Valentine's Poetry Competition 2025
Our Winner for 2025 is...
Author: Lesa Ford
It’s only a tree, that’s what some of them say
But it isn’t to us, we don’t see it that way
When he gave me this tree, it strengthened our ties
Our roots were entwined, as we watched our tree rise
The tree blossomed in Spring as the birds made their nest
I remember the days when our rearing progressed
As our love flourished on, I relished the sight
Of the tree in full bloom as our fledglings took flight
Life stuttered and danced, with us never knowing
but grateful we felt, as we watched our fruit growing
When harvest arrives, we’ve more mouths to feed
Generations of love, we’ve all that we need
When the chill sets in, tree begins its slow fade
It’s our winter years now, what a life we have made
Soon it reaches for light and dresses for spring
We hold hands and smile, as we hear the birds sing
Our entries for 2025...
Author: Theresa Gamblin
Valentine Love
Valentine is a time of love which is endless,Which sends us nothing but madness.Feel out of control with desire and passion,To imagine all we sometimes forget.Now I can share all the feelings I do not say,Often enough meaning I love you.If I combine all the emotion of love with each,Moment it is like a potion that will never end,So much time will never go wasted on us,It is like a painting that will never fade away.Our true love cannot use translated words,It can only show through our imagination.The love I share with you will never be jaded.I love you truly and forever…………
---
Author: Andrew
To My Sirpa, My Northern Light
We swiped right, and fate took hold,
Two hearts reborn, a love so bold.
Through winding paths, through days gone by,
You brought the sun back to my sky.
Golden hair like Nordic light,
Eyes that make the stars shine bright.
From Finland's shores to Newbury's grace,
My home is now your warm embrace.
Through years alone, we both had tread,
Yet love still bloomed where hope had fled.
Now hand in hand, through life we roam,
With you, my love, I've found my home.
So here's my vow, this day, this year,
To love you more, my Sirpa dear.
Through every dawn, through every night,
My Finnish love, my heart's delight.
---
Author: Andrew Manning
You make me feel good, you make me feel glad.
You make me feel every level of sad.
You bring tears of grief, your bring tears of joy.
You brought me my children, a girl and a boy.
You teach to be fair, you teach to be kind.
You teach that some don't have these in mind
You offer me future, but not without dread.
You offer me dreams of great times ahead.
You give me my chances, to win or to lose.
You give me my quandaries, but without any clues.
You allow me to grow, you allow me to try.
You allow me to learn how to live, love and cry.
Thank you my life, I love you so dearly
I'm so lucky to have you, I mean that sincerely.
---
Author: Alison Shearing
Welcome to the Oak of Love
So close to blue skies up above
The roots are buried deep and long
Brown trunk for hugging, sure and strong.
The flirty leaves so green and light
Float like my Love, so pure and bright.
The Oak is home to birds and bees
They flit and float and dance with ease
It gives them shelter with a view
Just like my heart’s a home for you!
---
Author: Howard Osbourne
FUNNY VALENTINE
It is almost ironic that Lorenz Hart
Was the lyricist exposing his heart
Love and teasing are not kept apart
In the '37 musical, Babes In Arms
A song that in its own way disarms
Stay little Valentine, stay
It was a teenager with mature view
And the melody was resonant too
As jazz was a treatment most knew
Yet it rose and fell as if it had wings
Even when it was Sinatra that sings
Each day is Valentine's day
---
Author: Rachel Burdett
Falling in Love
When we met our garden
we loved it at first sight,
but didn't know it,
didn't understand its secrets,
its wildness.
Just knew we wanted it.
We rushed in -
too hastily -
tried too hard.
It rejected our gifts,
mocked our plans,
refused to be tamed.
We paused, gave it space
and subtle suggestions,
gentle nudges. In time
it softened, offered small gestures in return:
snowdrops, hellebores,
hidden gifts.
It showed us where sunlight
whispered through the bare branches
of apple trees,
beckoned us to shaded corners
where ferns unfurled
on mossy beds.
Teasing, it shrugged off
the last of its winter drabness
and trumpeted the spring
with daffodils and birdsong,
spread crocus blooms wide
in welcome
and gave green promises of hope.
Through summer we watched daily changes:
these buds, those shoots,
colours spreading
a riotous display.
Finally, we knew our garden,
and truly fell in love.
---
Author: Rachel Rimmer
Show me a love that never goes
Love be here!
Tell me 'I love you' on Valentine's Day
Flying doves
And big hearts to show love
I just want you to give me a big hug
Dinner dates, oh I can't wait
To cuddle up by the fire with you
Sweet and kind, those words are on my mind
Flowers that are flawless
Letters and poems as romantic as can be
Love is around
I hear my heart pound
With love, joy and hope
I'm glad I got this note
That says it's Valentine's Day
---
Author: Jill Simpson
Because
I love you bringing me cups of weak tea because it's the only way you know how to make them
I love you ad-libbing for bargains because you forgot to take the shopping list again
I love you watching every FA Cup match on TV because you say 'It's the FA cup…' with a pleading shrug
I love you coming back with chocolates because you know I was annoyed with you - and you can't remember why
And I share them with you because
After all these years I know you still love me, and I still love you
---
Author: Kim Black
My love is a million photographs
Faded because they have been touched
Everyday
I take them out when I am sad.
My love is a thousand paragraphs
A snapshot of a ticket to a movie we have seen
A picture of a black coffee paired with a hot chocolate
A landscape of the places we have been.
My love may be a single photograph
Stored in my head
It means to me, home
The place to me you have led.
