Love, Quotes

39 Crazy-Beautiful Quotes From Instagram's Most Romantic Poet

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39 Crazy-Beautiful Quotes From Instagram's Most Romantic Poet

In a sea of artists seeking Instagram notoriety, K. Towne Jr.'s raw, unbridled authenticity shines through, making him one of the best modern poets out there.

The 28-year-old keeps his posts as real as they come, and people have noticed. A lot of people. He has over 34 thousand followers on Instagram at the time of publication, to be exact.

"I get lost in bottles and beautiful girls," he says in his profile, and that just about sums it up.

K (short for Ken) Towne Jr. writes simply but powerfully about our strongest emotions, particularly love and heartbreak, and he does so in beautiful love quotes that resonates deeply with his continuously growing following.

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We at YourTango had the opportunity to talk with the up-and-coming artist.

Here's what he had to say:

Q. When did you first start writing?

K. Towne Jr.: I wrote when I was younger in high school a little bit, like when I was 16 or 17. And then sporadic pieces throughout college, but it was just for fun, you know? I really didn’t start writing to get published the way I am now until about 18 months ago.

Q. When you first started your Instagram account, did you expect the kind of response and following that you now have?

KT: You know, you always hope. But actually when I first started it, I did it under a pen name and kept it anonymous. I didn’t actively promote it to any of my friends or link it to Facebook because I was so nervous about it. I didn’t expect it to get a large response or anything.

I think it was when it got to the two- to three-thousand follower range that I actually started to tell people about it, but I do remember being very nervous about it, very apprehensive.

Q. What you write is so personal. Are you a naturally open person or is that something that only comes out in your art?

KT: I’m very "what you see is what you get." I would like to think that I’m fairly open. In the poetry in the beginning, I kind of kept back a little bit because I didn’t know what the response would be, but I would consider myself open, for the most part.

Q. What is it about your work that you think draws people to it?

KT: I would say the number one factor is relatability. A lot of the stuff that I’ve written, especially a big chunk in the middle — the big year when I went from being nobody to having a following — there was a lot of heartbreak. I fell in love and out of love with two girls since I started my Instagram, and that’s something that everyone can relate to. So it’s not that my ideas are inherently new or beautiful, but they put words to thoughts that a lot of people have but maybe don’t know how to describe.

And when I do that part for them, they can look at it and say “I get this,” or “I feel this,” or “This is my life right now.”

Q. I don’t know if you have a personal favorite of your own work, but if you do, can think of a few that you feel most proud of? What are they and where did the inspiration for those pieces come from?

KT: I don't know if it's my favorite, but I’m really rather proud of my “Modern Martyr” piece, which is a much longer piece. The whole thing doesn’t actually fit on Instagram. But I think I enjoy that piece because, one, I feel like it's fairly well-done, and, two, it’s like slam style, which I like. I’ve always wanted to perform it. Haven’t had the opportunity to, though. I write a lot about love and heartbreak, but that piece is different. It’s about something even deeper.

And the piece that came out of it [Modern Love] — I really like that piece too because I think it speaks to our generation a lot. The whole “Oh, I don’t text first,” like everyone is too good for everything.

Like no, send that text, send two texts! I hate that mantra of “I’m not gonna put myself out there. I’m not gonna get hurt.” I hate that, so I really relate to that piece.

I also really like “If history has taught us anything, it’s that we fall in love with short stories the most” because that kind of happened to me recently. I was with this girl and it was a very unique relationship in my life. I really love that girl. It was just six months, but it meant a lot to me as a person. But you know, fairy tales end, and that’s okay. It made me feel better to put it on paper, and I think a lot of people related to it.

Q. What's your long-term goal for your writing, if you have one?

KT: Well … when I figure it out, I’ll let you know [laughs]. There are things that I would like to do with it and things that I would welcome. But this isn't something I do every day. I don’t wake up every morning and write because, you know, I’m busy.

Poems are cool, and obviously I support the art, but ideally, I would like to make it as a writer writing novels because the pieces that work best in my head are conversations. Like I constantly, in my mind, go through conversations that haven’t happened or will happen or might happen. Or I think of conversations that I’ve had and I rework them in my head until they’re much more beautiful. So I think where I’d excel is dialogue and setting up dialogue, and I think that would be best portrayed in a novel.

Q. Do you think some of your writing is rewriting history in a way?

KT: I don’t know, kind of. I guess I try to find or show the beauty in things — like falling in love with a girl — you’re kind of trying to immortalize it a little bit. I try to immortalize beauty when I experience it. At the same time, things like heartbreak, which are absolutely awful, there’s beauty in that too, you know? So I try to write to shine a light on the good even in a bad situation.

The world’s shitty enough. I’m just trying to make it a little bit nicer.

For just a glimpse inside K. Towne Jr.'s work, check out 39 of his most beautiful love poems right here.

1.

"If the last day I spent on this earth I got to kiss you goodnight that would be enough."

2.

"Of all the music I've ever heard, it's your voice that calms my soul."

3.

"I find beauty in your tears, and I find bravery in your fears. That is what makes you so real, and in a world full of masks, nothing could be greater."

4.

