The Self Love Poem

Saying I Love You to another person is hard enough
without having to say it to yourself.
Those words can feel like a slow dance through a ring of flames
or throwing darts at a target where the bullseye is your open skin.
It may not ever be easy, but it is necessary.
And there’s a vast canyon between what is possible and what is needed,
but in this case there’s a bridge connecting both sides.
Despite what you’ve been told, loving yourself
isn’t always a side effect of loving someone else.
Sometimes it’s vice versa; sometimes it’s the prescription
that teaches you how to fall in love with another human being
less like the crest of an ocean and more like a boiling tidal wave.
Saying I Love You to another person is hard enough
without having to say it to yourself.
The coast isn’t clear when you can fake it;
the coast is clear when you can look at the debris of your own body
and learn to appreciate the wreckage that makes it so beautiful.
And make no mistake- your scars may come from something ugly, but ugliness
carries its own kind of beauty like a compass
to help its sails pass unheeded through the waves.
It’s not the cause that matters; it’s how you view the effect.
So next time you say I Love You to someone else,
remember that you should be saying it to yourself too.