Never hope for that

Love is not an hour-long phone call.
Love is not a shared milkshake.
Love is not a dreamy expression.
Love is not a pretty gesture.
Love is not a hand-in-hand stroll.
Love is not sepia photographs.
And love is definitely not fifteen minutes of sweaty bliss.

Love is dirt and mud and blood.
Love is duty and thankless work.
Love is swearing and hating and callous and tears and fears.
Love is ugly solitude long after you’ve forgotten what you’re looking for.
Love is the abandonment of dreams.
Love is the loss of who you truly are for another’s sake.
Love is sacrifice, not gain.
Never hope to fall in love.

Well said! I LOVE this. I think you pretty much nailed it right on the head.My favorite lines...

And love is definitely not fifteen minutes of sweaty bliss

Love is sacrifice, not gain.

Never hope to fall in love.

My only problem with your poem is that you got the title messed up, you wrote 'hopw' instead of 'hope'.
Well that's my one and only complaint.
Keep up the good work.
~Dragongirl

Hahaha my bad. Well spotted *fixed* I'm glad you enjoyed it.

I loved it. So much. I just wanted to tell you that. I don't think that there is anything wrong with this poem. please continue writing!

I once recall you saying, "Writing poems without rhyming is like playing tennis with the net down." You might have proved yourself wrong with this one. Very good job! Keep Writing!

Karzkin wrote:Love is not an hour long phone call.
Love is not a shared milkshake.
Love is not a dreamy expression.
Love is not a pretty gesture.
Love is not a hand-in-hand stroll.
Love is not sepia photographs.
And love is definitely not fifteen minutes of sweaty bliss.

Love is dirt and mud and blood.
Love is duty and thankless work.
Love is swearing and hating and callus and tears and fears.
Love is ugly solitude long after you’ve forgotten what you’re looking for.
Love is the abandonment of dreams.
Love is the loss of who you truly are for another’s sake.
Love is sacrifice, not gain.
Never hope to fall in love.

Karzkin, I hate to break it to you, but this is hardly a poem. It's dictated opinions made into bullets that are telling me nothing interesting. It's the same repetitive structure with slight variations. Sure, it's relate-able, but it's little more than notes jotted down a piece of paper in algebra class in high school.

There is a potential in some of this, say, the second to last line of the first stanza uses an interesting description of photographs, but you're giving me everything without making me think and feel. I want to feel, I want to think, I want to reflect.

Right now, you're telling me your opinion. So what? Why should your opinion on love matter? Understand, we've all seen this before. Many times. It will be made over and over. The sonnet was once rebellious and new, then became normal, then over-used. Even the variations got old. The rhyming poem varieties came about, but they too became old. Too expected, too traditional.

Look at modern culture today and see what people are like. Figure out what appeals to them in writing. What gets our minds and hearts truly moving. Don't tell me so much as show me. Show, then tell. Compliment yourself, don't jam the same thing into my face. Good luck.

All you said is true. I really like the concept and message of the poem. I think you should change the tittle to "Love is..." or something like that. And i think you should play around more with the structure of it becasue it can get a little boring reading Love is alwayss but other than that its a really good concept with big potential. Keep writing!

Reading what MeanMrMustard said, I couldn't help mentioning that there is a type of poem called a definition poem. It closely resembles what you are writing, looks a lot like a list, and has bullet points too.

But I personally think it is fine how you wrote it and am not asking you to change it. It drills the meaning in better when you repeat 'love is not' and 'love is.' You are forced to see that love is the opposite of what it should be and the same goes for what love is not. My favorite lines would probably be "Love is ugly solitude long after what you forgot what you were looking for" and "Love is not sepia photographs." I'm not an expert on show don't tell, seeing as how I'm still learning that myself, but I agree that you could do a little more showing. All of what you said is true and I think that is what makes it a good poem.

Wow, great poem.

The emotion is great in this but the flow seems a little weird. It's probably because of the couple of sentences that are a few words longer than all the rest. See if you can shorten those?
Otherwise this was a great poem.

Good job

Keep writing,
Alzora