"You used me for what I wasn't, and never loved me for who I am, so while that doesn't heal this heartbreak, it helps me understand."

5.

"'Why?' she sobbed, speaking more to the world than she was to me. 'Why do we even try to fall in love when getting it wrong is so ugly?'

It was only after a full minute of gazing at her tear lined and beautiful face that I was finally able to whisper, 'Because there's so much beauty in getting it right that you'll forget what wrong ever was.'"

6.

"'What are you looking at?' she said, her smile dancing playfully across her face.

'Just thinking about how you were worth the wait.'

'Oh yeah? What was worth the wait?' she asked, biting her lip as her happiness flirted effortlessly with mine.

I knew she was just trying to be sexy, but I stopped to consider the question. I know she expected something poetic and beautiful, and she deserved it, but only one simple answer came to mind no matter how hard I tried, poetic only in its simplicity, beautiful only in its truth. So with a calmness that betrayed my racing heart, I whispered, 'What wasn't?' "

7.

"I'm over you as you are, but will always love who you could be."

8.

"To intertwine your happiness with someone else's is something so dangerously brave, so inherently idiotic, and so incomprehensibly, undeniably human."

9.

"Lying in the street at 1AM, our little act of rebellion against a world stacked so heavily against us, we held hands as we watched the stars literally fall from the sky. Feeling that maybe, just in that moment, they were doing so just for us. So as we lay there trying to figure out why any of us were on this Earth in the first place, I looked at her and the answer came, beautiful and easy. This. This is why."

10.

"It's you. Every single time it's you. I want to hold your head in my hands as my lips brush against the softness of your skin and I know you don't need me, but you want me and I want you back and there's nothing in this world that will stop me from choosing you every night before I fall asleep and every morning when I awake because there's magic in the choice and I promise that every single day I'll choose you. Always you."

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11.

"The right person, the wrong time. The right script, the wrong line. The right poem, the wrong rhyme, and a piece of you that was never mine."

12.

"Our lives may not have fit together, but ohhh did our souls know how to dance..."

13.

"I don't miss us, I just miss you."

14.

"I've made a lot of mistakes in my life, but if every single one had to happen to make sure I was right here, right now, to meet you, then I forgive myself for them all."

15.

"If fairy tales have taught us anything, it's that we fall in love with short stories the most."

16.

"You said 'us' and in that moment, I knew words were magic."

17.

"Lost with you, in you, and without you."

18.

"Sometimes a heart must be broken to slip through the bars of its cage."

19.

"Look her in the eyes when you run you hand up her thighs, because her desire is in the connection. Don't be surprised, when she shivers and sighs, for intimacy is your most dangerous weapon. Kiss her real slow, and kiss her down low, you don't have to be on top to make sure you're in charge. Run your hands through her hair, till she's so close to there, then hold her close as she falls off the ledge. Make her scream your name, till it drives you insane, and you both lay spent on the bed. Don't even think that I'm done with you yet."

20.

"You were a beautiful time in my life, and if that's all you'll ever be then that's okay. Not all art is destined to hang on the same walls forever."

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21.

"Falling for you was like falling down the stairs. I was in complete control at first, then, without warning I was spinning, tumbling, and had no idea why or how. Then, before I even knew what happened, I lay at the bottom; shocked, stunned, and so oddly aware that I still ended up exactly where I was trying to go."

22.

"Miss me with all your heart, or darling, don't miss me at all. Love was never meant to be measured in maybe's or I think so's."

23.

"Leave me breathless or leave me be."

24.

"Calm her chaos, but never silence her storm."

25.

"I've made a lot of mistakes in my life but if every single one had to happen to make sure I was right here, right now, to meet you, then I forgive myself for them all."

26.

"The universe is a strange place. Stardust falls at random, and humans fall in love."

27.

"I never meant to hurt you. I was broken. and you merely cut yourself on the pieces."

28.

"The best part about society is that it allows you to wear different faces. The worst part is it demands it."

29.

"The kind of girl who was at her most beautiful, only everytime you looked."

30.

"It wasn't until I saw constellations in your eyes, and tears upon your face, that I finally understood what it meant to have the world crash down around you."

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31.

"Like hunger of the mind, you must feed the chaos to be free of it."

32.

"To intertwine your happiness with someone else's is so dangerously brave, so inherently idiotic, and so incomprehensibly, undeniably human."

33.

"Reality is what you make it. Your mind is only a prison if you image it with bars."

34.

"i get lost in bottles and beautiful girls."

35.

"Our lives may not have fit together, but ohhh did our souls know how to dance."

36.

""These words are my poison, this whiskey my savior, The only habit I admit to is this pen and her paper. I'm afraid of success, and best friends with the fall, and if that sounds backwards to you, then you don't know me at all. So drink up this ink, pour stories into your glass. Death is reserved for those stuck in the past."

37.

"There is no shame in abandoning a sinking ship, but only the weak jump at the first sign of a storm."

38.

"Love is a lost art."

39.

"I've had my fair share of heartbreak, but baby, they don't make whiskey strong enough for you."

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Jacqueline Treboschi is a freelance writer and editor with a Master's Degree in Professional Writing from Carnegie Mellon University.