Love’s Reckoning

Heartbreak poems

The heartbreak poetry archive: poems about leaving and being left, betrayal and the end of a love — each with a note from the author and a reading you can listen to aloud.

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  • Cover art for the heartbreak poem “They Called It Safety”

    They Called It Safety

    by Ella Tan · 30 August 2026

    A mother's reckoning — a literary, subjective poem about institutions that rename power as virtue, and a mother who refuses to let an official judgment become the truth about her love.

    Read & listen →
  • Cover art for the heartbreak poem “Love Negotiated”

    Love Negotiated

    by Ella Tan · 26 August 2026

    On absence, and the ordinary things fatherhood asked for.

    Read & listen →