---
Author: Geoff King
Scrabble
You don't wear any makeup
You don't put on high heels
You don't follow fashion
And rarely cook my meals
You don't apply any perfume
Nor shave your body hair
You don't get your nails done
Nor care what film stars wear
I never bring you flowers
We don't have wedding rings
We've been together forty-five years
And I don't regret a thing
When Valentine's Day comes along
We don't make a fuss
But our love is deep
Our love is strong
And will last as long as us
If all that makes you roll your eyes
And forces you to yawn
Then you should know
When we play scrabble
It's dictionaries at dawn!
---
Author: Megan Sullivan
Steady as the Trees
Like trees that reach toward open skies,
our love stands firm, it bends, it thrives.
Its roots run deep beneath the earth,
grounded strong in trust and worth.
Through summer's light and autumn's air,
through winter's hush and springtime flare,
it weathers storms, it drinks the rain,
grows anew, yet stays the same.
No falling leaf, no changing tide
could pull me from your steady side.
Through shifting winds and endless view,
I stand, I grow, always with you.
---
Author: George Osman
She belonged to the sea and I belonged to the sky.
I watch as she dances with the waves, whilst I glow with the stars,
two wonderous forces of nature, different in our timelessness, but time was still ours. Still merging seamlessly together, still paining masterpieces together, still meeting at all the beginnings and ends.
I see my reflection in her blue glass, dipping my toes in her infinite ice as nature lends,
lends her palette and stain to immortalise our horizons in the richest shades of colour,
each dawn different from the other.
The sky is my home, my head lays with the moon and my hands reach for the sun but my little golden hour, is quite possibly the only one,
who with her slither of pearly depth rolled into cascading tumbles of ocean and shore,
can make me want the sea to touch the sky a little more.
- will you meet me by the sea?
---
Author: Poet JLA
LOST IN A SUN
Let us stay lost
In streams of silence
Away from city chatter
And wandering sights
Because high above the world,
Puckered lips and tireless caress
Mimic the sun in nocturnal depth.
---
Author: Victoria Derewońko
An overrated theme
An overrated time
An overrated poem
An overrated line
These three words
Spilt out between us
Can mean so little
Could mean so much
A feeling
So gentle
So easy in its simplicity
It can only be described
As eternal
Infinity
If love is what you crave
If this is your desire
Be gentle to yourself
Everything comes in time
---
Author: Helga Brandt
MY TRUE LOVES
My true loves
The birds
The trees
The flowers
The bees
All in nature are my true loves
---
Author: Katrina Matthews
‘I yearn for glimpses of your light’
I yearn for glimpses of your light,
for flickers of the stars through open doors
A flare that draws me in,
a gleam that catches my eye,
a radiance that haunts my every step
With each glimmer, my heart races
At each turn, my lungs burn
Is that your light?
Are you near to me now?
Or is it another sun,
one that leaves me cold and crushed
and craving your constellation?
My soul thrives off these brief sightings,
my longing fed by distant glintings.
A love unfolding in the space of heartbeats.
I would rather have fleeting glimpses of incandescence –
burning sparks of brilliance
amongst a vast ocean of night –
than to have never seen the sun at all
and exist without your dazzling glow
---
Author: Anonymous
Right here
Breathe in
A gentle word, a kind look, a feeling of warmth
Breathe out
A caress of the hand, a brush on the nose
Breathe in
A spine stretched back, a bright light blinding
Breathe out
A mind in heaven, calm and serene,
Breathe out
A warm long sigh, feeling of peace
Thank you, my dear love
---
Author: Emma Harding
Love does not grow on trees
but love grows in me
Blossoming anew every day
I take the good with the bad
and will gladly accept the worst
even your stinkiest farts
as nothing that bad can ever come from you
You are my best, my only. On all days and always
---
Author: Brandon Morley
Water Colour
"Happy Valentines Day", inescapable torment
Life has to remind those with nobody that they do in fact have nobody.
Worst of all, it claims one of the three-hundred-and-sixty-five days of the year.
Another day ill spent
Albeit, even scrooges like myself can find solace,
Shades of pink and red different hues, on paper and on rosy cheeks.
Bouquets of flowers fill the air with fresh flower smell.
That it's quite easy to overcome one's sadness.
Hand holding couples enter art museums,
Staring at water colour paintings with vacant stares,
Nobody cares about the art but it's the act of being together.
Men standing awkwardly trying to hide awkward mannerisms.
Women awkwardly wipe their palms against dresses.
Self consciousness of their sweaty palms.
Standing side by side with each other is awkward but wholesome.
Young love so new and fragile, impossibly precious
Catching a train to some fanciful restaurant,
Booking a table in good faith, ahead of time.
Looking into each others eyes, an iris of infinite colours,
Infinite possibilities together, cut short between the smell of a fresh croissant
Walking back to his apartment, rain breaks above from the heavens.
Caught in a downpour, he graciously offers his coat to her.
She pushes it back and pull's a small umbrella from her bag covering them both.
Walking entwined with one another, close enough to feel each other's breath, he can't imagine a more perfect heaven.
I could live vicariously through these star-crossed lovers.
Clutching onto each other under bed covers, drifting to sleep.
I detest Valentine's Day, out of spite. Yet I feel warm in the season of love.
I am satisfied watching the romance between others.
---
Author: Geraldine McIlwaine
Ten years have danced away like snow,
Since first you gave those blooms,
A gift so small, so pure, so white,
A whisper of love in winter's light.
That little gift, it found its way-
A clump of beauty, bright each day.
They greet me on Valentine's morn,
Promise of sun and spring reborn.
So here they are, in white array,
Our snowdrops - love's bouquet today.
Like love that stands through time and weather,
They've grown, and brought us close together.