Featured Poems from More Than Words

A small glimpse into the collection

More Than Words is an intimate poetry collection about the quiet languages we live by. These selected excerpts explore love expressed through ordinary gestures, memories held by rooms and objects, words left unsaid, and the slow work of healing. They are for those who feel more than they can explain and find meaning in the smallest things others might overlook.

For those who recognise love in the smallest things brought home

Excerpt from the poem “The Receipt in Your Coat Pocket”

Bread.

Milk.

Batteries.

Tulips.

Four ordinary things

printed in fading ink

above the time

we had stopped speaking

in full sentences.

Even then,

when the house

had gone quiet

around us,

you had bought flowers

on the way home.

For those who say “I love you” in a hundred ordinary ways

Excerpt from the poem “What We Meant”

We said

take a scarf,

meaning

come home warm.

We said

there is soup

on the stove,

meaning

I thought of you

before you arrived.

We said

text me

when you get there,

meaning

the road feels longer

when I cannot see you.

For those who are not yet ready to move on

Excerpt from the poem “The Toothbrush Glass”

I could have

thrown it away.

The toothbrush.

The water.

The little proof

of your mouth

beside mine.

Instead,

I rinsed the glass,

put both brushes

back inside,

and left yours

leaning slightly

toward the mirror.

For those who know an empty room is never completely empty

Excerpt from the poem “What Stayed”

We had taken

the furniture.

We had wrapped

the glasses.

We had carried

the boxes

down the stairs.

Still,

when I stood

in the doorway,

the room

was not empty.

For those who protect what matters, even while standing in the rain

Excerpt from the poem “Rain on the Bus Shelter”

Then the bottom

of one paper bag

softened

from the rain.

You shifted it

quickly

against your chest,

holding the bread

as if it were something

that needed

protecting.

I watched

your coat sleeve

take the wet

where the bag

rested.

For those who remember to look back when the storm is over

Excerpt from the poem “After the Weather Passed”

You stepped around

one puddle,

then stopped

and turned back

to watch the bowl

of sky

tremble

under your shoe.

For those who have carried unsent words through the night

Excerpt from the poem “The Message Not Sent”

At some point,

the screen went dark.

I saw myself

above the glass,

tired,

older than

the words beneath me.

By morning,

the message

was still there,

unsent,

holding its breath.

For those learning that repair does not mean becoming what we were before

Excerpt from the poem “The Bowl Glued Back Together”

The bowl

was not as it had been.

Still,

each evening

it received

what we carried home

and kept it

until morning.

For those who found their way back through an unexpected laugh

Excerpt from the poem “How Repair Begins”

The laugh

came badly,

almost a cough,

then more of it,

then yours,

then both of us

sitting there

under foam,

under noise,

under all that water

laughing

in a car

that could not go anywhere.

For those who notice their lives moving through the dark

Excerpt from the poem “The Hedgehog”

The hedgehog

sniffed once,

found me

unimportant,

and pushed on

through the leaves,

making a noise

far too large

for its body,

going about

its night

with every thorn

it owned.

For those who still find someone in the habits they left behind

Excerpt from the poem “The Quiet Evidence”

None of it

announced itself.

The apartment

continued

to arrange itself

around habits

that had not yet

understood

they were alone.

For those who have always felt more than they could say

Excerpt from the poem “More Than Words”

And when the mouth

could go no further,

the world

kept offering

its rough translations.

A sleeve.

A key.

A light

left on.

The ordinary

had been speaking

the whole time.

We were late

to understand it.

Still,

it spoke.

If these poems speak to something in you, read the story behind the book here.

The full collection is now on Amazon.

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