine, so I can learn from peoples’ prayers the story of hearts.
“Curly, My Tangler” by Jessica Jacobs
SWWIM
A love poem for a wife’s tangled hair.
Who needs Rumpelstiltskin, when such treasure
abounds: her gold woven
around my bike gears, tangled in my toothbrush
“A Love Poem Without Subtext” by Danielle Jones
Mom Egg Review
A poem about certainty in love.
Because sometimes the best way to say a thing
is to say it: a river is as wide
as a river, a knife as sharp as a knife.
“To My Husband, to Make Much of Time” by K. T. Landon
Radar Poetry
A poem about cherishing time together.
Is the poem about death again?
you ask and of course it’s about death
“Letters in a Box” by Dorianne Laux
Baltimore Review
A poem about how love persists through grief.
Your letters are packed
in an anonymous brown box
“When We Watched the Right Stuff” by Amy Lerman
Radar Poetry
A poem about a couple’s past and future.
Often, when my mind precludes a night’s sleep,
I see Sam Shepard galloping alone
in the Mojave, the dusty, orange dusk
“Silence in Plague Time” by Thomas March
Evergreen Review
A poem wondering about an ex and wishing them well.
I have never been less concerned
by your silence. I’ve preferred it
“Silver Bell” by Carl Phillips
The Hopkins Review
A poem about what we call love.
As long as it’s still possible to say
I love you to one person while—
“Dear Life” by Maya C. Popa
Poetry
A poem about wanting love and its consequences.
I can’t undo all I have done unto myself,
what I have let an appetite for love do to me.
“In Oakland Cemetery” by Caitlin Roach
Southeast Review
A poem about meeting a lover at night.
You asked where to meet and I told you there
so we could be as alone as the dead are.
“Bruised Fruit” by Anthony Santulli
Pinky Thinker Press
A poem after a relationship has ended.
patterns without pause
like the strange things birds do
“The Peahen” by A. E. Stallings
The Hopkins Review
A poem about partnership and beauty.
The parched peahen approaches, beak agape,
To drink out of the cat bowl. Let her drink.
“When the Drunk Guy Sent an Injured Baby Goldfinch to the Wildlife Rehab by Uber” by Melissa Studdard
SWIMM
A parent’s love poem for their child.
My kid DMd me two smileys laughing tears
and the note: This is something you would do
“Kosher salt (a love poem)” by Leonora Tepper
Paper Brigade
A poem about wanting to give your beloved the world.
I’ll pour salt in a swimming pool if you told me you loved the ocean
“SHER-O/QUEER-O/BING-O!” by Julie Marie Wade
SWIMM
A love poem for a favorite poet.
When I learned we would meet that day at Giorgio’s, my
knees turned right then to strawberry Jell-O.
“Nocturne” by Maggie Wang
Evergreen Review
A poem of love and wonder for the world.
The shadow of the Earth, which is half a clam shell tinted
in blue.
“Clifton upon Rising” by Ellen June Wright
The Closed Eye Open
A poem about complicated love.
I woke this morning
to the sound of Lucille reading—
