This is a poem I wrote a couple of years ago. It’s about heartbreak, but not the typical kind, so it’s appropriate for Valentine’s Week, don’t you think?
Horses will break your heart
Not can
But will.
They can’t help it.
We want so much from them
See so much in them that isn’t there
Or at least is only there in
Fleeting glimpses.
It’s no wonder they disappoint us
Dash our dreams
They are not perfect
Much as we wish them to be.
Sometimes they break our hearts
Not with loss and grief
But with beauty.
This is the good kind of broken heart
The kind that mends all the stronger
And makes you come back for more.
Even in defeat
We love them
For their strength and speed and grace
So much greater than our own.
We long to fly without wings
To make the ground shake with our passing
Horses remind us we are small
But they lend us their power so willingly.
It is a privilege to share the world with them.
And this is what breaks our hearts
For we shall never see perfection
In ourselves
But in them, in sharp timeless moments
That linger in memory
And bring us always back for more
We see it
Now and then.
I’ve never had a horse break my heart, but I haven’t known too many of them either. It’s a nice poem, I like the part about their “strength, speed and grace”. They really do have all those qualities.