What is Love?

Seven micro poems for Valentine’s Day

Love might be this—
an unfolding,
petal by patient petal:

Devotion.
Illumination.
Shelter.
Recognition.
Choice.
Longing.
Memory.

Devotion

Your gaze
is a chapel.
I kneel
without meaning to.
— Priyanka Jaiprakash

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Illumination

Your voice—
glides like morning rays
across the shelves of thought,
tracing each spine of memory
with tender light.
— Priyanka Jaiprakash

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Shelter

Like two birds,
we fold the world outside
and retreat
to the shelter of each other’s wings
when the rain falls.
— Priyanka Jaiprakash

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Recognition

Only you
can read my eyes across a room
like a map,
hear the unspoken currents
in my voice,
and navigate me
to safer shores.
— Priyanka Jaiprakash

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Choice

When our eyes meet,
something reckless
confesses itself.

We are dangerously tender,
achingly alive,
beautiful in our ruins—
still choosing each other.

— Priyanka Jaiprakash

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Longing

Even in crowds,
I find the contours of your absence
and fold myself around it,
in a whispering embrace.

— Priyanka Jaiprakash

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Memory

I carry you,
not as a wound,
but as a shadow
of what I have loved.
— Priyanka Jaiprakash

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Before you go…

Which word feels most like home to you?

1. Devotion

2. Illumination

3. Shelter

4. Recognition

5. Choice

6. Longing

7. Memory

However you name it, may it find you gently.

And if someone comes to mind while reading this, send it to them.

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By Priyanka Jaiprakash

Poetry and reflections for seekers, dreamers, and deep thinkers — on love, life, healing, and growth.

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